School Psychology (SPY)

Comprehensive Exam

Policies Governing the Comprehensive Examination

The comprehensive examination will be given once per year, at the beginning of the fall semester.
Applications to sit for the comprehensive exam must be approved by the SPY coordinator/director of training who, in turn, will notify the graduate coordinator at least 3 weeks prior to the examination. In addition, the students’ program of study must be filed with the graduate coordinator by the end of the prior spring semester.
The examination is an 8-hour exam over a one-day period (8.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.). The time frame for the examination must be made available to the graduate coordinator three weeks prior to the examination. Students who wish to use a computer need to indicate thus in their application, so that an appropriate area can be provided.
The comprehensive examination will cover the following areas, corresponding to the areas of Foundational Knowledge: Psychology, Research, Educational, & Professional Practice (PREP) outlined in the Training Model.

Every question will be read and evaluated by at least two faculty members although most questions will be evaluated by more than two faculty members. In the case that only two faculty members initially evaluate a question, and there is a split decision, the question will be read by an additional faculty member in order to determine the outcome.
Scoring of the questions will be on a pass/fail basis. The following criteria have been developed to give guidance to students taking the examination. The nature of responses will vary from question to question and from area to area. In general, however, responses will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

The response should be relevant to the question.
There should be detail and depth in the response.
Ideas should be logically developed.
Statements and ideas shall be documented by available research.
Writing should be scholarly in paragraph development, grammar, spelling and clarity.

The student must pass all areas of the examination, as the faculty considers each area tested to be a core competency for graduates of our program.
Failure or Partial Failure of the Comprehensive Examination

Students who fail any area on the examination will be required to sit for the comprehensive examination again. At the second administration, which takes place at the beginning of the spring semester, students will only be required to take the area(s) that they did not pass at the first administration.
If an area is failed at the second administration, then an advisory committee, to be comprised of members of the student's doctoral committee, will meet to discuss the student's performance as well as progress in the program to date. The advisory committee will be responsible for choosing an appropriate course of action. For example, the student might be required to repeat relevant coursework or write a paper covering the failed area. Dismissal from the program remains one potential option.

Non-school psychology area members of the advisory committee may submit additional questions.
Additional questions are answered in a second day of testing or in a format approved by the committee member.
Additional questions are evaluated by the committee member who recommends a pass/fail grade to the SPY comps coordinator.

After the written preliminary examination is passed, the oral comprehensive examination is given. The oral comprehensive examination is open to all members of the faculty and shall be announced by the Graduate School. The graduate coordinator must notify the Graduate School of the time and place of this examination at least two weeks before the date of the examination. Typically, the examination should be scheduled within the same semester in which the student has been notified of their successful completion of the written preliminary examination.
The examination will be directed toward discussion of the content of the written preliminary examination and is to include the student’s entire field of study and may include discussion of the dissertation prospectus.
Each member of the advisory committee will cast a written vote of “pass” or “fail”. At least three out of four positive votes are required to pass.
The results will be reported by the major professor to the graduate coordinator who will forward a formal report to the Graduate School.
A student who fails the oral comprehensive examination may be scheduled for re-examination once only.
It is the student’s responsibility to give all members of the committee
who are not SPY faculty the opportunity to read responses
to the written comprehensive examination at least two weeks
prior to the oral exam.