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Quiz about PhD Comics
Quiz about PhD Comics

PhD Comics Trivia Quiz


Jorge Cham's "PhD Comics," available on the web and in a set of books, speak to the very souls of graduate students everywhere. Are you ready for your qualifying exam?

A multiple-choice quiz by CellarDoor. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
CellarDoor
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
263,199
Updated
Jul 23 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
197
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. The title "PhD Comics" immediately brings scholarship to mind: a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) is, after all, one of the highest academic honors a person can earn. In the case of this comic strip, however, the initials refer to something a little more down to earth. What does "PhD" stand for in "PhD Comics"? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Although the strip treats experiences common to pretty much every graduate school everywhere, it's set at a particular real-life university with an excellent reputation. What is this institution of higher learning, which inexplicably gave author Jorge Cham a degree even after years of being lampooned in his comic strip? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. From the very beginning, a core cast of characters has populated the strip. The most visible character is also the hardest to describe, simply because his name is never given. Portrayed in a constant state of dishevelment and near-panic, he is often thought to stand in for the author, and the strip begins with his arrival at graduate school. For whom does this nameless young man work? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Another major character works in the same lab as the nameless grad student. No one knows how long he's been in graduate school; in fact, there are rumors that the younger students were in kindergarten when he began. Almost as much of an institution as the university itself, he raises procrastination to an art form -- but fatherhood finally forces him to take graduation as a serious goal. What is the first name of this lazy legend? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Another character, arguably the one with the biggest (and loudest!) fan base, is a female engineering student in a very, very male department. Many strips deal with her resulting ambivalence; in one, she wears a (false) T-shirt reading "I have a boyfriend" in order to stave off ardent admirers. Who is this smart, hardworking, but conflicted woman? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Rounding out the central four characters is a token social-sciences grad student, a foreign national who is quick to join peaceful protests (especially in support of her beloved Apple computers). Who is this character, an anthropology student who is much more connected to the real world than her peers in the strip? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Our nameless hero has a younger sister, who -- despite the example set by her brother -- seems to be considering attending graduate school. A number of jokes hinge on her poorly researched efforts in this direction, from her casual cell phone conversations during important exams to her arrival at the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) prepared for a format that hasn't been offered for years. What is her name? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. The lives of the "PhD Comics" characters are defined by many desires. There's the search for good data, leading to publications, and maybe -- just maybe! -- the approval of one's adviser. There's the quest for a thesis topic and for sources of funding. But it is in pursuit of what non-academic item that the characters -- especially the older ones -- find the most satisfaction? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Near the end of the second volume, the slackerly senior graduate student -- spurred by his love for his wife Jen and his sense of duty toward his coming child -- finally ends up defending his thesis. Is his defense successful?


Question 10 of 10
10. I've really been putting off writing this question -- "save it for a rainy day," that's my motto. The characters of "PhD Comics" would sympathize with this impulse, since they deal with it themselves in practically every strip. In fact, author Jorge Cham toured colleges around the USA with a talk on "The Power of" this concept, the deferral of an action until the last possible moment. What is this word, important to the lives of students everywhere? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The title "PhD Comics" immediately brings scholarship to mind: a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) is, after all, one of the highest academic honors a person can earn. In the case of this comic strip, however, the initials refer to something a little more down to earth. What does "PhD" stand for in "PhD Comics"?

Answer: Piled Higher and Deeper

Time and again throughout the strip, bright-eyed young students arrive fresh from earning their bachelors' degrees, confident that they know what it will be like in a doctoral program. After a few amusing strips, they invariably discover that everything is "piled higher and deeper" in grad school: the work, the despair, the debt, the expectations ...
2. Although the strip treats experiences common to pretty much every graduate school everywhere, it's set at a particular real-life university with an excellent reputation. What is this institution of higher learning, which inexplicably gave author Jorge Cham a degree even after years of being lampooned in his comic strip?

Answer: Stanford University

Stanford University, located in Palo Alto, California, has a sterling reputation for excellence in academics and in research. Of course, that doesn't necessarily make it a sterling place to be a grad student! Most of our heroes are in the electrical engineering department. Some of their problems (such as teaching requirements and qualifying exams) are common to most graduate programs; others (such as complaints about student housing and a university drive to switch from Mac computers to PCs) are more specific to Stanford. The strip was first published in Stanford's student paper.

Stanford granted cartoonist Jorge Cham his PhD in mechanical engineering in 2003 (his research focused on robotics). Later that year, he began work as an instructor and researcher at Caltech, although his comics have taken up an increasing fraction of his time.
3. From the very beginning, a core cast of characters has populated the strip. The most visible character is also the hardest to describe, simply because his name is never given. Portrayed in a constant state of dishevelment and near-panic, he is often thought to stand in for the author, and the strip begins with his arrival at graduate school. For whom does this nameless young man work?

Answer: Professor Smith

Our unnamed hero's early days at Stanford are fraught with difficulty. Teaching a review session for an undergraduate engineering class, he succumbs to the relentless pressure and reveals the answer to the homework assignment. (For those working on that same assignment, it's pi divided by two.) His efforts to find a research lab are similarly painful.

Some professors refuse to talk to him until he passes his qualifying exams; Professor Smith only takes him on after realizing that the laboratory floors need to be washed. Years of graduate school (interrupted by a brief stint in the private sector) leave him much more competent, but not noticeably more confident.
4. Another major character works in the same lab as the nameless grad student. No one knows how long he's been in graduate school; in fact, there are rumors that the younger students were in kindergarten when he began. Almost as much of an institution as the university itself, he raises procrastination to an art form -- but fatherhood finally forces him to take graduation as a serious goal. What is the first name of this lazy legend?

