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  • M.Ed. in Human Development Counseling
  • M.Ed. Community Development and Action
    • Program of Studies
    • Culminating Experience
      • Thesis
      • Final Project
      • Comprehensive Examinations
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  • Ph.D. in Community Research and Action
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• Newbrough Graduate Award

CDA Master's Comprehensive Examination

The comprehensive examination is an in-depth writing experience intended to display the student's full understanding of the material covered by the CDA degree program and is meant to encourage the student to think critically about this material. The comprehensive examination requires no academic credit, proposal or committee.

Format and Content

The exam is taken over a 72 hour period in which the student must write three essays. The essay prompts are written by the instructors of the CDA core courses. The student will be given five prompts and must choose three.

Assessment

The finished exams will be evaluated by HOD faculty and will receive grades of "pass with high distinction," "pass" or "fail." Student who fail all or part of the exam my retake all or part of the exam once.

Timeline

The student must officially declare exercise of the comprehensive exam option by the following dated during their final semester:

May 1 (summer graduation)

September 1 (December graduation)

January 15 (May graduation)

One weekend per semester is reserved for the comprehensive exam. All students wishing to graduate at the end of that semester must take the exam over the specified dates. The exam will be given over a weekend, one week after the middle of the term. (The exam schedulers will take care not to schedule the exam over a religious holiday or other date of importance to large groups of students.)

Upon receipt of the completed exam, a student will receive an automatic notice. The exam will be distributed to graders within two days of completion. Graders will return graded exams with comments to the graduate secretary within ten days of receipt of the exams. The graduate secretary will record the official grades and report them to the students and to the registrar's office.