French

Doctoral programs usually do not have many exams.  None of my classes, as far as I know, will have an exam of any kind.  Two major writing projects, which will take about 2 years total, have no exam component apart from an oral defense of the dissertation.  All the exams for the PhD program are concentrated in a space of 15 days, and for those you only have to know…everything.  I’m looking forward to the study for those exams but not the ordeal itself.

There are two exceptions to the above in my program.  I must pass reading proficiency tests in French and German.  This summer I have to pass one, and next summer the other.  The school offers non-credit (but for-pay) courses for each in alternating summers.  I opted to learn French on my own and tomorrow is the exam.  If I fail, I can take the test again on July 31.  If I fail again, I have a whole semester to do whatever I want.  (Assuming they let me take the test a third time and thus continue classes in the spring.)  I really want to pass it the first time so that I can get on with my life.

All I have to be able to do is to read.  There is no need to be able to speak, understand, or write the language.  The intent is that I will be able to access books and articles in French that could be useful for my research.  You can use a dictionary, but it is a timed test.  I feel pretty good about it, not knowing how long the test will be or how precise the grading will be.  You have to score an 86 to pass.  Overall I am surprised at how easily it came and how similar French is to English.  It may help that I used to know Spanish and have studied other foreign languages.  There is a sense of accomplishment when a page that looked like gobbledy-gook only a few months ago now makes sense (with a dictionary at hand).  It’s also cool that now I can understand much of what this amazing website says.  Listening to it, of course, is another story; it all sounds like a bunch of vowels strung together.

Update:  The test was hard.  My take is that they intend for students to fail, at least the first time.  I won’t know if I passed for a week or two.