Handbook

POLICY FOR GRADUATE WRITTEN COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATIONS

Eligibility: Students may take comprehensive examinations no earlier than the term in which they complete courses required for the examination, exclusive of E695 and E699. Any requests for exceptions must be approved by the Graduate Coordinator.

Scheduling: Written examinations will be offered in fall, winter, and spring; ordinarily on the first Saturday after the first week of classes in Fall and Spring Semesters and on the Saturday after final examinations at the end of Spring Semester. At least six weeks prior to the examination, the Graduate Coordinator will notify all M.F.A. and M.A. candidates of the comprehensive examination and the deadline for application.

Examining Committees: No later than three weeks prior to the comprehensive examination, the Graduate Coordinator or MFA thesis advisor shall appoint the necessary examining committees. Each examining committee shall ordinarily be made up as follows:

a) The examining committee for the comprehensive in literature shall consist of two members selected by turns from the faculty in British, American and Continental literature.

b) The examining committee for the comprehensive in Creative Writing shall consist of three members: the student's thesis advisor, another member of the creative writing faculty selected by turns from among the creative writing faculty teaching graduate workshops, and a member of the literature faculty with expertise in areas covered by the candidate's reading lists. All three committee members participate in the writing and review of the questions as well as in the reading and evaluating of them.

c) The examining committee for the comprehensive examination in TESOL shall consist of the chair and members of the TESOL/IEP Committee. The examining committee shall solicit questions from the entire committee, compose an examination from those questions, and submit the examination to the committee for approval before passing it along to the Graduate Coordinator. After the examination has been administered, all members of the committee may evaluate each candidate's responses to the examination questions. The examining committee shall make the final decision.

d) The examining committee for the teaching comprehensive shall consist of two members of the department, both appointed by the Graduate Coordinator, at least one of whom must have significant involvement in the licensure program.

e) The examining committee in communication development shall consist of three faculty members, one from each core field, who have taught the core courses in the program recently.

Design of Examinations: The examining committee in each area shall design a comprehensive examination which shall closely reflect the prototype examination in number and type of questions and shall relate to the reading lists and to the general course of study required for a degree in the area. The examining committee shall guard against designing questions or expecting answers that reflect the special interests, views, or interpretations of the examiners. Examiners may divide responsibility for preparing parts of the examination but shall share responsibility for approving all questions and the examination as a whole. After reviewing the examination, the Graduate Coordinator may require that the examining committee make necessary alterations.

Administering the Examinations: Having approved the examination, the Graduate Coordinator or a delegate shall administer the examination as scheduled. The written comprehensive shall be a proctored examination given on the same date and in the same place to all candidates for the degree in English. At the end of the examination, the Graduate Coordinator or delegate shall collect all copies of the examination. Duplicate copies will be made and stored separately from originals so that second copies will be available should originals be lost or misplaced. No later than the next working day, the Graduate Coordinator or delegate shall deliver examinations with a copy of the examination questions to the examining committee for evaluation.

Evaluation: Ordinarily, within six working days of the examination. the examining committee shall return the examination booklets to the Graduate Coordinator or delegate, and provide the Graduate Coordinator or delegate with a report of the results. Decisions are by majority vote. In the event of a tie vote within the committee, the Graduate Coordinator shall appoint an additional reviewer from an appropriate area who shall break the tie. Under no circumstances should the examining committee report the results to the Examinee(s). The report to the Graduate Coordinator shall evaluate each examination using the categories of "Pass with Distinction," "Pass," "Partial Pass," and "Fail" and shall include a joint statement detailing strengths and weaknesses of each answer. Graders shall maintain graduate-level standards of evaluation and shall agree on criteria for evaluating answers to individual questions, including content (accuracy, completeness, support), organization, expression (clarity, style), and mechanics. "Pass with Distinction," a rarely applied label, shall be used only when the examination shows clear competence in all parts and exceptional mastery, originality, or completeness as a whole. "Pass" shall mean solid, competent performance overall where strengths offset any weaknesses. "Partial Pass" shall mean adequate performance on one or more but not all sections of the examination as a whole. "Fail" shall be applied to any Examination where the performance on any one part is so weak as to require failure of the examination as a whole or when strengths do not offset weaknesses. In case of partial pass or failure, the examining committee shall explain the cause of failure and shall recommend which (if any) parts of the examination the examinee need not repeat on a subsequent examination. The examining committee may recommend exemption from repeating parts of the examination when the failure results entirely from the performance on one section or when answers on one or more sections show such mastery or completeness as to justify the conclusion that answering other questions on the same material would be redundant. In cases of failure, the examinee shall, according to Graduate School rules, be allowed to repeat the entire examination only once. Examinees with a "partial pass" may repeat the part of the examination they failed no more than twice. The scheduling of retakes will be at the discretion of the examining committee with the approval of the Graduate Coordinator. Examining Committee deliberations shall remain confidential. The Graduate Coordinator shall have responsibility for seeing that standards are maintained.

Notification: As soon as possible, usually within six working days after the examination is given, the examining committee shall report the results to the Graduate Coordinator. Within eight working days after the examination, the Graduate Coordinator shall send letters to examinees notifying them of the results, briefly summarizing readers' comments, and extending invitations, especially in cases of failure, to examinees to come for a fuller review of readers' comments. After consultation with members of the examining committee, the Graduate Coordinator may where necessary or useful refer the examinee to them for further discussion. Examinees may see their examination booklets, though not copy them, and booklets and copies of examination questions shall remain the property of the English Department.

Oral Examinations: All students must take an oral examination over their thesis (Plan A) or their Project (Plan B). This examination may not be held until after the student has successfully passed the required comprehensive examination. In rare cases, the examining committee may award a "Pass with Distinction" when the committee is in unanimous agreement that the thesis or project and its defense were of exceptionally high quality. The advisor will notify the Graduate Coordinator of the committee's decision in writing, detailing the strengths of the student's work, and indicating the unanimous agreement of the examining committee that the award is merited.