Answer: Mike

Mike Slackenerny is introduced near the beginning of our hero's graduate student career; as Professor Smith's senior graduate student, he has the task of training the new kid. After being interrupted while sleeping at his desk, he launches into a soliloquy about graduate study: "Ah, yes. You seek my wisdom. You wish to become one of an ancient order of masochists who guard semi-useful research for low wages. You wish to be -- a grad student!"

Early in the strip, Mike goes to Vegas to try to win cash for improved grad student funding. He comes back with a wife, Jen, whose pregnancy with their daughter Sophy lasts several years. Poor woman! Jen's encouragement, and the mental image of Sophy as a Dickensian beggar child, finally prompts Mike to make progress toward his thesis.
5. Another character, arguably the one with the biggest (and loudest!) fan base, is a female engineering student in a very, very male department. Many strips deal with her resulting ambivalence; in one, she wears a (false) T-shirt reading "I have a boyfriend" in order to stave off ardent admirers. Who is this smart, hardworking, but conflicted woman?

Answer: Cecilia

In Jorge Cham's lectures at university campuses around the U.S., he reports that one of the most common questions asked of him is, "Can I marry Cecilia?" (His answer, he says, is two-fold: "No. She's fictional. Also, she's mine!") This interest is reflected in the strip, which recounts at least one proposal by a hapless classmate: "Excuse me, female, will you marry me?" She loves chocolate and dreams of dancing and romance, but has a strange reluctance to graduate and move on to "the real world."
6. Rounding out the central four characters is a token social-sciences grad student, a foreign national who is quick to join peaceful protests (especially in support of her beloved Apple computers). Who is this character, an anthropology student who is much more connected to the real world than her peers in the strip?

Answer: Tajel

We never find out where the bright and fiery Tajel is from, but in strips covering her research fieldwork we discover that she speaks Spanish confidently. Unlike her roommate Cecilia, Tajel is not confined to a windowless laboratory; instead, she ventures out into the world at large in an effort to understand the dynamics of people. (This also makes her the most socially confident member of the main cast.) We don't know what her research focuses on specifically, and Tajel might not either; it's a running joke that she can't settle on an achievable thesis topic.
7. Our nameless hero has a younger sister, who -- despite the example set by her brother -- seems to be considering attending graduate school. A number of jokes hinge on her poorly researched efforts in this direction, from her casual cell phone conversations during important exams to her arrival at the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) prepared for a format that hasn't been offered for years. What is her name?

Answer: Dee

Dee, a force of nature in pigtails and glasses, is not a careful follower of instructions. She and a friend spend months studying from an outdated GRE test preparation book, and arrive at the exam prepared for an Analytical Ability section that was replaced with a writing test in 2002.

She eats complete fast-food meals during final exams for her classes and floods the lab where she works as an undergraduate researcher one summer. She enjoys calling her older brother for advice, which she then ignores.
8. The lives of the "PhD Comics" characters are defined by many desires. There's the search for good data, leading to publications, and maybe -- just maybe! -- the approval of one's adviser. There's the quest for a thesis topic and for sources of funding. But it is in pursuit of what non-academic item that the characters -- especially the older ones -- find the most satisfaction?

Answer: Free food

The appeal of free food is perhaps best described in a popular strip that ran on April 9, 1999, as part of a supposed National Geographic documentary entitled "The Grad Student: Call of the Wild." "Though a simple creature," the documentary narration reads, "the grad student has a complex feeding cycle. Always hungry, the grad student preys upon the occasional herd of people chatting, signifying what are known as 'happy hours' or 'social events.' A master of camouflage, the grad student easily blends in and gorges on its sole source of nutrition: a substance called 'free food.'"

Mike Slackenerny is the acknowledged master of this process, slipping into psychology events, recruiting seminars and faculty lunches with equal ease. Several strips focus on his philosophy of the hunt -- and on his "generosity" in teaching his methods to first-year and masters students. (It's purely coincidence, I'm sure, that this involves sending them in to take the risk and bring back food for him!)
9. Near the end of the second volume, the slackerly senior graduate student -- spurred by his love for his wife Jen and his sense of duty toward his coming child -- finally ends up defending his thesis. Is his defense successful?

Answer: Yes

The strips leading up to Mike's defense (which is scheduled at the last minute, after quals have been waived, because Professor Smith has another student lined up for the slot) ran in March and April of 2005. They describe a dire situation: Mike, having no slides and virtually no research, is preparing to work out equations on the board, and poor Jen goes into labor just as the defense is about to begin.

The conclusion of the storyline is left to the print edition of the second book: "Life Is Short and Then You Graduate." Mike, in a panic, writes on the board the solution to an equation he'd worked out early in his graduate career -- and the result turns out to be impressive enough that the committee passes him! Now he just has to write it up, a process that involves another two years of procrastination.
10. I've really been putting off writing this question -- "save it for a rainy day," that's my motto. The characters of "PhD Comics" would sympathize with this impulse, since they deal with it themselves in practically every strip. In fact, author Jorge Cham toured colleges around the USA with a talk on "The Power of" this concept, the deferral of an action until the last possible moment. What is this word, important to the lives of students everywhere?

Answer: Procrastination

Procrastination governs the lives of the characters in ways both obvious (strip after strip in which Mike manages to type only the title of his thesis) and subtle (a passing paper airplane as Professor Smith approaches the laboratory). One of the most popular strips, running on May 3, 1999, is a graph of grad students' work output over the week; the dips in motivation due to web surfing, e-mail sorting, and even Peruvian soccer league results are very dramatic. Cham leaves out one of the most important procrastination methods for the modern grad student: checking to see whether new PhD comics have been posted!

I hope you've enjoyed this introduction to one of my favorite comic strips. Thanks for playing!
Source: Author CellarDoor

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor JuniorTheJaws before going online.
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