The written and oral portions of the Comprehensive Examination must be completed within two consecutive semesters. The student will be responsible for going online and filling out the "Results of Oral Comprehensive Exam for Doctoral Candidacy." The student will then take it to their Advisory Committee to have the Results of Written Examination section completed. The student will then take the form to the exam where the committee will record the results and provide the requested signatures. A representative of the committee will bring the form to the Graduate College at Admin 316 within 24 business hours of the exam. At least 3 months must lapse between the Comprehensive Oral Examination and the Final Oral Defense Examination.

There are two options for the written portion of the Comprehensive Examination. The choice of option should be made by the student in consultation with his or her Major Advisor and Dissertation Committee. In the first option, the student writes a proposal unrelated to his/her dissertation project in terms of the experimental system and the conceptual question being addressed. The second option consists of two parts: a test of general knowledge and a written proposal. The test of general knowledge consists of answering three (chosen by the student) of five questions provided by the members of the CEC. All three questions should be answered within a three week period. Upon completion, the answers should be turned in to the Chair of the CEC for distribution to the members. After successful completion of the test of general knowledge, the student will write a proposal on his/her research topic.

For either option, the development of the proposal must be entirely the student’s; the student should not seek suggestions for how to approach the problem. The student must provide the CEC members with a 1-2 page outline of the questions to be asked and the approaches to be taken to answer them for Committee approval. Once the outline has been approved, the proposal must be completed within four weeks. The completed proposal should be turned in to the Chair of the CEC for Committee evaluation and approval. The proposal must be approved by the CEC before the oral portion of the Comprehensive Examination can be scheduled. Complete Guidelines to writing the proposal can be found at http://ag.arizona.edu/pls/gradprogram/written_guidelines.pdf.

Once the completed proposal has been approved by the student’s CEC, the student is responsible for scheduling the oral examination following Graduate College guidelines (see above). The members of the CEC (including both major and minor representatives), participate in the oral examination. At the beginning of the exam, the student should present a brief (10 – 15 minute) summary of the proposal. The first half of the oral exam should be devoted to questions based on the proposal, and the last half of the exam, the questions should test general fundamental knowledge of the major and minor fields of study. The CEC evaluates student’s examination based on both the written and oral portions of the examination. Options to be pursued in the event of failure are determined by the CEC based on guidelines established by the Graduate College. If the student fails the first comprehensive examination and a second examination is recommended, at least 4 months must lapse between the first and second attempt.