Today I start my written preliminary exams to start the process of moving from a Ph.D student to a Ph.D candidate. What has that process looked like so far?
5: The number of semesters I’ve been enrolled as a Ph.D student.
26,065: The number assigned pages of reading I’ve completed. I didn’t keep track of any extra reading done for writing papers, etc.
11,529: The number of those pages I’ve read in the past 17 weeks.
51: The average number of pages I’ve read every day, including the weekends, during the semester. You can see samples of those pages below.
800: A rough estimate of the number of pages that I have written for papers, book chapters, books, notes, and practice writing for my exams.
99: The number of books and articles on my exam readings lists.
12: The number of hours dedicated to the written exams, spread out over three days.
60: The typical number of pages written in those hours.
1.9: The number of babies I’ve had as Ph.D student (#2 is due in 3 weeks, yay!).
Here we go!
