The comprehensive exam is a stage post-course work where students must demonstrate their broad understanding in the field of education related to their research topic.
There are two components to the comprehensive exam:
- A written exam
- An oral presentation
For more detailed information on the comprehensive exam stage, please visit the university website: https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-education/academic-resources/enrolment-academic-advisement/research-paper-theses/comprehensive-exams
Students are given three questions by their committee and must choose to answer two for the written component. There is typically one question about epistemology, one about methodology, and one related more closely to your specific topic.
The EGSA has crowdsourced comprehensive exam questions that have been used with PhD students who have begun their PhD program between September 2020 and present day. You can find these examples here: Comprehensive Exam Sample Questions. This list will be updated as we receive more.
Many thanks to the graduate students who provided their questions to support cohorts after them!