PhD Comprehensive Exam
The PhD Comprehensive Exam is normally taken one year after successful completion of the Reading List Exams. Although it requires mastery of an extended Greek and Latin Reading List (see below), the Comprehensive Exam is a different kind of exam from the Reading List Exams required for the MA. It includes both a written and an oral component and is designed to establish students’ knowledge of the field of Classics and their ability to synthesize and analyze various types of evidence. On the exam, the well-prepared student will exhibit not only solid knowledge of names, historical dates and facts, texts in the original, and the history of scholarship, but also the skills needed to analyze, compare, and synthesize sources in order to address important questions about Greek and Roman literature and culture.
The written exam consists of essays on pairs of passages from ancient texts. Some pairs will be accompanied by specific thematic prompts (“in an essay of ca. 1000 words, discuss, contextualize, and compare the representation of X theme in the two texts, drawing on modern scholarship on the works as well as your own close reading”). Others will be accompanied by an open-ended prompt, inviting students to compare and contextualize the material on their own.
The combined MA-PhD Reading Lists in Greek and Latin contain the core material to learn and will be the source of most exam questions. At the same time, a student should understand these texts in their larger contexts, as well as the various relationships between the texts, well enough to be able to discuss additional relevant sources. To this end, some questions may present passages from off the lists. Some questions will require accompanying translations; any questions that ask for translation of off-list sources will be carefully chosen, kept within reasonable limits, and juxtaposed with familiar texts. In each essay, with or without a translation component, the student is expected to make close use of the texts, demonstrating linguistic competence and understanding of style.
The faculty-authored study guide will be an essential starting point, but students should also generate their own guides (to authors, genres, periods, etc.), terms lists, and annotated bibliographies, as they read, and to consult individual faculty – who all remember the experience of preparing for Comps – for recommendations. They should also make use of their experience in courses, AI positions, and all other forms of exposure to the field (lectures, conferences, etc.) during and before their time in the program. Substantial self-directed individual study is required, especially during summers and independent studies. Group study is also highly recommended. Students will be provided with sample and/or old exam questions and are encouraged to practice with those. At the same time, they should not tailor their studying to the questions or study solely with potential passage pairings in mind. The essays on the written exam will need to be built on a solid foundation of knowledge.
After a student has completed the written exam, an oral exam will be scheduled with the exam committee. The student will answer questions about the essays from the written exam and about other topics not covered in the written exam. Some questions may ask for clarification of ideas expressed in written essays; others will be aimed at assessing the student’s grasp of literary history, history, and scholarship more widely, using the written exam as a jumping-off point. Ideally, the oral exam will serve to fill in areas that, for one reason or another, were left underrepresented or unexplored on the written exam.
There are several possible outcomes after a student has completed the written and oral exams for the first time. The Exam Committee may pass the student unconditionally to the next stage of the program, recommend that part of the exam be retaken, or require that the entire exam be retaken. See the departmental policy on probation and dismissal for PhD students.