I passed!!!

All I can say is Thank You Jesus!! I passed my Ph.D. qualifying exam on Monday and now I am an official Ph.D. Candidate!! Woohooooo!! : )

So there were three faculty members on my qualifying exam committee, all of whom I had never had a conversation/class with before. When I met them in the room, they seemed to be friendly, so that put me at ease before I started presenting. I must say though that the third committee member was VERY TARDY! I was supposed to start presenting at 1pm, but didn't get to that till about 1:30p!!

My presentation was about 30 min. long and I was too excited about using my newly purchased laser pointer that day, lol! I was also loving the fact that I could advance my powerpoint slides using my macbook remote. Yay for Apple! : )

After my presentation, the "grilling" began. In the beginning, I found the questions to be very simple to handle, but it didn't take too long for them to get harder exponentially,lol! One member of my committee had a background in chemistry and he definitely took it there! I definitely felt like after his questions that I probably needed a refresher course in organic chemistry! Overall, they really were looking to test the limits of my knowledge and I could feel it! When they would ask a question and I knew right offhand that I didn't know the answer, I had to force myself to open my mouth and start thinking out loud! They were really interested in understanding my thinking pattern.

Well once the questioning was through, I was dismissed from the room for about 7 min. When they welcomed me back, this is what went down:

Professor A: Well we are going to send you something formal later but overall we had no problems with your presentation. You did a really good job so you've passed.

Me: I passed???!!

Prof. A: Yes, you've passed.

Me: (With joy gleaming in my eyes...had to restrain my leaping,lol) Thank you! Thank you so much!

All in all, I am so grateful to God for stepping in yet again. I couldn't have done this without Him! That is a FACT!! I'm so glad to finally have this behind me : )

That Ph.D. is inching closer towards me. Yessiiiirrrrr!!

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Get Me Through This Lord!!

So the oral portion of my Ph.D. qualifier's exam is this upcoming Monday. Every time I think about it, my heart literally starts to beat faster and I get this queasy feeling in my stomach. In fact, last night I only got 1 hr of sleep (not because I was up late studying), but because I'm so anxious about this exam that its robbing both my AM and PM hours = MY LIFE!!

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you're discouraged to study something even before you've picked up the book. There is just so much material and so little time and I really am trying not to psych myself out. My friends and family keep telling me that they know I'm going to do just fine. My question is...why don't I feel that way right now? Sometimes, I think that the intensity of this whole process is lost on someone who hasn't gone through it so it becomes easier to say things like that.

In any case, as a Christian, I must hold fast to the promise that God will not give me more than I can bear, that I can do all things through Him that strengthens me and most importantly that He has not given me the spirit of fear! Lord knows I need His help in accepting these facts and making them personally my own. I will be praising His name when this stage is done and I can officially be called a Ph.D. candidate.

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