Comprehensive Examination
Master of Arts in Communication 

Examination Schedule

The comprehensive examination for the Master of Arts in Communication must be passed by all students. The examination is offered twice a year, once during the fall semester (usually in October) and once during the spring semester (usually in March). It is not offered during the summer. Students should check with the director of the M.A. program in Communication, Barbara Walkosz, for the exact dates for the examination each semester.

purpose of the exam

The (comprehensive) exam is intended to be an educational and culminating experience of the Master’s program.  It is designed to assess a student’s (your) ability to think critically about issues in the communication discipline; such critical thinking includes the ability to analyze, integrate, and apply concepts/theories to what you have studied in the program.  To engage you in this process, the exam questions are broad-based and cross-cut content areas, methods, and issues (in order to provide a thorough context for inquiry). We conceptualize the exam not only as a measure of your understanding of the communication field but also as an opportunity for students and faculty to dialogue about key issues and for faculty to welcome students into the community of communication scholars.

Examination Committee

At the time they enter the M.A. program, students are assigned a temporary advisor by the director of the M.A. program, Barbara Walkosz. If they discover that another faculty member's interests match their interests better or if they do not get along well with the temporary advisor, they may change to another advisor. Advisors must be full-time faculty in the Communication Department; adjunct/honorarium faculty and instructors are not eligible to serve as students' advisors.

The student's advisor helps the student construct a committee of three faculty members, one of whom is the advisor and who serves as the chair of the committee. All committee members must be full-time faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver. The committee members are typically from the Communication Department, but students may select a faculty member from another department to serve on the committee if that person's area of expertise contributes in crucial ways to the area of study. The committee is responsible for developing questions for the comprehensive examination, evaluating students' answers, and conducting the oral portion of the examination.

Recruitment of the members of the committee is the responsibility of students. Students are encouraged to select the members of their examination committee at the beginning of the academic year in which they take their comprehensive examination. Asking faculty members to serve on their committee is a relatively informal endeavor. Students simply should make an appointment with potential committee members to discuss their willingness to be on the committee.

Once their committee is formed, students should complete the "Committee Composition" form, on which they indicate who the members of their committee are. The form may be downloaded here or is available from the director of the M.A. program, Barbara Walkosz, or the program assistant in the Communication Department, Sally Thee. The form should be returned to Barbara Walkosz in her mailbox in room 102-A of the Plaza Building or mailed to her at the Department of Communication, P. O. Box 173364, Campus Box 176, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, CO 80217-3364. If students wish to change their committee members, they must complete a new "Commitee Composition" form.

Eligibility

To be eligible to take the comprehensive examination, students must be in their final semester of their graduate program. Students still may be taking courses in the semester in which they take the examination. Students who are completing a thesis for the degree have the option of taking the comprehensive examination and defending their thesis at the same time or separating the two, completing the examination immediately following the completion of coursework and defending the thesis when it is done at a later date.

Registration

In the semester in which they take the comprehensive examination, students must:

1. Register for a minimum of one of the following:
   • 1 or more credits of coursework
   • 1 credit hour of Thesis (CMMU 6950)
   • 0 credit hours of CAND 5940, which is a special course registration number for students who are taking their comprehensive examinations and no coursework or thesis work. Students who choose this option will be charged tuition equal to 1 credit hour. Students must register by hand for CAND 5940 by completing the "UC Denver Special Processing Form." CAND 5940 should be written in the "Course Number" space on the form. The call number for the course, which changes every semester, is available from Barbara Walkosz (303-556-6526 or Sonja.Foss@cudenver.edu) or Sally Thee (303-556-2591 or Sally.Thee@cudenver.edu). Students must take the form to the office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on the first floor of the CU Building to obtain an approval signature. They then submit the form to the Graduate School. Note:
2. Students must file a "Request for Graduate Examination/Thesis Defense" form. The "Request for Graduate Examination/Thesis Defense" form should be submitted to the Graduate School.

Examination Format

The comprehensive examination has two parts -- a written and an oral component. These two parts are completed on separate days, usually with a week between them. The written portion of the examination lasts four hours, and the oral examination lasts approximately two hours.

