GUIDE TO THE COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PROCESS. Counseling Psychology Program

Transcription

1 GUIDE TO THE COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PROCESS Counseling Psychology Program 1

2 GUIDE TO THE COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PROCESS Copyright 2011 Argosy University All rights reserved 2

3 CONTENTS COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: OVERVIEW...4 COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: PROCEDURES...4 Eligibility Requirements...5 Registration and Course Information...5 Examination Administration Process 6 COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: EVALUATION...7 Ethical Scholarship...7 Rubrics....7 APA Format....7 Readers...8 Communication of Examination Results....8 Program-Specific Information and Evaluation Criteria....9 College of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences: Counseling Psychology....9 Notice and Record-Keeping...11 COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: PREPARATION...12 Basic Rules of Presentation...13 FORMATTING AND WRITING...14 Writing Style and the APA Manual...14 Formatting Aspects...14 AU Deviations from APA Style

4 COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: OVERVIEW Purpose and Organization of the Comprehensive Examination Guide The comprehensive examination concludes the formalized course work portion of various doctoral programs at Argosy University. Doctoral students must complete the exam prior to moving to the dissertation stage. The successful completion of the comprehensive examination process should demonstrate students readiness to proceed to the dissertation phase. More importantly, the exam assesses whether students are able to function at the level of expertise demanded of those with an advanced graduate degree. The examination process provides an opportunity for students to document mastery of the curriculum, knowledge of the profession, and the competencies required of doctoral program graduates. The format of the examination, including the number and types of questions asked, will vary by program and by year. Preparation for the comprehensive exam should begin with the first course taken in the doctoral program and continue throughout the student s program of study. The Guide to the Comprehensive Examination is designed to help students understand the examination process and maximize performance on the exam itself. Students should read the Guide at the beginning of the program of study and revisit the guide annually to remain current and aware of all requirements. 4

5 COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: PROCEDURES Eligibility Requirements Students are eligible to take the comprehensive examination upon verification that all coursework in their program of study is either successfully completed, or is being completed in the same academic session, and that the students are in good academic and financial standing. The first attempt at the exam must occur within two sessions (7.5 weeks sessions) after the completion of coursework. If students fail on their first attempt, they have three sessions (7.5 week sessions) to retake the test. Failure to pass the second exam within the allotted time results in dismissal from the university. Students who are registered for the comprehensive exam must take the examination in the session registered. Failure to complete and submit the exam is considered a failure. Registration and Course Information To enroll for the comprehensive examination, students are registered for the program-specific course in CampusVue. Students who have questions about their enrollment in the comprehensive exam course should contact their academic advisors. The comprehensive exam is offered six times a year (once each session) and is facilitated through an ecollege course platform. The ecollege course includes sample comprehensive examination questions, APA format information, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), rubrics, information related to ethical scholarship, and other resources to help students prepare for the exam. The ecollege platform is the vehicle through which 5

6 all student communication is facilitated, including release dates of the examination questions. Examination Administration Process The program chair or designated comprehensive exam administrators administer the comprehensive examinations each session. Students are attached to the ecollege Comprehensive Examination Toolbox prior to the beginning of the session and have access to it throughout the session so they can utilize the resources available on the site. The examination questions are made available to students via the ecollege site at the time designated and communicated via the Toolbox. The comprehensive exam is completed over a one-week period during which students are allowed to use notes, books, and research articles to answer the questions. However, students may NOT consult with each other or seek assistance from any other individuals. When you submit your exam to the dropbox, your exam will be automatically evaluated for similarity with other sources by Turnitin.com. Consequently, do not submit your exam to any other Turnitin account on your own. Exams that contain plagiarism will not be forwarded for scoring. Failure to submit the exam on time is considered a failure*. *In the case of a medical or other personal emergency, the student must make a good-faith attempt to notify the examination administrator prior to the start of the examination period and in all cases, make such notification as soon as is reasonable given the particular emergency. Documentation to support the student s request will need to be submitted to the comprehensive exam administrator as soon as possible. 6

