Comps Potential Outcomes

My brother asked me the other day about the comps I just took. He asked, was there a chance you could fail? What happens if you fail? What's it mean that you passed?

So to help my brother with this . . . let's discuss it just a bit. 

There were five potential outcomes from the comprehensive exams. Here they are:

1. The committee could have read my proposal, heard my presentation, and decided that I haven't passed the comps/quals and I need to go back to the drawing board. This would be a failure. 
2. The committee could have said that I passed the comps/quals but thought my research wasn't worthwhile enough or not well-developed enough to move forward and I'd have to go back to THAT drawing board. This is also a bit of a failure, but not as big a failure. 
3. The committee could have said that I passed the comps/quals but that my research proposal was weak and needed some significant changes. This is not a failure but is not ideal. That would require another committee meeting. 
4. The committee could have said that I passed the comps/quals but that my research needed some slight tweaks that they would need to review. This is a really good outcome. Not at all a fail, and would only have led to some track changes in a document then a hopeful, "move forward."
5. The committee could have said that I passed the comps/quals and that although they want some tweaks, there's no reason for them to be involved anymore. 

I hit number 5. The best I could have hoped for. And that is where I stand now. I get to go make some changes, I get to update my experiment a bit, I get to run the experiment. So that's my summer.