COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
Each student is required to successfully complete the written comprehensive examination. This examination is taken near the end of a student’s course of study, but not before the second quarter of the student’s internship. All courses need to have been completed, except for COUN 518, 556/566, 557/567, and electives. The exams are offered each quarter on the third Saturday following the first day of class.
It is necessary that students register for the comprehensive examination with the administrative assistant in the department office, Loyola 218, 206-296-5750, dapigj@seattleu.edu, at least two weeks prior to the scheduled examination. The student may request a study guide from the administrative assistant at any time.
All students are required to take the comprehensive examination on a computer. The comprehensive examination will normally be taken in the Loyola Computer Classroom (Loyola 300) on Macintosh computers using Microsoft Word.
During the first quarter of internship all students will participate in an orientation to both the comprehensive examination and the computer lab in which the exam takes place. This orientation is conducted by the instructor.
Students have 4 hours to complete the exam. Generally, students will be given 6 questions, 2 that they must answer and 2 that are chosen from the remaining 4. Questions are chosen to reflect knowledge and skills obtained in a student’s program of study, and will require answers from multiple content areas.
To pass the comprehensive exam, each student must be able to demonstrate the integration of content areas and clinical competencies in a majority of questions. Failing means that readers felt the exam as a whole did not meet the expectation that the student is able to integrate content areas and clinical competencies or that significant parts of the exam were not answered either completely or at all.
A minimum of two readers evaluates each exam. Additional faculty may be asked to read an exam if there are any questions or doubts on the part of the initial readers. The exams are coded so that the readers are unaware of the writer.
Students will have a total of three attempts to pass the comprehensive examination. There are no re-writes. In the event of failing the examination in each of the three attempts allowed, the student would be ineligible for the degree and will be dropped from the program.
Thorough and careful preparation usually results in success on the first try. The faculty urges careful preparation and use of campus resources such as the Learning Center (206-296-5740) and Writing Center (206-296-6239) to avoid problems inherent in failing the comps. We encourage students to save handouts, notes, and textbooks from each course for reviewing prior to the comprehensive exams. Study groups have been helpful to many students.
The results of comprehensive exams are not appealable. The comprehensive exam is not a course whose grades can be the matter for a grievance. It is excluded from review under the Seattle University: Fair Process Policy.
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