Some Tips on Comprehensive
Exams in Sociology at UBC
Fall 2010
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Comprehensive Examinations. The department offers
comprehensive examinations in the following areas:
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Aging and the Life Course
Canadian Society
Community
Comparative Sociology
Culture
Education
Environment
Family
Gender and Sexuality
Health and Healthcare
Knowledge and Ideas
Law and Crime
Migration and Immigration
Politics and Social Policy
Racism, Nationalism and Ethnic Relations
Social Inequality
Social Movements and Collective Action
Sociological Research Methods
Sociological Theory
Work and Economy
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Two Exams, Should be Completed
in Year 2
• “Students are required to write two separate
comprehensive examinations which are normally
taken in the second year of the program and must be
completed prior to commencement of the fourth year of
the Ph.D. program. Whenever possible students
should select comprehensive examinations that
build upon their prior coursework and training.
Students who do not pass both comprehensive
examinations will not be advanced to candidacy and may
not continue in the program. A student failing a
comprehensive examination may repeat it once.”
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Reading List
• “At the first stage of each comprehensive
examination, the student must develop a
reading list of 25-40 items in consultation
with his or her Comprehensive
Examination Committee.”
• You should not charge ahead and try to
complete a list without input from the exam
committee chair, and committee members.
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Reading List
• “Up to one third of the total number of items in
each exam can focus on the student's
prospective dissertation topic area to the extent
that those items bear on the area covered by the
exam.”
• Remember, the exam is broader than just your
dissertation topic. It is a COMPREHENSIVE
Exam, not a SPECIFIC Exam!
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Two Components of Each Exam.
• Each comprehensive exam is comprised
of two parts:
1. A Critical Literature Review.
2. Either a Take-Home Exam, or an Oral
Exam.
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• The written exam must be completed over
3–5 days. (Usually 5 days.)
• The Oral Exam is 2 hours in length.
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Critical Literature Review
• “The student then completes a critical literature review of
30-50 double-spaced pages. The literature review
should demonstrate an adequate comprehension of
the breadth of the field under study and an in-depth
understanding of specific issues and debates in the
field. Each evaluator must read the literature review and
then submit a standard form to the Chair of the
Comprehensive Examination Committee which indicates
i) "Pass," ii) "Specified Revisions" or iii) "Fail and Redo
(once)". A student may not proceed to the next stage of
the exam without receiving a "pass" for the literature
review from the majority of Examination Committee
members.”
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Written Exam
• “As part of the written exam students may be asked to
develop essays, a course design, a sample lecture
and/or a research design for an empirical study. The
precise details of the written exam format and content
are the responsibility of the Comprehensive Examination
Committee, in consultation with the student.”
• Most written comprehensive exams are comprised
mainly by essay questions/topics.
• Written comprehensive exams are more common than
oral exams.
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Oral Exam
• “As part of the oral exam, the student will ordinarily be
required to submit a 10-20 page paper, course design,
sample lecture and/or research design for an empirical
study on the topic of the exam to each Comprehensive
Examination Committee member at least one week
before the scheduled exam. The topic for the oral exam
is determined by the Comprehensive Examination
Committee in consultation with the student.”
• One purpose for the written materials, associated with an
oral exam, is to provide a focus for the questioning.
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Oral Exam.
• “Students usually begin the oral
examination with a 20–30 minute
presentation which is followed by
questions from committee members.”
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Evaluation.
• “After the written or oral exam, each evaluator must submit a memo
to the Comprehensive Examination Committee Chair which
indicates i) Pass, ii) Specified Additional Requirements, or iii) Fail
and Redo (once). When two or more examiners select the third
option the candidate is deemed to have failed the comprehensive
examination. In this case, a written report highlighting weaknesses
must be submitted to the student and to the SGSC. In the event of
failure, the same Comprehensive Examination Committee (with
replacements determined by the SGSC if necessary) will conduct a
re-examination at a later date. Alternatively the student may choose
a new area after a failed examination in which case a new
Comprehensive Examination Committee will be formed. The student
will be allowed to write such a new comprehensive examination only
once.”
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Evaluation.
• “Comprehensive Examination Committee
members are expected to provide the
student with written feedback on the
written exam or on the written component
of the oral exam. Once completed, the
Chair of the Comprehensive Examination
Committee must submit a written report to
the SGSC describing the timing, format
and outcome of the comprehensive
examination.”
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• While you should consult your Ph.D.
supervisor about your comprehensive
exams you should bear in mind that your
supervisor does not need to be the
comprehensive exam chair, and in fact
your dissertation committee members do
not need necessarily to be on your
comprehensive exam committees.
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• Comprehensive exam committees (in my view)
should be organized based on the expertise of
the potential committee members (e.g. the fit
between the expertise of the committee
members, and the topic of the exam).
• (Though, in practice, usually at least one comp
will have some dissertation committee members
on it due to the overlap in topic between comps
and dissertation topics.)
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Candidacy
• “Students normally will be “advanced to candidacy” when they have
completed the residency period, completed all required coursework,
passed the comprehensive examinations, formed an Advisory
Committee, and their Supervisor has certified that their dissertation
proposal has been approved by all members of the Advisory
Committee. Advancement to candidacy is noted on the student's
official transcript. FoGS expects that a typical doctoral student
will be advanced to candidacy on completion of a two-year
residency period.”
• Generally, if you have not advanced to candidacy by the end of your
third year YOU WILL BE KICKED OUT OF THE PROGRAM.
Advancing to candidacy means: 1) completing your course work, 2)
completing your comprehensive exams, AND 3) getting your
dissertation proposal officially approved.
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Some Questions
• Q1. When is the right time to contact your
committee and ask for a meeting, is it after
you have basically formed your reading list
or is it much before?
• A1: Much before! You need to consult with
them in putting together the reading list.
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Some Questions
• Q2. “Also it would be good to get some tips on how to first engage
with the literature if you are doing a comp in a field you know very
little about. Or in other words what are good strategies to be able to
find the key texts and debates within the field you are studying?”
• A2. First of all, you should probably not be doing a comprehensive
exam in a field that you know very little about. You should normally
have done some prior work in the area, such as having taken a
seminar or directed studies course in the topic area. The reading
lists of these courses are one place to start. But you should also talk
to the comp chair, and ask for suggestions, and also ask for reading
lists from other students who have done comprehensive exams in
the area.
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Some Questions
• Q3. “Shall we come up with readings
before setting up committees?”
• A3. No.
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Some Questions
• Q4. “Shall we ask people to chair the comps or the
committee members decide who is going to be the
chair?”
• A4. You should discuss it first with your Ph.D. chair, and
then raise the issue with the committee members. It
depends on various factors. For example, some times
certain people have relatively more expertise or
experience in a topic area, and thus it might make sense
for them to chair. But on the other hand, faculty members
vary in terms of their available time (and other
characteristics), and sometimes busier people might be
happy to delegate to those with a somewhat lighter load.
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Some Questions
• Q5. How many books and articles shall we
read?
• A5. Generally about 10 to 15 books, and
20 – 30 additional articles or book
chapters.
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Some Questions
• Q6. Are we supposed to meet with the
committee member regularly? Or just for the
exam.
• A6. The committee should meet at least once
before the exam (to discuss the composition of
the reading list, the format of the exam, and the
relationship of the exam to the student’s
previous work, and planned dissertation
research). But you should also meet with
individual committee members from time to time
if you wish to ask questions, and discuss
particular issues.
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