 MASTER
OF ARTS DEGREE IN THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION GUIDELINES
Before Doing Comprehensive Exams:
- Before signing up for your comprehensive final exam
you must fill out a "Graduation Application" with the
Registrar's Office, Enrollment Services, Starvaggi Hall.
(Note: Your Graduation Application is to be filled out
two semesters before you plan on graduating.) DISTANCE
LEARNING STUDENTS: Graduation Applications are to be
filled out six months before you plan on graduating. All
students taking the exam need to contact Fr. Dan Pattee,
T.O.R., Ph.D., Director of M.A. Theology and Christian
Ministry at (740) 284-5325 or stop by his
office in Egan, Rm. 259, or e-mail dpattee@franciscan.edu
in order to get the 9 exam questions that will be covered
in your comprehensive exam.
- You must fill out a "Request to Take the M.A. in
Theology Comprehensive Final Exam" form two months before
the scheduled exam or sooner. You may pick up this form
from the Theology Secretary in Room 254,
Egan Hall, phone: (740) - 284-5320 . This time to prepare yourself for your exam is
required. You will not be eligible to take the
comprehensive finals if you do not sign up on or before
the "Register for Exam" dates indicated above. For those
who are not eligible to take the exam, you will be
notified in writing.
- If you have taken any "Directed Studies" during your
time at Franciscan University, please make sure that the
faculty member who directed this study turns in a
comprehensive examination question for you.
Comprehensive Exams:
- All examinations dates will be on a Saturday with the
first two questions given 9:00 - 11:30 a.m., an
hour lunch break, and the second two questions given from
12:30 - 3:00 p.m.
- Approximately one month before the exam you will be
mailed a list of nine (9) questions corresponding to nine
(9) M.A. Theology courses you have taken at Franciscan
University or through Distance Learning and that are
listed (or soon to be listed) in your transcript. The
nine (9) questions will be chosen in advance by the
Director of Graduate Theology who will effectively
eliminate three (3) of your courses as potential
candidates for the exam (or five in the case of
Catechetics) or, if the student has spent a semester
abroad in Rome, those courses are automatically excluded
as candidates for the comprehensive exam. None of the
questions for the four foundations courses (THE 601, THE
602, THE 603, THE 604) will ever be dropped. You will
also be sent a letter with these questions informing you
of the date of the exam (that you have previously signed
up to take) and the room number in which the exam will be
held. On the day of the exam, you will be given four (4)
questions by the proctor: two in the morning, and two in
the afternoon. All four (4) of these questions will be
chosen in advance of the exam by the Director of Graduate
Theology (or by a designated faculty member) and the
student will be expected to write on each one, filling in
"at least" one blue book for each answer written in pen.
Notebooks, writing pads, notes, laptop computers or any
other electronic devices will not be
permitted in the room. You may bring an unmarked Bible to
the exam.
- Students may obtain a copy of their questions before
the Theology Faculty Secretary sends out your "official"
list of questions at the Theology web site,
http://www.franciscan.edu/theology/compsched.htm, or you
may do so by going to the Faculty Secretary's Office,
Egan, Room 254, and looking up your questions in the "red
binder" that holds the Comprehensive Exam Questions. The
pages pertaining to your questions will be taken out and
given to a Theology Student Worker who will make copies
for you. Be sure that the pages are put back in the "red
binder" in the proper order before leaving the office. In
order to find out your other five (5) questions for the
exam (besides the Foundation Courses), it will be
necessary to make an appointment with the Director of
Graduate Theology. Be advised that a final list of
questions cannot be given to the student until after they
have enrolled in their final semester or summer session
of courses, or at least until they are able to give an
accurate and sure "projection" of the courses they will
take in their final semester or summer session at the
University. Note: Most questions for the current semester
come in "late" in the semester. Therefore, if they are
not in the book, we do not have all of the questions from
the faculty members yet. They will be put in the book and
on the web page as soon as we receive all of them.
- If you are a Distance Learning student, you may get a
copy of your questions from the Theology web site,
http://www.franciscan.edu/theology/compsched.htm, or by
contacting the Distance Learning Office via email. Should
the student wish to receive his/her questions in advance,
this will be possible only when an accurate and sure
"projection" of enrollment can be given for the final two
(2) courses of their Distance Learning Program.
Otherwise, the Theology Faculty Secretary will mail your
questions to you at least one month before the exam.
However, you are not permitted to view or ask your
proctor what questions are on the exam.
- If you register for an exam date and cannot attend
(either on-campus or distance learning student), you must
inform the Director of Graduate Theology or Theology
Faculty Secretary prior to the scheduled date of the
examination.
- After you take your comprehensive examination the
Theology Faculty Secretary will distribute or mail your
exam to the proper faculty member for evaluation. Upon
receipt of all graded exams, the Secretary
will send you a letter with your grade and will also send
your grade to the Registrar's Office. During the summer
the comprehensive exam will still be offered, however
students may experience some delay in receiving their
grades at this time. Some faculty may be on vacation. The
grading scale is as follows: Pass with Honors, Pass,
Fail. The student will then be judged to have "passed the
exam" if he/she has at least a "Pass" in three of the
four questions; to have "Passed with Honors" if he/she
has a "Pass with Honors" in three of the four questions
and at least a "Pass" in the fourth question.
- Comprehensive Final Exams must be taken within five
years from the semester you complete your M.A. degree
requirements at Franciscan University of Steubenville or
Distance Learning. If you do not complete your exams
within this period, you will not be eligible to receive a
diploma.
- If a student fails their exam, they must wait 6
months before retaking the exam. If the student fails the
exam three times, they will not be eligible to receive a
diploma.
Proctors:
- You must receive approval to take your exam somewhere
other than Franciscan University of Steubenville, but
must take it at FUS if you are local. Once approved, the
student must take the exam using the proctored exam
schedule (dates listed are one week prior to the
on-campus exam date). It is the student's
responsibility to find a proctor. Students, alumni and
family members are not permitted to proctor the exam. The
proctor must be approved in advance by the Director of
Graduate Theology. Your proctor will receive the exam,
guidelines, and blue books. It is the student's
responsibility to arrange for the proctor to OVERNIGHT
FEDERAL EXPRESS the exam back to Franciscan
University of Steubenville's Theology Faculty Secretary
on the Monday after the exam. The completed exam must
arrive on campus by Tuesday.
- Students will also need to take one form of
identification (either your student I.D. or your driver's
license) to show to the proctor for identification
purposes.
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