Senior Comprehensive Exam
- General Information
- Next Senior Comprehensive Exam
- "Everything You Ever Want or Need to Know About the SCE"
- How should I study for the exam?
- What is the exam like and who makes up the exam questions?
- How long is the exam? What should my essays be like?
- What happens if I fail?
- Who makes up the reading list? When do students take the exam?
- Why do students have to take the SCE?
- How and when is the SCE graded?
- Do you have any final advice?
General Information
The Senior Comprehensive Exam is a three-hour open-book "exit" exam that each student majoring in English must pass in order to graduate. The exam is administered on a Saturday morning in October and April each year.
Each May the Department's resident faculty meets and determines a reading list of about six works that represent our general curriculum; the works may or may not have been covered in our courses. The reading list is mailed to each graduating English major during the break immediately preceding their senior year.
Grades will be posted outside the Department Administrative Assistant's door--Columbine Hall, Room 1022 within one week of the exam. The exam is graded on a Pass, Fail, Honors basis. An honors designation is required to graduate with departmental honors.
Remember:
You must sign-up prior to the exam. There will be a sign-up sheet posted outside the Department Administrative Assistant's door--Columbine Hall, Room 1022.
Next Scheduled Senior Comprehensive Exam - Fall 2007
Date: October 20, 2007
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: To be announced
Everything You Want or Need to Know About the English Department's Senior Comprehensive Exam (SCE)
by Joan Klingel-Ray, Ph.D., Professor of English
Since 1988, English majors have sat in a classroom for three hours on a Saturday morning in October or April to take the Senior Comprehensive Exam (SCE): an open-book "exit" exam that each student majoring in English must pass in order to graduate. This article explains the "why's" and "wherefore's" of the SCE. You should read this thoroughly and be sure to understand it as you anticipate taking the SCE.
Why do students have to take the SCE?
During the 1986/87 academic year, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE)--Colorado's "superboard" on higher education issues--mandated that every college and university academic department must institute an accountability instrument that measures and shows what majors in its department have learned over their years of study. Some departments chose to require their students to take the Graduate Record Exam subject area test; other departments require senior theses or oral tests. The nature of the accountability measurement was left largely to the discretion of each academic department. The English Department views its course of instruction in the major as based on the study of literary history and the critical analysis and close reading of primary texts; its main device for having students practice its discipline is writing essays. Given the nature of our discipline, then, our faculty determined that our accountability instrument would consist of giving students a list of works to study on their own over a period of time about which they would be expected to write critical essays.
Who makes up the reading list? When do students take the exam?
Each May the Department's resident faculty meets and determines a reading list of about six works that represent our general curriculum; the works may or may not have been covered in our courses. The point, however, is that English Majors will have studied in classes these or other works that demand similar critical and analytical skills to understand them. The reading list reflects the breadth of our curricular interests, from medieval to contemporary literature. Furthermore, the works on the list frequently share some thematic concerns. The reading list for each academic year is in effect for both exam dates: students take the exam in either October or April. We require students to take the exam during their next-to-last semester at UCCS: if a student plans to graduate in May, he or she must take the exam in October. This way, if the students fails, he or she still has April and the same reading list (but with different questions, of course) to retake the SCE. The department secures a list of students who are planning to graduate during the coming academic year and mails the reading list to those students' mailing addresses early in the summer. We also announce the up-coming exam in our English classes. Students who plan to graduate in the current academic year must take and pass the exam. If in doubt, check with the department chair.
Students should read all of the works on the list. Students may wish to form study groups to discuss the works among themselves.
Although the SCE is not a research paper, students may consult works of criticism to aid in understanding the texts. But the most important thing is to be very familiar with the texts, themselves. You know which study habits work best for you. Beginning fall 1997, we will place some former exam topics on Library Reserve for students to consult. Although the topics and readings change annually, students can at least get an idea of what the exam looks like.
What is the exam like and who makes up the exam questions?
