Quals are tough times. But I’m sympathetic to the plight of everyone who has to drag your ass through them. Because you do need a lot of support in those times; you just get run ragged. Your advisor, your family, your friends, your partner–everyone carries a little bit of it–not as much as you do, mind, but a little. And it sucks! They don’t get have shots bought for them at the end of it! What else can you say, other than “You’ll do great!” There is literally nothing else to say.
So suck it up. Pass your exams. Then get ridiculously drunk and realize that it was never that hard to begin with. I promise you will.
I’m really shocked that after writing the above, essentially pointing out that my OP was childish lashing out, anyone would want to add anything to this thread. If you want to berate me for the OP, why not pit me? Otherwise, I’m puzzled as to what else needs to be said here.
Well, it wasn’t me. I feel a little bad about my snarky post up-thread, in light of your subsequent post detailing your issues with depression and whatnot. Hope it gets better, man.
I’m glad this thread was reopened. While I have no beef with the OP specifically, it’s always seemed to be the way of the boards to let assholic OPs go on and let them lie in the bed they made, so to speak. Closing it seems to allow the person to escape being called out on it if he or she is, in fact, in the wrong or behaving like a jerk.
statsman, I just wanted to let you know that it’s not that unusual to have an oral exam as part of your qualifying exam. Yes, it’s stressful, but it does help to prepare you for your thesis defense and exam, which I assume will be oral. Hang in there and good luck.
I don’t know. How does one tell the difference between someone with poor reading comprehension skills and someone willfully ignoring the fact that I already addressed this a few posts back?
Did you miss the mea culpa in post #20? It’s not like he was continuing to be a jerk. He explained why the thread was a mistake, and the tone of that post was that he knew he was in the wrong and overreacted. Close enough to an apology for me. And another “way of the boards” has always been to let someone off the hook when they’re big enough to admit they were wrong.
I don’t intend to post anything more than responses to other posts, so there’s really no “bed making” to expect. If someone really wants to give me what-for (even after my explanation a few posts up), why not start a new pit thread instead?
You’re going to fail miserably, burn-out, have a nervous breakdown and end up a shell of your former self, doomed to using your fancy education on the long slow climb the zenith of mediocrity as a corporate middle-manager.
Like nameless said, the people who give a fuck about you in your life are SUPPOSED to say “Oh you’ll do fine.” And trust me, I KNOW what it’s like to have shit like that said to me when the person doesn’t have a fucking clue what they’re talking about. And it makes me angry too. But I’ve realized even though it’s annoying, I am glad I have people who give a fuck. Even with all the other shit you’re dealing with, try to keep that in perspective.
