Booking your Comprehensive Examination
The information below and the accompanying papers must be submitted a minimum of four weeks prior to the proposed oral examination date.
From the Handbook:
The oral examination will be a closed examination (exam committee and student only), chaired by the Graduate Chair or their designate, who will be the (non-voting) chair of the oral examination.
The exam will begin with a short (~20 minute) introduction by the student about the three statements of field and how they are connected to their thesis research. The examination will then consist of rounds of questions from the committee (15-20 minutes each), exploring the candidate’s understanding of their declared field statement areas, clarifying committee questions regarding the student’s written submissions, and discussing the relationship of the major papers (field statements) to the student’s proposed dissertation research. Normally, there are two rounds of questions.
At the end of the examination, the student will leave the room and the committee will discuss the student’s combined written and oral performance for each of the three research areas. If, after oral examination, the committee expresses concern about the student’s performance in the written and/or oral presentations, the committee will advise the student on necessary remedial work. At the discretion of the examining committee, this may include further required coursework on the topic, further written work, re-writing of the major paper (statement of field), and/or a new oral examination of this field area. The examining committee will set specific timelines for achieving this remedial work and will outline how that work will be re-examined (simple approval by the senior supervisor, circulation of further written work to the entire committee, completion of specified course(s) achieving a particular grade, etc.).
The Graduate Chair or designate in consultation with the supervisor will write a clear memorandum to the student:
- outlining the committee’s evaluation of the examination in general;
- outlining the committee’s evaluation of the three individual major papers (field statements);
- any remedial steps and timeline for required further work and/or re-examination.
In cases where remedial work is extensive, the examining committee may choose to review written re-submissions and/ or re-examine the student orally on a given field statement. After an oral re-examination, if the committee concludes (by simple majority vote) that the student is still insufficiently prepared in this/these field area(s), the student will be required to withdraw from the PhD program without further chances for re-examination.