For sure, definitely not equating my PhD experience to Tao's. I felt like even in my viva the examiners didn't push me too hard and stuck close to the material in the thesis. Probably due to my decidedly non-prodigy status!
I didn't think you were equating at all. I went to graduate school for math in the U.S., and we didn't even cover a lot of the topics in the first two years I see discussed in these general exams, much less be examined on them.
