What are the Comprehensive Examinations? The comprehensive examinations are essay examinations, taken in the spring of the senior year, which integrate and synthesize the field of knowledge students have been studying through tutorial study. Comprehensives are not deferred "finals" over the content of individual tutorial courses.
Students may use the knowledge gained in a particular tutorial in different ways. For instance, a student who has taken a tutorial on Chaucer and the French Tradition may write a comprehensive examination paper on English Literature before 1500, while a second student who has taken the same tutorial may write a different examination on Chaucer as a Major Writer.
Comprehensive examinations help students learn to work towards long range goals and to integrate and synthesize a large body of knowledge. Oxbridge graduates who have gone to law school or entered Ph.D. programs speak highly of the preparation given them by the comprehensive examinations.
