The comprehensive exam is a big written and oral exam that every Ph.D. student at Michigan State University needs to take and pass. In my own case, it would cover all of the material in my physiology texts and be broken up into the 6 major areas of physiology. Those areas were: Neurophysiology, cardiovascular physiology, cell physiology, renal-respiratory physiology, and endocrine-reproductive physiology. There was a four hour test for each of the six subjects followed by an oral test. The schedule for the comprehensive exam was a pair of 4-hour exams on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and a 1-hour oral test the following week.

The Ph.D. comprehensive exams were known to all the Ph.D. candidates as a major barrier to graduation because usually about 25% of the people taking the exam failed. We regularly lost several people at the level of the comprehensives, so they were taken very seriously. At Michigan State I was known as a relatively good student, but that was not always the case. At Susquehanna my grades were not as good as they were here. Often people who have a high grade point average as undergraduates find this harder to maintain in graduate school. When I was at Susquehanna I worked on the ambulance, and even at Michigan State University as a student athletic trainer, my grades were not the best. But when I got a job doing research in physiology, this actually helped my grades because my research was teaching me what I was learning in class too. So my grades in graduate school went up a lot. However I was not in college to get good grades. I was there for an education and had the goal of eventually using that knowledge to help people. So the grades were less important. I would calculate what test score I would need to achieve an acceptable grade in a class, study just enough to get that grade and get by. I was working hard and learning, but not getting the best grades until graduate school where the learning and the grades seemed to be more one and the same.

The problem with a Ph.D. comprehensive exam was that it was a test for which you could not study the minimum amount and get a grade. You either passed or failed, and the subject matter was pretty much everything you had learned about the subject of physiology. I estimated the amount of time I would need to study for the comprehensive exams accordingly, and made a schedule to meet those needs. I figured I would need 7 weeks to prepare for the exam, and scheduled in 5 days off during that time.

I talked to Dr. Dillon and I did not need to work in the lab during that time, so I could focus on preparing myself to pass the comprehensive exams. I started studying on a Monday 42 days before the exams and each subject would get 6 days of studying. I paid attention to nothing else. I would eat when hungry, sleep when sleepy, make pit stops and shower stops as necessary and work every other minute I was awake. What started to happen was that I would stay awake later and later and try to sleep in. So, I just let myself sleep in as needed. Eventually I would set my alarm to wake me 6 hours after I was going to sleep. With 6 hours of sleep a night and working 18-hour days, I had no problem sleeping and kept to my study schedule faithfully. However, I did become nocturnal.

It was just about impossible to see Ann during my study days, but I carefully planned my 6 days off to be with her. Those days became pretty intense, with us trying hard to maximize our time together. They were always a Saturday or Sunday, and we would spend every second together doing every fun thing we could think of. One morning we went to the east coast of Michigan to watch the sunrise and then drove the breadth of Michigan to the beach on the west coast overlooking Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes. We enjoyed the scenery and each other until sunset. We had watched the sun rise out of Lake Huron and now we were watching it set into the cold waters of Lake Michigan, all in one day. It was the perfect way to bracket a perfect day together.

Kissing her good-bye after such a beautiful day was a sad and painful. It felt as if I was leaving on some long trip and we would be thousands of miles apart. While that was not the case, the emotions were strong and made it hard to part. Even though I had become pretty much nocturnal, I would do my best to be with her for the entirety of those days. Then I would quickly return to my nocturnal routine as if there was no break in my sleep rhythms. My life was study, sleep, study… with too little time for Ann.