A few weeks before the exam in October and April, the resident faculty meets and creates essay questions about works on the current reading list, which is in effect for both October and April exam dates. The exam is divided into two parts and thus requires students to write two essays: usually the topics in "PART A" tend to be close reading questions, while those in "PART B" deal with multiple works on the list (for example, compare and contrast questions). The exam is open-book: students bring their texts to the exam (but not their notes, though students are permitted to write in their texts, and we expect any good reader to do just that) and are expected to use their texts to provide evidence to prove a thesis--just as we ask you to do in paper assignments and essay exams in our classes. Work(s) used in the essay for PART A may not also be used in the essay for PART B. Therefore, it is imperative that students read and study each work on the reading list in order to have the best chance of passing the exam. All the resident faculty in the department create questions on any of the works on the list; we are not limited to writing questions about our particular areas of academic specialization. A few weeks before the exam, the department chair requests questions from the resident faculty, who subsequently meet in order to select and fine tune the questions. Early each semester, we announce in our English classes the date, time, and place of the forthcoming SCE. The exam has always been given on a Saturday morning from 9 o'clock to noon in a classroom on campus. If you work on Saturday mornings, please make arrangements to be excused from your job so that you can take the exam on the date stipulated. There is only one SCE time each semester.
How long is the exam? What should my essays be like?
As indicated, students have three hours to take the entire exam consisting of two essays. We do not stipulate essay length; however, common sense should dictate how long an adequate essay should be to answer each of the two questions. What is an adequate essay? An adequate essay answers the question: remember that the thesis is always embedded in the question or topic. The essay is not a plot summary; the essay is not a biography of the author. Rather, the essay answers the question. Students are required to write their exams in large "blue books," which we provide. The best essays answer the questions thoroughly with evidence that is analyzed. Usually, failing essays have not answered the question: they ramble and talk "around" the question. Furthermore, essays should be coherent, complete, and grammatically and mechanically correct; they should reflect the literary and writing sophistication of a graduating university English major.How and when is the SCE graded?
The SCE is graded on an Honors (Outstanding), Pass, Fail system. Since English majors must earn a grade of at least C- in each course in the major for it to "count" towards the major, a passing exam must be evaluated to be worth at least a C- in terms of both essays. Students put only their student ID numbers on the exam; the department chair has the list that matches the numbers to the names. Therefore, the faculty members do not know whose exams they are reading. All exams are evaluated holistically by the resident faculty: we read the entire exam and assign it a single grade based on both essays. So as not to unduly influence the subsequent readers, we do not write comments on the examination; however, we frequently retain written comments for our own use. We do not post the grades until all exams have been evaluated. The resident faculty will evaluate the exams at a single meeting shortly after the examination period. This should dramatically reduce the turnaround time for posting the grades. We post the grades at the department administrator's office, COB1022, during the week following the exam; as in the past, the exam grade will be listed in such as way as to preserve privacy.
What happens if a student fails the exam?
Students must pass the SCE in order to graduate. This is why we require students to take the SCE during their next-to-last semester: if a student plans to graduate in May, he or she must take the exam in October. As noted earlier in this article, if the student fails in October, he or she still has the April exam date and the same reading list (but with different questions, of course) to retake (and hopefully pass) the SCE in time for May graduation.
Some advice on taking the exam:
Read through the entire exam before you start writing: after all, you may find that a work you initially wanted to write about in PART A actually works better for a question in PART B, and it might hurt you to limit your options by plunging into a work when you could have used it to better advantage in the second question. Because each of the two parts of the exam consists of three questions from which you must select one for an essay, you have some latitude in choosing your topics. Perhaps most importantly, answer the question!
How does the CCHE view our accountability measurement, the Senior Comprehensive Exam? The CCHE has praised the UCCS English Department's SCE as an excellent accountability tool because it reflects our curricular values and requires English majors to demonstrate the skills and knowledge we can rightfully expect of them. We in the English Department feel that the SCE represents our teaching philosophies and goals.
Some final thoughts: When we compose each semester's SCE, we do so with the expectation that our graduating seniors will not only be able to pass, but even do well on the exam. After taking the SCE, most students discover it is really not dreadful; instead, it is an interesting writing and thinking experience about great works of literature. Just remember: answer the questions. And keep in mind, as well, that you do have a choice among three questions/topics on each of the two parts of the exam.
We in the English Department sincerely wish you good luck on the Senior Comprehensive Exam and look forward to reading fine essays.
