For the comps schedule click here.
Grading of the exams is done by the
professors based upon their own rubrics. However, the grades
are reported on a 100 point scale where 90-100 is A, 80-90 is B,
70-80 is C, 60-70 is D, and less than 60 is an F. This gives
us six grades. The MFT is two, one-hour exams. The
ways the data is reported gives many different options to
look at the data. However, we figured out a method which has
both decent correlation and consistent results to our other
exams. We take the “combined scaled score” and divide it by
two to get it on a scale of 0 - 100. That becomes the two
scores for the two hours of exams. Therefore, going into the
oral, we have eight hours of grades which are averaged to the
scale we have above. We also give a grade for the oral to
give nine hours of grades. We then average the nine
grades. A’s get “distinction.” B’s, C’s, and D’s get
“pass.” And F’s get “fail.”
The grading rubric for the oral exam can be found here. The
grade for the oral exam will be the sum of the scores with the
first score counted twice for a maximum score of 25, then the sum
is multiplied by 4 to get a final grade between 0 and 100.
The committees’ grades will be averaged with a weighted average
where Economics professors have a weight of 1.5 and others have
weights of 1. This average grade will be averaged with the
grades for the eight written comps. (The oral exam is 1/9th
of the overall grade.) Over 90% is distinction and below 60%
is failure. The rest are passing. Borderline cases
will be determined by the committee on a case by case basis.
The process of the oral will be as follows: You will be
asked to do a current event as you did in Senior Seminar.
However, there is no grade for originality, only a grade for
accuracy. Then you will be asked to tell us what you think
you did poorly on for the written comps. Then we
will ask you more about the written comps. Assuming
there is time, we will ask you about your Senior Project.
Tips on studying for comprehensive exams: