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For Students Entering Prior to Autumn 2005
The General Examination
The General Examination is composed of both written and oral components conducted to evaluate the student's mastery of theory and research in selected substantive and interventive areas, to test the student's ability to grasp and think creatively about critical issues and questions confronting the field of social welfare and the profession of social work, and to assess his/her capacity for conducting rigorous empirical research. The examination consists of three separate sections, respectively focused on (1) a substantive or problem area, e.g., specific aspects of mental illness, poverty, delinquency; (2) an interventive area, e.g., specific levels and types of intervention relevant to the substantive problem focus; and (3) research methodology pertinent to the other two areas. Students have the option of substituting a written research paper for the substantive or interventive section of the examination. Within each of these areas, the student and her/his Supervisory Committee will have agreed on some specific content for which the student will be held responsible. Following the successful completion of the written examinations, an oral exam is held covering all three areas referred to above.
Written General Examination
The written and oral sections of the General Examination are of equal importance in assessing a student's readiness for advancement to candidacy. Although the written section (including the research paper if that option is chose) must be successfully completed before a student can take the oral section, it is important to note that the Supervisory Committee members will evaluate the student's performance in each section independently.
See General Exam Procedures below for detailed descriptions of the administrative procedures used in preparing for and taking the written and oral sections. The written examination is administered by Social Work Student Services.
Paper Option
Students may choose to write a General Examination paper for either the substantive or interventive section of the written examination. The student and Supervisory Committee together make the decision to choose this option, and the student submits the appropriate form (Student Services section) to the PhD Program Director at least one academic quarter before the student will take the General Examination. See Appendix B for detailed procedures
Oral Examination
The student must obtain the “Request for General Examination” from the Graduate School (http://www.grad.washington.edu/forms/ forms.htm). All members of the Supervisory Committee must sign this form. The request is returned to the PhD Program Coordinator at least 3 weeks prior to the time the Oral Exam is scheduled. This period is necessary for the Graduate School to clear the student's transcripts and announce the examination in the University Week. The PhD Program Coordinator sends the application to the Graduate School. Graduate School clearance must be obtained before the oral examination can be taken. A detailed description of the oral examination process is contained in the Procedures section below.
Ratings of a student's performance on both written and oral examinations shall be recorded by the Supervisory Committee chair on a School of Social Work Evaluation of General Examination form provided for this purpose (see Appendix D). This form is retained in the student's file.
A student is permitted one retake of the written examination, or any part thereof, and one retake the oral examination. Additional retakes of the written or oral examination can only be scheduled with the approval of the Social Welfare Faculty (or of the Steering Committee acting on behalf of the faculty).
General Examination Procedures
“The student is not an official doctoral candidate . . . until successful completion of the General Examination. Most departments hold preliminary, written examinations, at the end of which is the oral examination, which is scheduled with the Graduate School . . .” (The Graduate School)
All program required course work must be completed by the end of the quarter in which the General Examination is taken.
This procedural document begins at the point where the Program of Study (POS) presentation procedures end. At this time the student will have convened the Supervisory Committee, received input on and approval of the POS proposal, submitted the completed forms (Request to Establish Doctoral Supervisory Committee and Program of Study Approval and Presentation Form), and presented her/his POS proposal.
The General Examination consists of written and oral sections. Both are of importance in assessing a student's readiness for advancement to candidacy. Students and faculty should carefully read the Policy and Procedure Manual section on the General Examination.
- 1. After the Supervisory Committee is established
- The student and supervisory committee members receive email notification
from the Graduate School that the Supervisory Committee is officially
established. This email includes the notification of the Graduate School
Representative (GSR).
NOTE: The oral section of the General Examination may not take place until at least 1 quarter after the Graduate School officially establishes the supervisory committee.
2. Supervisory Committee consultations and distribution of duties- a. In meetings prior to the POS presentation, the student and committee should have reached tentative agreements regarding the timing and format of the Examination as well as how each faculty member will work with the student and provide evaluative feedback along the way. The, faculty may also have discussed division of labor regarding the formulation and evaluation of the Examination. Agreements made at these meetings should be summarized in writing and circulated to all committee members. There should be agreement regarding the content for which the student will be held responsible in the General Examination, including the bibliography to be used as source materials.
b. The student and chair should arrange regular meetings during the 4-month plus period of studying for the exams.
c. The student should also arrange extensive consultations with each member of the committee; these may take the form of formal reading courses or informal ongoing discussion. Student writing of mini-papers and practice exam questions is strongly encouraged. Writing provides important feedback to both student and faculty regarding mastery of the material. It also provides a foundation for possible publication.
d. Students may sign up for tutorial credit with faculty as part of their Examination preparation. Generally these tutorials range from 1 to 3 credits. A special case needs to be made for tutorials in excess of 3 credits. Contact time with faculty and outside reading/writing time should be proportionate to the number of credits. Written products form an important part of evaluation of tutorials. Registration forms should be specific about objectives, content, format, and expected products of each tutorial. This information is essentially the "course outline" for the tutorials and the contract for expectations of the student and faculty member.
