PhD Exam Formats

In their penultimate semester of coursework, students choose an English Department faculty member as exam committee chair (who likely also will serve as their dissertation director). In consultation with their exam committee chair, students choose two additional English Department faculty members who will administer their comprehensive exam and will potentially serve on their dissertation committee. Cochairships will be permitted with the consent of both co-chairs. Students may choose a fourth exam committee member, who may be faculty from outside the English Department or from another university.

In consultation with their committee, students select three fields in which they will be examined: one primary field and two secondary fields. While there is no list of fields from which to choose and no faculty assigned to represent particular fields, students are strongly encouraged to take coursework with faculty they may consider for their exam and dissertation committees. In their last semester of coursework, students generate three exam reading lists: a list of approximately fifty texts for their primary field and a list of approximately twenty-five texts for each of their secondary fields. Students consult with their exam committee to determine the appropriate number of primary and secondary texts for each field. Students submit these lists to their committee members for approval no later than the end of their last semester of coursework. Students submit an “Intent to Comp” form to the Chair of the PhD Exams Committee that includes their exam lists, their intended exam dates, and their exam format.

Once the deadline for submitting the “Intent to Comp” has passed, the Chair of the Ph.D. Examinations Committee will send a list of students intending to comp to the Graduate Coordinator for Continuing Students. The Graduate Coordinator for Continuing Students will review the students’ coursework and graduate language requirements and inform the Ph.D. Examinations Committee Chair, before classes begin the following semester, which students qualify to begin exams. The Graduate Coordinators’ Office will send the following to each applicable student and their advisor: either a confirmation of coursework requirement completion (pending success in their current courses) or an indication of remaining unfilled requirements.

Students will read for exams over the course of as many as two semesters. Students will complete exams and their exam meeting before the end of their second semester of reading.

Exam Formats and Administration

The student’s exam committee decides upon the format for their exam, taking into account the student’s three chosen fields, their three exam reading lists, and their intended dissertation topic. The student’s exam committee will decide upon the format for their exam no later than the end of the last semester of coursework, as it appears on the updated “Intent to Comp” form. The primary field section of the exam must fall under the umbrella of the student’s concentration on the Plan of Study and can take one of three formats:

• Format I: a portfolio with components determined by the exam committee.
• Format II: a take-home, open-book/open-note section of the exam (that may or may not be combined with the secondary field sections of the exam) in which the student’s exam committee members (including the chair) generate two questions each for the primary field, and the student’s exam committee chair selects four questions for the primary field to put on this section of the exam. The student answers two of the four questions with argumentative essays that demonstrate content knowledge of primary and secondary texts in the field that approaches expertise.
• Format III: a timed, proctored, closed-book/closed-note section of the exam.

These sections of the exam will be offered no more than once per semester and must be scheduled when submitting the “Intent to Comp” form. The secondary fields section of the exam all take the same format: a take-home, open-book/open-note section of the exam (that may or may not be combined with the primary field section of the exam). The student’s exam committee decides how to generate and compile questions, with the expectation that each member (including the chair) contributes. Some options include: each member writes one question per field, and the chair selects two questions for each field; each member writes three questions for their field, and the chair selects two of the three for each field; or the student works with the committee to generate questions for each field (as they do with portfolios). The entire committee must approve the exam before a student can write it. During this section of the exam, the student answers one question for each field with an argumentative essay that demonstrates content knowledge of reading list texts that approaches expertise. Students’ essays should cite primary sources (along with secondary sources, as appropriate for the field) and use either MLA, Chicago, or APA citation format. The total word count for the secondary fields section will be between 6,000 and 9,000, which a committee may choose to narrow. (A committee may narrow beyond those bounds with the approval of the PhD Exams Committee.)

The student will have six days (144 hours) to write the secondary areas section of the exam. These six days can be in sequence, with both secondary area essays due at the end of the six days. Alternatively, at the committee’s discretion, the secondary areas section can be broken into two three-day (72-hour sittings, with one essay due at the end of each sitting. Under normal circumstances, if the secondary areas are written in two sittings, these sittings will take place within thirty days of each other