Counseling Psychology Program Comprehensive Examinations
Purpose of Comprehensive Examinations
Comprehensive examinations are designed to achieve several important goals. First, at the most basic level they serve a quality control function to ensure that students who apply for internship have acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to perform well in all the roles expected of an intern. Second, at a more general level, comprehensives are designed to ensure that graduates of the program – after completing their internship and dissertation -- possess all the necessary knowledge and skills to function as an effective counseling psychologist, congruent with the training goals of the program. From this second goal, it follows that passing comprehensive examinations is the single best indicator that you will graduate from this program knowing what a well-trained Counseling Psychologist should know, and have the skills that allow you to perform the tasks that a well-trained Counseling Psychologist should be able to demonstrate. To achieve these two goals, the faculty drew heavily from the “Benchmarks” document released in June 2007 by the APA “Assessment of Competency Benchmarks Work Group.” This document describes the competencies that students should possess before beginning internship and before graduating from an APA accredited program.
Beyond the assessment function of these first two goals, comprehensive examinations are designed to serve an instructional function. This third goal involves the integration and synthesis of knowledge and skills that you have acquired from separate courses and various components of your training. Comps are designed to push you to “put it all together” into an integrated whole, as the very term “comprehensive” implies. The tasks of assembling your portfolio will require you to think in new ways by bringing together what you have learned in several distinct domains. Although this is often a difficult process, at the conclusion of comprehensives that are structured in this way, many students report being very pleasantly surprised at their own capacity to function at this high level. Therefore, an intended outcome of comprehensive examinations is a real sense of pride in your achievements, mastery and self-efficacy in a broad range of professional roles, and strong self-confidence in being ready to take on any challenge that arises after you leave the program.
Finally, the fourth purpose follows closely from the third and emphasizes self-reflection even more directly. The faculty recognizes that professional development is a life-long process. Therefore, an additional goal of comprehensive examinations is to prompt you to engage in a searching self-assessment of your career goals in connection with the training you have completed thus far. You will be asked to consider your accomplishments as well as specific areas that will need to become a focus in the final phases of your training to ensure that you are well-prepared for the career you envision. The product of this deliberation is a self-assessment and professional development plan which covers your remaining semesters in the program, internship, and the first few years after graduation. This fourth goal of comprehensives is also to teach a critical set of skills. These skills involve accurate and thorough self-appraisal, knowledge of training resources, and the ability to develop a self-guided professional development plan that forms the first steps in a life-long process of learning. A side benefit is that the process leads students to develop a much better picture of their training needs for internship, before your internship actually begins.
Overview and Components: A Portfolio-Based Format
The four goals described above emphasize demonstration of skills rather than rote recall of knowledge. Thus, the faculty have decided to discontinue the previous two-day, no notes no books format that has been a tradition in our program. Our belief is that this format is not well suited to assess integrated skills. Because there will be very few professional situations in which you will not have access to notes, books, and the possibility of conferring with colleagues, we have designed a comprehensives process that we hope encourages these activities.
The new format involves two components. The centerpiece will be a portfolio that is developed over a period of several months in consultation with your advisor, course instructors, and peers. The portfolio exhibits “artifacts” as tangible evidence of the skills you have acquired. The artifacts are written work samples demonstrating some of the activities that are routine aspects of a Counseling Psychologist’s professional roles, for example, designing a research study, conceptualizing a client and developing a treatment plan, or writing an integrated assessment report. Most of the portfolio will consist of your answers to a series of essay questions that you can begin work on at any time. We encourage students to start thinking about these questions from their very first semester in the program. In fact, some instructors may build course assignments around these portfolio tasks.
The artifacts are grouped into the following nine domains: (a) Self-Assessment and Professional Development Plan, (b) Research Competencies, (c) Multicultural Competencies, (d) Assessment Competencies, (e) Application of Foundations Knowledge, (f) Theories and Practice Competencies (g) Ethical, Legal, and Professional Issues; (h) Cognate Area,, and (i) Social Justice Advocacy Competencies. (This final domain is required for students whose enrollment begins in Fall Semester 2008, or other students whose enrollment began Fall 2008 who opt to complete the new curriculum). Note that because we want students to integrate considerations of a client’s vocational satisfaction and career development into all aspects of practice, and to encourage students not to think of career development as a separate domain, these competencies are included in the “Theories and Practice” domain. An appendix to this document will describe in detail the artifacts that are required in each of these domains.
The second component of comps is a 90-minute oral examination, conducted by the three members of the Counseling Psychology faculty whom you have selected for your dissertation committee. Before the oral exam, your Comps Committee will have an opportunity to review your portfolio. During the oral exam, your committee may ask you to elaborate on any of materials in the portfolio. However, questions need not be focused specifically on a particular aspect of the portfolio.
Procedure
Oral Comprehensive exams will be conducted twice each year, in September and April. The list of required artifacts and a detailed description of each assignment will be finalized by the faculty in April for September comps, and in November the previous year for comps held in April of the following year (i.e., at least five months before the portfolio is due).
All artifacts and other required components of the portfolio must be completed and approved by the student’s advisor by September 15 for Fall comps and by April 1 for Spring comps. After approval by the advisor, three copies of the Portfolio must be prepared, each in a three ring binder and delivered to the Comps Committee members.
It will be the student’s responsibility to schedule the oral examination. The oral exam may not occur sooner than two weeks after the portfolio is distributed (to give committee members time to review the portfolio), but must be scheduled on or before October 1. A two hour time block should be scheduled to allow 90 minutes for the examination and 30 minutes for faculty discussion afterward.
Evaluation
Each domain of the portfolio is evaluated independently by each member of the comps committee using the following four point scale: 1 = below minimal expectations, 2 = meets minimal expectations, 3 = meets expectations, and 4 = pass with distinction. Ratings are due to the student’s advisor at least one week before the scheduled oral exam. The ratings of each member are then distributed by the advisor to each member of the committee. These ratings are considered only provisional, pending the outcome of the oral examination.
In the week after preliminary ratings of the portfolio have been received, but prior to the oral exam, the advisor may not reveal the specific ratings to the student, but does use this information to guide the student’s preparation for the oral exam.
The advisor serves as chair during the oral examination. One purpose of this component of comps is to further evaluate any domains that received a rating of 1 “below minimal expectations” based on the Portfolio artifacts. Beyond this remedial function, the oral examination provides an opportunity for scholarly dialogue between the student and members of the committee on questions important to our field. At the conclusion of the question and answer period, the student is dismissed from the meeting room. The Committee members then complete a new set of evaluations for each domain, now taking into account the student’s portfolio and oral demonstration of skills and knowledge.
If two or more committee members rate one of the domains a “1,” the student is deemed to have not passed this area. The committee then confers to agree on the remedial steps necessary. A member of the committee is designated to supervise this remedial plan. Generally, this will be the advisor, but a member of the committee may also serve in this role. A time line is developed. When two of the three committee members agree that the student has satisfactorily completed all the remedial requirements, the student is deemed to have passed comprehensive examinations.
At the conclusion of the oral examination, if three or more areas are rated as not passing, the entire comprehensive examination must be repeated. Specific instructions for revisions in Portfolio artifacts may also be directed by the Comps Committee.
If two of the three committee members agree that three or more of the domains have been passed at the level of “with distinction,” a notation will be made in the student’s file that the comprehensive examinations were “passed with distinction.”