Comprehensive Ph.D. Exams
The format and coverage of the written examination vary from field to field, and are spelled out in guidelines prepared by each of the fields (see below for these guidelines). Students should check with the Graduate Secretary for information about deadlines for applying to take the written exam, and they must submit a formal application to take the exam.
The exam serves a common purpose across fields within the doctoral program to confirm a student's command of a major field of historical knowledge and thus to lay the foundation for dissertation research and, in the longer run, for teaching and engaging in professional historical discourse. Normally the written exam will be based on a list of some hundred or so historical works identified--by faculty examiners in consultation with the student--as critical to an advanced understanding of the particular field. Faculty examiners are cautioned against adding to reading lists at the last minute; good practice entails treating a reading list as definitive in the last month before an examination. Faculty are free to construct these exams as they deem appropriate, so students should consult with examiners in advance about the specific format of each examination. The student's response to the exam itself should convey a good command of that literature, a sophisticated ability to articulate key issues within a field, and a developed sense of the field's major contours.
A student's Second Field must be different from the specific areas examined in the comprehensive examination. Thus, for example, a student in U.S. history whose second field is intellectual history may not opt to make intellectual history the focus of his or her thematic area in the U.S. Comprehensive Examination.
The written examination is composed and assessed by tenured or tenure-track members of the UNC-CH Graduate Faculty. Examinations are sometimes also set by tenured or tenure-track members of the Graduate Faculty at Duke. Any exceptions must be cleared with both the field and the GSC in advance.
Students taking comprehensive exams are expected to pick up the exam questions at the Main Office on morning of their scheduled exam. They must submit their completed exam answers either in person or electronically to the graduate secretary by the end of the exam period. Any exceptions must be cleared in advance with both the field and the DGS.
The student is normally notified of the results by the DGS within two weeks after the examination. This examination must be passed before the student may proceed to the defense of the dissertation prospectus, although shortcomings in the comprehensive examination may be addressed in the defense. A student who fails the written examination is permitted to retake it once, but only after a lapse of at least three months.
In addition, each graduate field has specific rules and guidelines: