Policies

All graduate students must pass the exam in order to graduate, and students are permitted to take the comprehensive examinations no more than twice. If you sit for the exam, you are deemed to have taken it, whether or not you submit your exam for grading. For exam meeting times and dates, check the calendar.

Students are normally provided with two official opportunities to discuss the exam:

• A planning meeting approximately three to five months prior to the exam, at which time the reading list is distributed
• A review meeting approximately one to two months before the exam to answer any questions that may have arisen; individual reading lists from students in Rhetoric and Composition and Technical Writing tracks are due at this meeting

Neither meeting is required. However, if you cannot attend these meetings, be sure to contact the Graduate Program Assistant to make sure you receive all the information distributed at them. Also, if you are in the Rhetoric and Composition or Technical Writing tracks, you must submit your individual abstracts/reading lists to the Graduate Program Assistant by the date of this meeting, whether or not you attend.

The exam is administrated in the Technical Writing Lab (203E) with students having the choice of writing the exam on a word processor or in longhand. The exam lasts for five hours, during which time students are allowed to leave briefly to use the lavatories or get a drink. However, there is no lunch break provided and no conferring or consulting permitted.

When students arrive, they are expected to sign an honors statement promising that they will neither give nor receive unauthorized assistance. They are provided with scratch paper and a copy of their reading list, but they are not permitted to consult any other materials. The test is a closed book exam with only the student's unassisted responses allowed.

Although the number of questions may vary from year to year, the student will be able to choose from alternatives. In answering the questions, a student may refer to works taught in graduate courses, works on the predetermined reading list, or from other sources familiar to the student.

Exams are coded, with only the Graduate Program Assistant knowing the identity of the exam takers. The exams, therefore, are graded anonymously. Five faculty graders grade every exam.

Makeup exams are not permitted. If you are unable to take the examination on the announced date, you must wait for the test's next normal administration time.