Comprehensive Test Preparation Guidelines

Comprehensive Test or "IISc famous" General Test is a two to three hour oral examination, where the quality of research work by the research student and the students understanding about some fundamental areas of his expertise are evaluated. In this page I have listed some guidelines (not rules), which I found useful. I have split this page in to three sections,

  1. Pre-preparation: Preparing Syllabus, Abstract Preparation, Applying for the Comprehensive Exam, Planning for exam date
  2. Preparation: Preparing for the syllabus
  3. On-the-day-of-test: do's and don’ts on the day of test

Pre-preparation:

  1. Preparing the Syllabus
    • Choose three subjects to be probed (don't go less or more than 3, 3 is an optimal choice)
    • Choose one subject of your primary expertise (I chose Game Theory).
    • Choose one subject around Algorithms (I chose Data Structures and Analysis of Algorithms)
    • Choose one subject which is quite mathematical (Linear Algebra, Probability or Analysis would be a good choice here. In my case, Game theory was mathematical, so, I chose e-commerce )
    • Do not overload yourself with three mathematical subjects (unless, you are confident in your abilities)
    • Choose subjects which you have already read during your course-work. This reduces all your efforts by half.
    • Detail your syllabus as much as possible. Each subject syllabus should be listed in detail for at least a page. I think this is the key to the success of a successful compre exam. Examiners use this as the guideline to question you, so list topics, where you are good, comfortable and confident.
  2. Applying for the Comprehensive Exam
    • Apply for Comprehensive Exam at least three months before you are planning to take it. (I took it in Dec 2006 and I applied for it in Oct 2006)
    • In the application form, you have to suggest at least four (relevant) professors from other departments, who are working in this area. Usually, your guide or supervisor in the institute will help you fill this form. Take his inputs for filling this column of list of suggested external examiners.
    • Prepare a one page abstract about your research work. (Put a picture in the abstract which would explain your idea)
    • Take a printout of the syllabus and printout of your abstract and attach along with the application form.
  3. Planning for Exam Date
    • Choose a date where you do not have exams. (I choose December)
    • If you are an ERP (External Registration Program) candidate, I suggest you should apply for leave in advance in your company and keep yourself ready at least two days before the exam.

Preparation:

  1. Plan your preparation with a calendar
  2. Strict to your deadlines
  3. Keep yourself ready at least two weeks before your exam.
  4. Create a finite knowledge store (based on your syllabus) in your brain. For every finite question from your syllabus asked you should be able to pick the right tool from your store and apply it.
  5. Once you have finished your preparation (read all 3 subjects), revise your knowledge (and syllabus) by looking at the syllabus copy which you submitted along with the application. Do not open your note or text books, while you are revising note down the topics you are weak. Revise them later along with the book. Do this multiple times a day. This exercise builds a strong and solid knowledge store.
  6. Ask your lab mates or friends familiar in these subjects to probe your knowledge through mock interviews. It is a very useful exercise, in the first round of mock interview you will come to know all famous and general questions that would be asked. Ask them to probe in-detail in some random sections of the syllabus.
  7. Regarding the presentation of your research work, prepare intuitive slides, rather than mathematical slides. Bring out the big picture, importance of your research work and your research contributions in the presentation. Also show a roadmap, where you are headed to in your research in next 6-8 months. I would say presentation and questions in presentation goes for an hours. Ensure your presentation does not go beyond, 30 minutes.

 

On-the-day-of-Exam:

  1. If you are an ERP candidate, a week before the exam collect the invitation letter from your department, and give it to your organizational guide.
  2. For ERP candidates, Organization Guide should be present during the exam hours.
  3. Ensure the multi-media projector is in-place at least one hour before the exam time, in the exam room.
  4. Copy your files at least an hour before the exam in the computer connected to the projector. Ensure, all symbols, notations and colors are clearly visible as you expected. My suggestion is to prepare a PDF format file from PPT, so all symbols will be visible irrespective of the projector quality.
  5. Take 6-7 handout of your presentation.
  6. Do not read on the day of exam, just relax. Reading on the day of exam, may not really increasing your knowledge to sustain the interview, so relax. This at least gives you creativity to think during the exam.
  7. Success of the exam is 60% - Good presentation and Research Work, 40% - Confident delivery of studied syllabus content.

All the Best!!