Well, I must say "Thank you" to those who were praying, but unfortunately the qual did not go as I hoped (for me anyway).  For those who looked at the qual from January, you would probably find today's exam just as unintelligible, but for those who understand the language, it turned out to be much harder.  Basically, the first four questions come from specific topics (group theory, ring theory, field theory, and linear algebra, respectively) and the fifth can be from any topic or a mixture of topics in algebra.  On recent quals, this fifth question has been from what is called module theory.  In studying this summer, I focused on everything except linear algebra because I would not have had enough time to learn enough linear to get the question on the exam.  Today's exam, though, had a second linear question as that random fifth question of the exam and no module theory question, so I was automatically at an even greater disadvantage.  Add on top of that the fact that the other questions were even harder than usual, and you can see why I did not do well.  However, I praise God for what I was able to get since nothing came easily this time.

Now I have to continue studying so I can pass it in January.  I guess I'll be learning more linear algebra.