Comprehensive Examinations

Comprehensive examinations are requirements in the Master of Arts programs in Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Behavior and Ceramic Arts.  Exams are built upon the content of the graduate courses taken as components of a graduate program and upon courses for which a waiver or exemption has been granted. A student may not be examined in an area where transfer credit has been awarded. While many or most of the examination questions may deal with specific subject content, some may require the student to draw together several concepts in order to demonstrate an understanding of interrelated ideas.

The following procedures apply to the comprehensive examination:

• Notification of Intention. The student must complete the form entitled Notification of Intent to Take the Comprehensive Examination, which is available online at www.hood.edu/gradforms, by the published deadline.  Upon submission of the form, the Registrar will secure the advisor's approval and schedule the student for specific date indicated on the form. No examination will be assembled unless the form is on file with the Office of the Registrar. Only students who are in good standing (maintaining a 3.0 cumulative grade point average) may take the comprehensive examination. 

• The Questions. For Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Behavior (ISHB), comprehensive examination questions are written by the instructor of each course. Students in ISHB will indicate on the Notification of Intention form, on which courses they will be tested. Changes to chosen courses must be made by March 1 for Spring exams and October 1 for Fall exams. For ceramic arts, the questions will address underlying facts and principles, technical and aesthetic, and will consist of a number of essay questions requiring short, concise explanations or definitions.  All students taking the exams should review class syllabi, outlines, prior class exams, notes, as well as any text readings from coursework to be tested.
• Assembling the Examination. In consultation with the student, the advisor or the program director prepares the comprehensive examination. Ordinarily, the test questions are drawn from one department.  
• Administration of the Examination. Comprehensive examinations are administered in the Spring and Fall semesters.  The exact dates of the examinations are published in the Academic Calendar for each year. The place of administration of the comprehensive examination will be announced and the program directors will determine how the examinations will be administered, which may include the use of Blackboard for online administration.  Students are expected to comply with the rules of academic conduct found under the Academic Standards section of the catalog.

  Students who are unable to take a comprehensive examination on the scheduled date because of hardship may petition the adviser for a substitute date. If the adviser approves the petition, the student must contact the Office of the Registrar and the program director to make arrangements for the administration of the examination and the substitute date. In all cases, if the student wishes to complete the examination within the same semester, the substitute date must occur on a weekday no more than 10 business days after the originally scheduled examination date.

• Grading of the Examination and Reporting the Results. The advisor or the program director, with the assistance of the departmental instructors, arranges for grading of the examination. Where possible, the original writer of an examination question is called upon to grade that question. Questions are graded on a pass-fail basis. The advisor collects all the graded examination questions and, using departmental guidelines, grades the total examination as either pass or fail. Usually a student’s total examination is graded pass when four of five questions for Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Behavior are graded pass. Ceramic Arts students must score at least an 80% on the written exam. Frequently two or three faculty members are called upon to read and assist with the evaluation.

  Once the total examination is evaluated, it is the responsibility of the advisor to notify the student and the Office of the Registrar regarding the results of the comprehensive examination. This notification must be in writing.

  The process of examination evaluation and notification must be completed within 30 days following the administration of the examination.

• Options for Students Who Have Failed the Comprehensive Examination. Only one re-examination may be arranged. Re-examination occurs during the next semester following the initial comprehensive examination, excluding summer session. The student must file another Intent to Take the Comprehensive Examination form.  In the case of Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Behavior, the student will only be re-tested on the questions they failed. The student also confers with their advisor six weeks in advance of the re-examination. The student who has failed both the initial comprehensive examination and re-examination is not eligible for the master’s degree.  The dismissed student may appeal dismissal as outlined in the Exceptions to the Academic Policies, Regulations or Requirements section, or they may consider pursuing a different degree per the College's Fresh Start Policy. 

If a student fails the comprehensive examination, the only option available to that student is re-examination. The thesis, field work or project option is not available to students who fail a comprehensive examination.