Comprehensive Exams

Overview

As stated on the department website and in the graduate handbook:

Students are required to complete all required coursework before taking their comprehensive exams. With approval of your advisor, you may sign up for Reading (ARH 605) credits to prepare for the comprehensive exams. You are required to complete two written comprehensive exams: one in your major field in HA&A and one in a minor field in HA&A (or another discipline with permission of the major advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies). The major comprehensive examiner must be your major advisor in HA&A. The minor comprehensive examiner must be another faculty member in HA&A (or in an outside department with permission of the major advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies).

The major and minor exams both consist of written exams and must occur within one week of each other within the same term. An oral exam will be held with the major and minor examiner within one week after the final written exam is completed and submitted.

Additional guidance is provided below.

605 Reading Courses/Exam Preparation

In advance of comprehensive exams (potentially as part of ARH 605 [Reading] courses), students and examiners should compile a bibliography and image list aimed at the student’s eventual written and oral examinations.

Major and minor fields will each have their own bibliographies and image lists. Bibliographies should be focused, rather than exhaustive. They should survey relevant scholarship including seminal works and new research in the student’s general field, but be limited in nature with the understanding that the student will continue to read on their own past the exam. The bibliography should be treated as a living document with the expectation that it may change as the student works through it.

Image lists should be representative of canonical works within a student’s major and minor fields. They are not intended to be exhaustive. The objects/monuments should not be chosen for their obscurity but should be something anyone in the student’s field would be expected to know and be able to discuss. If a student’s minor field is outside the department, images may not be required. In this case, the student and minor examiner should determine the format of the oral exam near the beginning of the preparation period.

Major and minor examiners should plan to meet with their advisees regularly in a term prior to the exam (e.g. weekly, bi-weekly, etc.). During these meetings participants should develop bibliography, image list, and themes for the major/minor exams. Meetings should take place early enough in the student’s preparation for the exams to allow ample time for the student to thoroughly study the materials, ideally by the spring term prior to the year in which the student is scheduled to take the exams, and no later than the fall term in the year of the exams. Typically, students should plan on two quarters (6 months) to complete their exam preparation once an initial bibliography is in place.

Written Exam

The written portion involves three days of writing—two in the major field, one in the minor, with work handed in each day—over the course of five business days.

For each day of examination, the department will provide the student with a computer and the exam question to be answered. Students must e-mail their completed answer to arthist@uoregon.edu within four (4) hours of the designated start time. Students will receive their grade for the written portion of the exam no later than three (3) business days after the final exam day.

If the student achieves a grade of Pass on each written exam, an oral exam administered by the major and minor examiners will follow within one week of completion and submission of the written portion. Students who do not pass their written portion must retake it the following term before proceeding to the oral exam component. Students who do not pass their written exams on their second attempt may receive a terminal MA degree by completing all requirements for the terminal MA degree.

Major and minor examiners will develop themes with the student in advance of the written exam. Examiners should involve the student in developing these themes as an iterative process.

Examiners and students should end up with a final list of four themes prepared for the major field and two themes for the minor field. The questions for the exams will be based directly on these themes. Examiners will ask questions intended to meaningfully contribute to the student’s professional development. These may involve historiographical or thematic issues related to the dissertation, short essays pertaining to future teaching, preparation of a course syllabus in the major or minor area, or other significant questions relevant to the student’s course of study. The examiner will develop one question for each day (two days for the major exam; one for the minor) and the student will be expected to answer each question within a four-hour period.

The written exam is a closed-note exam. Students will not be allowed to use personal notes or other materials during the examination period. A computer will be provided by the department for the duration of each working period of the three exam days.

Oral Exam

The oral exam is administered by the examiners in the student’s major and minor fields and typically takes two hours. The student must bring the PhD Exam Approval Form to the meeting. This must be signed by the student and examiners at the end of the oral exam, and the student must return the completed form to the Graduate Coordinator (arthist@uoregon.edu) for archiving.

Students who do not pass the oral examination must retake it the following term. Students who do not pass their oral exam on their second attempt may receive a terminal MA degree by completing all requirements for the terminal MA degree.

The oral exam for major areas and minor areas within the department will consist of image-related discussions. If a student’s minor field is in a different discipline, the student and examiner are expected to determine an exam format near the beginning of the preparation period. Students should be prepared to discuss objects/monuments from their pre-prepared image list in relation to relevant bibliography and debates within the field and answer any questions from the examiner. Both the major and minor examiners will be present at the oral exam. Students will be shown no more than ten (10) slides, with the majority (typically 5-7) coming from the major field. Like the written exam, the oral exam should look forward toward the student’s future academic and career goals. Questions and comments may be used to help the student crystalize ideas for the dissertation prospectus.

During the oral exam, students will be expected to engage at a level comparable to that of a museum gallery tour or a conversation with an informed undergraduate student. The oral exam should allow participants to discuss and refine the student’s dissertation plans in light of broader themes represented by the exam reading list. Examiners will ask students to expand upon their written work and will ask additional questions related to the reading list, with an eye to material not addressed in the written portion.