7 Students registered for the examination must complete and submit the examination in the session registered. Failure to do so is considered a failure of the examination attempt. The student is responsible for creating a personal copy of the examination prior to submission. COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: EVALUATION The examination is scored against established metrics specific to the questions and the program learning outcomes and in accordance with graduate level expectations of performance. Students are expected to meet the same standards of success regardless of campus or location. Ethical Scholarship Comprehensive exams are subject to the same university academic honesty and plagiarism policies and practices as stated in the university catalog. Students who engage in plagiarism or academic dishonesty of any kind will be dismissed from the university. The comprehensive examination must reflect the student s original work and must be produced exclusively by that student. Rubrics The exams are scored using the program rubrics established by the university and published in the Comprehensive Guide. Current rubrics for each administration of the comprehensive examination are available through the ecollege Comprehensive Examination Toolbox. Please check your ecollege course for the Counseling Psychology scoring rubrics. 7

8 APA Format Responses to each question must be presented in APA format, and any source used by students must be documented, using standard citations from scholarly references and formatting consistent with the university-approved edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Readers The comprehensive examination is read by two or more approved and trained faculty members who serve as readers. Examination review is confidential, and no student-identifying information is provided to the reader. In addition, the identity of the readers is not provided to the student. Readers have up to two weeks upon receipt of the examination to review and score the exams and forward their feedback and scoring to the program chair, or his or her designee. If readers scores for an individual examination substantially differ*, the program chair consults with the readers to reconcile any concerns and, if reconciliation is not successful, identify at least one additional reader. Based on the set of reviews, the program chair makes a final determination of the evaluation rating. Communication of Examination Results Four weeks after the exam date, the results are communicated to students prior to completion of the academic session in which the examination was submitted, normally by mail and/or . * Substantial is defined as a difference great enough to impact the success or failure of an individual question or the examination as a whole. 8

9 Feedback on strengths and weaknesses identified in the examination process is provided rather than specific scores. In cases where a student s performance is determined to fall short of minimum acceptable standards, comments are provided to assist the student either in revising the examination or in preparing for a second attempt at the comprehensive examination. Regardless of the result, the registrar is notified and the result posted to the student s official transcript. Program-Specific Information and Evaluation Criteria College of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences: Counseling Psychology Scoring Examination responses are scored against established metrics in ten specific competencies that align with the program learning outcomes. These competencies include: assessment, diagnosis, treatment, theory, writing, research (literature review and methodology), interpersonal effectiveness, ethics, and diversity. Students may earn up to three points per competency, for a total of 30 points. A passing score is defined as having a score of two or higher in at least eight of the ten competencies. Earning two points or less in no more than three categories yields a score of pass with remediation. A failing score is defined as earning less than two points on four or more competencies. Examination Retake Students who, upon taking the comprehensive examination the first time, earn a score of pass with remediation have a week from the time they receive the pass with remediation evaluation to re-submit the examination for consideration. More than 9

10 oneweek can be given if deemed necessary by the program chair. Failure to meet this timeline leads to the pass with rewrite evaluation being recorded as a Fail. Final comprehensive examination outcomes must be posted by the end of the term. Students who fail their first administration of the comprehensive examination are given the opportunity to take a new examination. The same examination framework is used, but the vignettes are different. Students who, upon taking the comprehensive examination for the second time, earn a score of pass with remediation have a maximum of one week from the time they receive the pass with remediation evaluation to re-submit the examination for consideration. More than two weeks can be given if deemed necessary by the program chair. Failure to meet this timeline leads to the pass with rewrite evaluation being recorded as a Fail. Final comprehensive examination outcomes must be posted by the end of the term. In this retake, the student must receive a passing score as defined in the previous section. Students are expected to complete the second attempt in either the session or the semester following the unsuccessful attempt. Any extension beyond the following semester must be approved by the program chair. For all students who are unsuccessful in the initial taking of the comprehensive examination, some remediation and tutoring services are available. *Remediation may require a student to take additional course work, pursue special writing instruction, or obtain other special training to address weaknesses identified. *Any special remediation requirements will be at the student s expense. 10

