Non-Thesis Option
Graduate Comprehensive Exam
The Graduate Comprehensive Exam is an oral exam. The deadline for applying to take the Comprehensive Exam is the end of the third week of the quarter the candidate intends to take the exam. Comprehensive Exams will be scheduled between week 7-10 of Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters. Only in rare instances will Comprehensive Exams be held during the Summer quarter.
A Committee of three Graduate Faculty Members will be assigned to each candidate. The selection of the Committee Members will be based on matching expertise to the focus of graduate coursework on the Formal Study Plan and the career objective of the student. Committee selection will also consider workload across the faculty.
A three-hour block of time will be reserved for the Oral Comprehensive Exam. This time block will allow for completion of the exam, deliberation by the Committee, and the post-exam debriefing of the candidate.
The Comprehensive Exam will focus on global knowledge in Kinesiology. The candidate will be presented with two or three comprehensive questions developed by his/her Committee that will be answered orally. Committee members may ask follow-up questions if necessary for clarification.
The nature of the questions will be global and open ended, with an emphasis on application, critical thinking, and problem solving. The questions and will be oriented to the student’s career objective and graduate coursework on the Formal Study Plan.
The exam is pass/fail in nature (with the understanding that an overall score of 70% represents a passing score). The scoring rubric is available for review.
After the exam, the Committee will debrief the candidate concerning areas of strengths and weakness on the exam.
In the event that a candidate fails the exam the debriefing will clarify the area(s) of weakness that should be addressed by the student when preparing to repeat the Comprehensive Exam. If a candidate fails the exam (s)he must wait until the next quarter to apply to take the Comprehensive Exam.