Comprehensive Exam

The comprehensive exam is administered after all coursework is complete, at the end of the fall semester of the third year in the PhD program. Students will have access to all of their HPED courses (i.e. online coursework and materials) for a 2-month window leading up to their comprehensive exam time period so that they can study and prepare. The exam is designed for students to demonstrate mastery of health professions education knowledge and skills, research methods, and the theoretical underpinning of HPED research. It is a written and oral exam that assesses student understanding of key concepts in Health Professions Education. The online written exam has three parts and will be available for four days. The oral exam occurs after faculty review students' written exam responses. The oral exam provides students with the opportunity to further expand upon or clarify their work on the written exam. It also allows faculty to ask follow-up questions based on the written exam work to gain additional clarification for a more accurate assessment. Student responses will be voted upon by a committee of at least three HPED doctoral-level faculty members. The student will be informed of the pass/fail status (Comprehensive Exam Status Form). Students’ progress to HPED 670 Proposal Development after they pass this exam. If a student is unable to take the written or oral component of the comprehensive exam on the assigned date or schedule, due to significant illness or emergency circumstances, the student must contact the HPED Program Director in writing to report this inability and request an alternate exam date. In this situation, the Director will consult with HPED faculty to determine when an alternate exam date can be scheduled. In most cases, the exam will be rescheduled no more than 2 weeks later than the original exam date.

*See page 16 of the Health Professions Education Student Handbook & Program Information for more information.