Written Examination

In the written part of the comprehensive examination, students answer four essay questions. Two of the questions cover materials from the core courses (CMMU 6013 Introduction to Graduate Work in Communication, CMMU 5200 Persuasion, and the two methods courses). Students select the other two questions to answer from a list of 10 questions from a battery of test questions developed by the Communication faculty. Students are expected to cite relevant scholars and sources in the answers to the questions. They may not bring materials, books, or notes of any kind with them to the examination; computer paper is provided. Students are encouraged to request copies of past examination questions from the director of the M.A. program in Communication, Barbara Walkosz. Although the examination students take will not have the exact questions as previous examinations, a review of these questions will help students anticipate the kinds of questions they are likely to be asked.

Students take the examination in the Communication Department office suite. If they do not have a laptop they can bring, they are provided with a computer by the Department to use while writing the examination.

Oral Examination

The oral examination is held in the Communication Department's library in the Plaza Building, room 102-L, approximately one week following the completion of the written examination. The oral portion of the examination involves three steps:

• Critique of text: When students arrive for the oral examination, they are given one hour to read a text selected for them by their committee members and to prepare an oral critique of that text. The text selected will depend on students’ area(s) of expertise. It may be, for example, an article in a communication journal, in which students must evaluate the research question, design of the study, the methods used, and the findings. Following the completion of the plan for the oral critique, students are given a 15-minute break before the start of the oral portion of the examination.

• Oral presentation of critique of text: Students present a 20-minute oral critique of the text they analyzed at the beginning of the oral examination period. Following the presentation, students are questioned for approximately 30 minutes about their critique.

• Defense of written examination: Students are questioned by their committee members about their answers on the written portion of the examination for approximately one hour. If they also are defending their thesis, they are asked questions about the thesis as well. Students are allowed to bring blank paper on which to jot notes and the thesis (if the student wrote a thesis and is defending it at the same time) to this portion of the examination.

Evaluation of the Examination

Immediately following the completion of the oral portion of the examination, the committee members caucus privately and assign an evaluation of satisfactory or unsatisfactory on the student's performance on the entire comprehensive examination and defense. Grades are not given on the written examination, the thesis, or any part of the oral examination. Students are informed immediately of the decision. The decisions of the committee are final.

A lack of satisfactory performance on any aspect of the written or oral portions of the examination means that students will have to re-do the portion(s) that received the unsatisfactory rating. Students who are asked to re-take all or part of the comprehensive examination do so at the next regularly scheduled examination period. For example, a student who fails the examination in March takes the examination again the following October.

Successful Examination Preparation

The Communication faculty view the comprehensive examination as an essential part of students' overall learning process while in the program. Although the examination is challenging, it can and should be an enjoyable, satisfying experience because it is designed to enable students to review and synthesize the many concepts and skills they have acquired in their coursework. To this end, students are encouraged to follow some basic procedures as they prepare for the examination:

• Study group with peers: Students are encouraged to form study groups with their peers. Students who form such groups and meet regularly with them in the weeks preceding the examination perform much better than students who prepare by studying alone. Such groups are supportive, helpful, and fun.

• Course materials and syllabi as a basis for review: Students are encouraged to review the courses they have completed in the program as a primary means of preparation for the examination. They should look for linkages among the courses that were only partly visible when the individual courses were taken. A review of the discussion questions and other assignments for each course is also useful.

• Copies of previous examinations: Students are encouraged to request copies of past examination questions from the director of the M. A. program, Barbara Walkosz. Although the examination students actually take does not have the exact questions that were on previous examinations, a review of these examinations will help students anticipate the kinds of questions they are likely to be asked. In the study groups, students are encouraged to practice how they might answer the questions on previous examinations.

• Timely completion of the examination: Students who delay taking the examination by a semester or more do not perform as well as those who take it immediately after completing their coursework. Students who delay taking the examination risk losing touch with their peer groups and the material they have studied. A longer delay does not enable students to study longer, better, or more carefully. The intensity with which students review over a relatively short period and a supportive, convivial social environment are most helpful in students' preparation for the examination.

Additional Information

Additional information about the comprehensive examination for the M. A. degree in Communication may be obtained from the director of the M. A. program in Communication:

Professor Barbara Walkosz
Department of Communication
Plaza Building, room 102
303-556-6g719
Barbara.Walkosz@cudenver.edu