3. Paper option- a. Students may choose to write a General Examination paper for either the substantive or interventive section of the written examination. The student and Supervisory Committee together make the decision to choose this option, and the student submits the appropriate form (Exam Paper Request) to the PhD Program Director at least one academic quarter before the student will take the General Examination.
b. Drafts of the General Examination paper should be submitted to Supervisory Committee members for preliminary review and comment. To ensure independent work, committee feedback will be in the form of manuscript review, involving general suggestions and comments, and the draft review comments will be submitted with the final paper to become part of the official record. The General Examination paper must be submitted by the last day of the written examination for the other two sections.
c. The student may rescind the commitment to write a General Examination paper by obtaining signatures from all Supervisory Committee members, excepting the GSR (although the GSR must be informed at the time), on a memo stating the student’s decision to return to the General Examination format of three on-site written sections. The signed memo is submitted to the Director of the Doctoral Program no later than 1 month before the scheduled written examination.
4. Setting up and completing the written examination.- All parts of the written examination must be completed, evaluated, and judged as passed before the oral examination can take place.
a. Exam questions, which are developed by the Supervisory Committee, stem directly from the learning objectives specified in the POS proposal and the content that the faculty have been covering with the student. As a general rule, it is suggested that the student answer three questions for each part (area) of the General Examination. Experience suggests that this number of questions permits faculty to obtain a fair sample of the student's knowledge in each of the three areas. It is also suggested that the student be given some choice in the selection of questions. Thus, if three questions must be answered, a pool of four or five from which the student can select is usually desirable. Finally, in each area there should probably be two types of questions: those that are more general in nature, testing a student's broad understanding of an area and her/his ability to place the specialized interest in context, and those that assess the student's mastery of knowledge in a specific area of interest. A rule of thumb would be that one-third of an examination be devoted to questions of the first type and two-thirds to questions of the second. Sample questions from past General Examinations are located in a binder in the Program Office resource library.
The Chair contacts other Committee members prior to the exam to indicate a deadline by which questions from each member are due to the Chair. The Chair then arranges the questions into the three sections. At times, the Chair may need to exercise judgment in wording or format of questions to render them appropriate and manageable within the exam framework. Although the student typically has some choice about questions to answer, certain questions may be made mandatory. The number of questions the student must address should be reasonably manageable within the exam time limit (3.5 hours per section). The Chair forwards the questions to Student Services, which is responsible for proctoring the written part of the Examination.
b. The student arranges a date and time for the written examination with Student Services (Roberta Aldrich). There should be about 10 days to 2 weeks between finishing the written sections and taking the oral exam.
c. Students are assigned a room on the School of Social Work premises for purposes of writing their examination.
d. Students may hand write the exam answers or type them on a computer. A computer is provided by the Computer Lab. Standard examination procedures are involved with the use of a computer. The School reimburses students who choose to have an outside typist for their handwritten exams.
Use of computer for the written exams.
Students may either provide their own computer system or use a system provided by the School. If students choose to use their own system, they must provide a microcomputer, a word processing software package (which may include a spell checker), and a printer. No other software (except the operating system) can be currently on the student’s computer. All other programs and files would have to be removed before using the computer for the examination. Equipment provided by the School includes a computer, Microsoft Word (including a spell checker), a printer, and paper.
Students must submit two unformatted 3.5'' floppy disks to the Student Services Program Coordinator at least 2 weeks prior to the first exam date.
e. Students are allowed a maximum of 3.5 hours to complete each portion of the written examination. Sections of the examination are taken on 3 separate days, ordinarily with a day intervening, but in all cases, the total examination period must not exceed 10 working days.
f. Students are not allowed to take papers, notes, or books into the examining room, nor may they have access to such materials while examinations are being written. The UW Student Code of Conduct and School of Social Work guidelines for student conduct are strictly followed in the administration and oversight of the examinations. (See School of Social Work Policies.)
g. After the exam is printed and before it is circulated to the Supervisory Committee for review, the student may proofread the manuscript and make minor handwritten corrections in grammar and punctuation. The proofreading is to be done under the supervision of a Student Services Coordinator or designate.
