Exam Sequence for Graduate Students

The exam sequence at Northwestern has been designed to provide useful and challenging tests for our students. The time limits have been adhered to rather strictly, which ensures that students do not spend any longer than necessary in the Ph.D. program.

I. Master's Paper and Exam (to be completed by the end of the 2nd year). Each student selects a seminar paper and reworks that paper in a one-quarter independent study with a faculty member of his/her choice. After the satisfactory completion of written work, the student presents a 20-25 minute version of the paper orally to the faculty and the other graduate students and fields questions from the audience.

Purpose -- to guide students through the production of a publishable paper and the presentation of this paper in a simulated conference situation.

II. Ph. D. Comprehensive Exams (to be completed by the end of the 2nd quarter of the 3rd year).

Part A) There are five 3-hour written examinations on the following sequence of topics:
1. Old Russian Literature and 18th-Century Russian Literature
2. Nineteenth-Century Prose
3. Twentieth-Century Prose
4. Russian intellectual history, criticism, literary theory
5. Russian poetry
Questions for the exams are drawn from the departmental reading list.
Part B) There is a 90-minute oral exam.

Purpose--To certify general competence in the history of Russian literature. Exams are not trivia contests. They naturally test basic factual knowledge but, far more importantly, they ask students to articulate their understanding of broad trends in the development of Russian literature and culture.

III. Dissertation Prospectus: Before the end of the 3rd year students are asked to work with their primary dissertation advisor to produce a short description (approximately 2-page) of the proposed dissertation project. It should include a general description of the project, a consideration of what the student hopes to find out, and a discussion of what problems (methodological, intellectual, bibliographical) are expected. This proposal is then presented orally in an informal setting to the student's proposed reading commitee. Based on this discussion and on further work with the primary advisor, students prepare a more detailed prospectus (actually, a grant application) by the beginning of the 4th year.

Purpose--to get students working on an intellectually stimulating and viable topic as early as possible. To allow students to have a convincing proposal ready to submit to outside funding agencies by fall quarter of the 4th year.

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IV. Language Exams (these are administered by the Department before the end of the 3rd year). Students are asked to demonstrate reasonable reading competence in either French or German. The exam consists of reading an approximately 15-page article (with dictionary permitted) in two hours, providing a 1-page summary in English and answering a few specific questions pertaining to the article.

Purpose--to ensure that students have real access to scholarly materials in at least one important modern European language.

V. Dissertation--Students finish a dissertation acceptable to a three-person faculty committee. After the committee has approved the dissertation, a defense in the form of a colloquium for students and faculty is presented.

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