I got through a PhD in algebraic combinatorics in five years, but was definitely an outlier. I had also taken and/or crashed a lot of grad classes during my la

I got through a PhD in algebraic combinatorics in five years, but was definitely an outlier. I had also taken and/or crashed a lot of grad classes during my last two years of undergrad (out of six, total, spread over five schools), so was probably a bit better prepared for the early years than others in my cohort. (There was also a funny system of allowing incoming students to take the first year prelims if they thought they could hack it. I aced algebra and bombed analysis in a legendary fashion, but didn't have to take the algebra test the following year as result. This /significantly/ reduced my stress load in the first year.) Add in my undergrad time, though, and I graduated at a totally normal age...