COMPREHENSIVE EXAMS AND RESEARCH

Comprehensive Examinations and Formal Research Requirements: All students must pass a written First Doctoral Examination before proceeding beyond 45 credits (i.e., end of Year 2) and a Second Doctoral Examination before the end of their fifth year in the Program. They are engaged in empirical research with Neuropsychology Program faculty members throughout their doctoral academic career, but there are also formal requirements, which include the Second Year Research Project and the Dissertation.

1. The First Doctoral Examination: Research Methodology: The exam is taken before the completion of 45 graduate credits (including transfer credits). Students may not register for courses beyond the 45-credit limit or apply for externship training until they have passed the First Doctoral Examination.  For the exam, students are presented with three research questions.  They must choose one question and design an experiment or research study to address the question. 

EXAM BANK

2. The Second Year Research Project is conducted by the student in a faculty member’s research lab and should culminate with a research report of publishable quality by the end of the second year in residence. The project is equivalent to a Master’s Thesis and students can apply for and receive an en-route Masters Degree upon completing the First Doctoral Examination and the Second Year Research Project.

3. The Clinical Competency Exam: Students must pass the clinical competency exam prior to application for internship. This exam may be held anytime in the year prior to internship application, but we expect that most students will schedule the exam at the end of the spring semester prior to internship application. The exam consists of a written and an oral component. The written component consists of a summary of externship training experiences and a deidentified written report that describes an assessment and intervention strategy that was implemented with an individual, family, couple, or group. For the oral component of the exam, the student must select an examination committee that includes two clinical faculty members. The purpose of the oral examination is to evaluate the student’s ability to conceptualize the case, defend the choice of assessment tools and intervention strategies, outline steps in clinical decision making, and discuss the application of research findings to the clinical work. Students are expected to demonstrate breadth as well as depth in their thinking about clinical activities.

4. The Second Doctoral Exam is designed to give students the opportunity to examine a specific topic of interest in depth and has both a written and an oral component. The written component may be either a focused review paper (similar to those found in Psychological Bulletin) or a dissertation grant application that is submitted to an external agency (e.g., NRSA application to NIH). After deciding upon a topic with the research mentor, the Program Head approves the project and a three-person committee (including the research mentor) is formed to evaluate the finished project as well as the student’s knowledge and understanding of the topic in an oral examination.  

5. Dissertation Research: Students are required to submit a topic proposal for the dissertation no later than the end of their fourth year in residence and prior to application for internship. At this time, a Dissertation Committee comprised of at least three faculty members is formed; the Chair of the Dissertation committee must be a member of the Neuropsychology Doctoral Faculty and at least two members must be core Neuropsychology Program Faculty. After the Dissertation committee has approved the written dissertation, two additional readers, one typically from outside the university and always from outside of the Program, are asked to review the written document. Outside readers from within the university are approved by the Program Head; those from outside of the university must be approved by both the Program Head and GC Psychology Executive Officer following review of credentials (e.g., CV). The Dissertation Defense may be scheduled when four of the five members have approved the dissertation. The dissertation defense consists of a public portion, 30 minutes in length, during which the candidate presents a summary of the dissertation research and answers questions from the audience. The remainder of the defense is conducted in closed session with the five member dissertation committee. Students are encouraged to defend their dissertations prior to internship, although some students complete the defense after the internship has ended.