One of the most unpleasant things a masters student at NMSU has to look forward to is the Masters Final Examination, or colloquially know as the oral exam. It's a pretty mind bending process. Basically, you stand in front of a group of 4 or 5 professors and answer whatever questions they may have for you.
It's exactly a horrid a process as it sounds and one of the most intimidating situations a student could be in. As a student you do NOT have the tactical advantage. The key, however, to survival of the oral exam is advance planning. You first have to plan which professors you want on your committee and it requires a lot more strategy then you might imagine. Not only do you have to find professors that you've worked with, but you also have to find those that your sure won't be too rigorous. A generally pleasant personality helps too. Because let's face it, a lot of professors are prickly and if they are in asshole in everyday interactions, they will be in the oral exam too. I thought a lot about this and I think I selected the perfect mix. The ideal professor would be one who is familiar with your work, but has never really called you to task on it. This may seem like a wussy way to do it, but sometimes it's about surviving, not thriving.
The second thing is to not be afraid to ask possible subjects. Each time I did, they were very forthcoming, and since I did this about a month in advance, I was able to study the hell out of those subjects before the exam. I pretty much had it all down cold. Professors, in a lot of ways, are like sharks. They can smell fear and panic in the water. Because I clearly knew what I was talking about, they really didn't press me on a lot of issues and kept it very, very simple. Seems counter intuitive, but the better you do, the easier they are.
So, all in all, it was about a good of an experience as it could have been.
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