5. Evaluation of the written examinations- a. The committee members will have at least 1 week to read and comment on the written sections. All members read and evaluate all sections of the written examination. In addition, as a general rule, each section of the examination is read and evaluated most thoroughly by the member of the committee who has worked most closely with the student in preparing for that part of the examination.
b. Each section is judged and graded separately as (1) pass with distinction, (2) pass, (3) marginal pass, or (4) fail. Each member should contact the chair as soon as possible with her/his judgment. If there are any major or specific requirements members have of the student for the oral examination, these should be conveyed to the chair. Minor differences in judgment may exist, but major differences regarding the written exams (e.g., whether one or more sections has been failed) should be resolved before proceeding to the oral exam.
c. After examinations have been read and evaluated, the Supervisory Committee will arrive at a judgment regarding the student's performance. The chairperson shall convey the results to the student, together with any evaluative comments that may help the student prepare for the oral examination. In the event that the student fails one or more parts of the written examination, the committee will reschedule another examination to cover those parts at a time it considers appropriate. The oral examination cannot be held until all sections of the written examination have been passed.
6. Evaluation of the paper- The General Examination paper will be evaluated by the members of the student’s Supervisory Committee plus one external reader (a Social Welfare Faculty member) who is appointed by the Program Director acting on behalf of the SC. The external reviewer’s written evaluation will be submitted to the PhD Program Director and a copy given to the Supervisory Committee Chair, who will use this information together with evaluations from the Supervisory Committee members in determining whether to proceed to the oral examination. A copy of the paper is also submitted to the GSR as are the written examination responses to the other two sections of the General Examination. However, she/he is not expected to provide evaluative input.
7. Setting up and completing the Oral Examination- a. The student must obtain the Request
for General Examination from the Graduate School website. All members
of the Supervisory Committee must sign this form. (The Graduate School
accepts email verification in lieu of signature.)
Before the Request for Examination is submitted, the student schedules a room for the Oral examination, usually the Dean's large conference room The completed request is returned to the PhD Program Coordinator at least 3 weeks prior to the time the Oral Exam is scheduled. This time period is necessary for the Graduate School to clear the student's transcripts and announce the Examination in the University Week.
All program requirements must be met and all incompletes resolved in the quarter in which the orals are taken.
b. The Graduate School sends the warrant for the Examination to the Program Office, and the Office forwards it to the Supervisory Committee Chair. The GSR will have a form to use in monitoring the exam and must ensure that all required persons are present and that the General Examination warrant showing Graduate School approval is present at the examination.
c. At least 4 members of the Supervisory Committee (including the Chair and GSR) must be present at the oral examination, which is normally scheduled for 2 hours.
d. After opening the session, the Chair typically excuses the student so that the committee can reaffirm, in the presence of the GSR, their evaluation of the written examination and their expectations for the oral examination.
e. Committee members may ask the student to respond to any of the questions formulated for the examinations and not addressed in the written exams, to elaborate on any answer or provide clarification, to respond to other questions directly relevant to the POS content, and to think ahead to the implications for future research and career activities. The committee needs time within a 2-hour period to cover such questions and to again excuse the student to discuss judgments of the student's performance.
f. If the committee feels that more time is essential to render an evaluation, this time should be scheduled as soon as possible after the first session, and any second session requires the same attendance rules as the first.
g. When the student rejoins the committee, she/he may wish to offer brief preliminary comments (e.g., providing a self-assessment, outlining any points that she/he would like to elaborate upon from her/his written responses, as time permits). Some students may prefer simply to begin with questions from the committee.
h. After the Committee discussion, the student rejoins the committee and the Chair shares the committee's evaluation with the student.
8. Evaluation of the Oral Examination- a. The committee rates the student's overall performance as (1) exceptional
pass, (2) pass, (3) marginal pass, or (4) fail. In the event a student
fails the oral exam, or any part thereof, the committee will reschedule
another oral exam at a time it considers appropriate. (A pass with distinction
can only be given after the first taking of examinations. If there are
repeat sections, the performance can be rated no higher than pass.)
Ratings of the student's performance on both written and oral examinations shall be recorded by the chairperson on the School of Social Work's evaluation form provided for this purpose (the Social Welfare Doctoral Program Evaluation of General Examination). The Graduate School warrant is also completed and signed by all members of the committee.
The completed "Warrant" and the "Social Welfare Doctoral Program Evaluation of General Examinations" are returned to the Program Office by the Supervisory Committee Chair. The Office submits the completed warrant to the Graduate School for approval. The evaluation form is retained in the student's School of Social Work file.
Upon Graduate School approval, the student is advanced to candidacy. Students who have passed the Graduate School General Examination and who have completed all requirements for the degree except the dissertation and the Final Examination are awarded the appropriate Candidate's certificate. For further information, see The Graduate School: Graduate Study and Research section of the General Catalog entitled "Admission to Candidacy for the Doctoral Degree."