What Were Your Comprehensive Exams Like?

[Vkw10]

I'm in a social science field where people often did undergraduate programs in other areas. Comps were in two parts. First was a three hour multiple choice exam, offered twice a year, testing knowledge of major theories and development of the field. I was given a reading list and told I had to pass the exam before proceeding to part two of comps. I had two chances to pass. The second part was four short written papers, done over a two week period, chosen from six prompts.

At a former university, the doctoral program for people seeking K12 superintendent certification had two options, a four hour proctored exam or passing the relevant National Teaching Exam required for state certification. The NTE was also required to earn the degree. Some students went directly from the masters needed for principal certification to the Ed.D. needed for superintendent certification and the required NTE was the same, so they saved grading with the NTE option.

[Langue_doc]

Three take-home essays, one for each sub-field, followed by an oral.

[phi-rabbit]

I'm in philosophy.  Believe it or not, I just checked my computer and found my comps questions in an old file!  I had no idea I still had them; it was almost 20 years ago.  It looks like I was told to write 6-10 (double spaced) pages each on three questions.  I was given three questions each in three areas (the three subfields that pertained to my intended project) and had to choose one from each area.  I recall that I was given about a week to do it.  I think that specific details varied and that one's committee had leeway.  I know for a fact that I was given quite a bit longer to answer than some of my contemporaries.  Giving people three days was not uncommon, if I remember correctly.

[dismalist]

Long and hard.

Billions of years ago. Two sets, a year apart. Each set three hours each on two days. Hadn't realized I had to do math, math, math. Mercy! I may have gotten a word in here or there. :-)

[larryc]

History, William and Mary, early 2000s We had four exams of four hours each over four days. No notes or anything, all from memory. The expectations were extremely high in terms ot knowing the theory and literature. The written answers became the basis of the faculty questions in the two hour oral exam, which was really the make or break.

I gamed the system. I did not feel prepared for the full depth of the process, I had some real holes in my knowledge that I knew would sink me if they were exposed in the oral exams. So in each of the written exams, near the front, I made a controversial statement about the literature--and offerend no support, as if I had no idea what I was writing about. In each case, it was something I knew was a particular interest of the professor in that field. And in each case it was something I knew a lot about, an area of my greatest strength.

It worked like a charm. My first committee member said "Now in your exam you said X is true and not Y, but Rodriguez and Smith proved Y in this book and that article." And I was all "Absolutely--but Kowalski and Zhu wrote that was wrong--in an article that I believe cited you in footnote seven?" And we went around for her allotted time. Second committee member did the same thing. When the third member asked me exactly the question I had planted, the first member made a point of catching my eye. "I know what you did," her look said, "and I can't decide if I am amused or mad at you. But you are lucky I went first."

[EdnaMode]

I'm in engineering, and my comps were around 20 years ago. The questions were set by my committee, they first wanted a list and course description of all the courses I had taken, including reading lists where possible (I had transferred in some coursework because I was pursuing my degree part time at another institution before I quit my job to do school full time).

My committee met, after they received the info from me, and came up with 10 questions. I had a limit of 25 pages total in which to answer all of them. I was emailed the questions at 5:00 PM on a Monday, and had until 5 PM on Wednesday to answer them and send them back to the committee. A week or so later, I met with the entire committee for a couple of hours for the oral examination. Some of the questions were about my previously submitted written answers, but most of them were not. After the inquisition, I had to stand out in the hall for around 30-45 minutes, then they called me back in to tell me I had passed and was ready to start working on my dissertation proposal.   

[little bongo]

My memory from around 2005 is fuzzy, but I remember three days of writing in 3-hour chunks, and one oral.

A lot of my cohort passed "with distinction." I just passed.

A colleague tells a fairly amusing story about me that I just barely remember happening--we ran into each other in the library when we were both Ph.D. students at the University of Blank. He wasn't on campus regularly, so he hadn't seen me in a while, and he struck up a conversation. I answered politely for several minutes, and then apparently excused myself with, "I'd like to continue this conversation, but I'm in the middle of my comps." Which indeed I was--I had probably just paused on the computer for a bathroom break. He apparently felt very guilty about taking me from my writing and didn't tell me that till about 13 years later.

I'm afraid I'm not quite that polite anymore.