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A. The prelim exam will be offered
on the Monday a week prior to the start of the Fall semester every year
(this is a tentative time frame which may have to be moved to accommodate
conference schedules). Students are expected to take their exam between
the second and third year of the program. The prelim is in three parts:
an in-house written exam, a week long take-home exam, and an oral defense.
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1. The in-house
exam will be six hours beginning at 9:00am and ending at 4:00pm with time
for a one-hour break to be used as the student desires. The exam will be
common for all students taking the exam that year and will consist of six
questions selected by the Social faculty from a pool of questions contributed
by the Social faculty. Because this is considered to be a comprehensive
exam, students will be expected to answer all questions. The faculty will
provide facilities such that the students' answers will be written on the
computer. This is a closed-book exam. Each question will be graded by two
social area faculty, with the intent of matching question content to faculty
expertise.
2. The week-long take-home portion
of the exam will consist of two questions also selected by the Social faculty
from a pool of items generated by the Social faculty. The take-home is
given to the students at 4pm following the in-house exam, and is due at
4pm the following Monday. One question is expected to be especially comprehensive
and integrative. The second question will be a review of a journal article.
Students are free to use all sources in answering these questions, although
all work must be done independently from one another. Answers to the non-review
question may not exceed 15 to 20 double-spaced pages. Answer to the review
question should not exceed 4 to 6 double-spaced pages. As above, each question
will be graded by two social area faculty.
3. The oral defense of the exam will
be scheduled with the student's Advisory Committee, which according to
Graduate School rules must consist of at least three members of the Social
faculty and one member from outside the area or department. The oral defense
can be scheduled any time after the student has deposited their Master's
thesis and after they have taken the in-house and take-home portion of
the prelim. The oral defense will be used to clarify answers on the written
portion of the exam, and/or to probe the students' ability to converse
about social psychology in general. The oral exam will be scheduled for
2 hours. |
B. The final determination of pass
or fail will be made from a combination of grades from the three parts
of the preliminary exam. If a student fails the exam, all three parts of
the exam can be taken on one additional occasion. If the oral defense is
not made before the next in-house examination is offered, the student must
retake all three parts of the preliminary examination.
C. Students taking the exam will
be provided with a non-exhaustive reading list prepared by the faculty
and a list of sample questions. |
