I have studied for 10 long months to pass this exam on the first try, and
luckily I did it on the first try.
In return for passing the preliminary exam, my road to my doctoral degree
will be shorter. I will just need to do a disseratation and two final
piano recitals(plus an oral defense of my disserataion), and I am all done
and I get my degree! And I might do that in Fall 1998!
To make things short, Stage 1 of my DMA journey started with getting a
master's degree in piano performance. I did that in one year. Stage 2
was a little tougher. I had to do some more recitals, do some required
classes, including liberal arts classes, and do a proposal for my
dissertation(doctoral level). I finished stage 2 by passing the
preliminary exam.
So you should be very proud of me. I had put in a lot of hard work to pass
this exam. I had written preliminaries on Monday and Tuesday last week for
a total of 14 hours--longer than the usual 3-4 hour final exam. Then I had
to do the oral part of the preliminary--which was like an oral defense,
for it involved responding and answering questions the faculty committee
(I had four members of the music faculty)threw on me, mainly pertaining to
the piano repertoire of classical music, music history, and music theory.
But I have so much to say that I can't say more for a while. I have to
call my parents and tell them that I passed the exam.
There was also a fringe benefit for passing this very critical exam...I
feel in my heart that I am even more debonair and manly...