11 Students who fail to pass the comprehensive examination on the second attempt are dismissed from Argosy University and the program. Students may appeal dismissal results by following the Student Right to Appeal process stated in the Argosy University Academic Catalog. Notice and Record-Keeping The university retains electronic copies of comprehensive examination and related documents for six (6) months. 11

12 COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION: PREPARATION Students begin preparation for the comprehensive examination in the first course taken in the doctoral program and continue to prepare throughout their program of study. As a general rule, students should take and catalog notes on all assigned readings, as well as related readings the students identify as appropriate and relevant to the program of study and individual career aspirations. As the comprehensive examination period approaches, students should develop a study schedule in order to perform well on the comprehensive examination. This pre-examination preparation should begin at least one full semester prior to taking the comprehensive examination. Students should not see this as an additional academic burden; if done well, the student will also be much better prepared to begin the dissertation process as a result of thorough preparation for the comprehensive examination. Students are expected to provide carefully articulated and well-reasoned responses to examination questions, based on the applications, practices, theories, constructs, and models presented in the various courses and projects in the doctoral program, and through independent reading and research. Responses should reflect an intellectual and practical understanding of topic areas addressed. References and sources should be appropriate to the question, and a substantial portion should come from current literature but should be used to supplement and support the reasoning, presentation, and conclusions of the student. The comprehensive examination is not a literature review; nor is it meant to describe the breadth of the field. Rather it is an applied exercise requiring methods of problem-solving, synthesis, and scientific inquiry. 12

13 Students must arrange work schedules during the comprehensive examination period to maximize time available for the purpose. Too busy at work is not an acceptable defense for either sub-standard work or late submission of the work product. Students should seriously consider using vacation or personal time from work for this period. Basic Rules of Presentation When responding to the comprehensive examination questions, there are some basic considerations that must be followed. These include: 1. Start a new page for each examination question. 2. Post the entire question or topic for each heading at the top of the new page. 3. Use the parts of the questions or topic as the headings. 4. Answer all of the heading questions. 5. Provide an introductory statement to each question and summarize briefly the main points of the response in the conclusion. 6. Use correct writing skills including: mechanics, usage, grammar, and spelling. 7. Make sure to apply APA style conventions for citations, quotations, references, headings, spacing, etcetera. 13

14 FORMATTING AND WRITING Writing Style and the APA Manual The fundamental guide for the writing style is the university-approved edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The student is responsible for familiarity with the university-approved edition of the APA Manual, and for following the rules of the Manual. The APA Manual includes directions for the reporting of numbers (Sections ); construction of tables and figures (see sections ); Levels of Headings (see sections ); use of non-genderbiased language (see Section 3.12: Reducing Bias by Topic in the APA Manual see Section ), the continuity in presentation of ideas (see Section 3.05: Writing Style in the APA Manual); and writing style suggestions (see sections ). Formatting Aspects 1. References in the reference list should begin with the first line flush left and any additional lines in a single reference indented with a hanging indent of.05 from the left margin (in MS Word : format/paragraph/special/hanging; in MS Word 2007 Home tab/paragraph/special/hanging). 2. All type for the comprehensive exam responses should be 12 point in size. All text, tables, and figures should be printed in black and white. 3. Use of seriation must follow APA requirements (see Section 3.04: Seriation in the APA Manual). Lowercase letters in parentheses are used within a paragraph or sentence to identify three or more elements in a series. To identify separate 14

15 paragraphs in a list, Arabic numbers followed by a period are used. The numbers are lined up on the left margin, indented.2, and text should line up under text. 4. Note that there are two spaces after punctuation marks at the end of a sentence, although there is one space after periods that separate parts of a reference citation and periods of the initials in personal names (Section 4.01: Spacing After Punctuation Marks). 5. Careful attention must be paid to the levels of headings (see APA Manual). Heading placement is similar to outlining a document. Each level subsumes the level below it. AU Deviations from APA Style 1. Block quotations, table titles, figure captions, notes to the tables and figures, and references in the reference list should be single-spaced with an extra space dividing these individual items from text or entries above and below them. All other parts of the submission should be double-spaced. 2. Times Roman, a serif typeface, and Arial or Tahoma, sans serif typefaces, are the only fonts acceptable for the document. 15