Back to Table of Contents.
Back to the poem.

 

The Comps: A Cruel and Ordinary Test
By the graduates

In Message No.1685, Renee wrote:

Jeanne, I now have three churches for my thesis, but after speaking with Dr. B am considering doing the Comps instead. Will have to talk to you in person about this after the exhibit and about some serious concerns I have about doing the thesis.

In Message No. 16889, Penny responded:

on ur comment about doing comps. is a concern of mine. i've had my required courses for my degree for a while and have been trying to do the comps. for a few semesters. i just can't get into it and now, i realize why...i simply would much rather do a project or maybe thesis and now about two years later..with the cuts and all i don't beleive i can even get the support or the actual required 3 persons from the dept. to work with me. Now that i finaly figured out that this is what i want to do.i don't think i will be able too and so now it's another trip to dr. B.'s office for the new comp. questions. this could be considered one of those problems at CSUDH for whoever is working on that project.

Then, on the 595 Class list of learning records, Jeanne responded to Penny:

At exam time I know it's hard to trust, but most of the faculty are not getting off on torture. Measurement of learning is difficult. As you have learned this semester it depends heavily on answerability and interdependence and a willingness to trust one another in collaboration. It's hard work. The comps are an easy solution. Everyone is asked the same questions regardless of what you've learned. Everyone is graded the same way regardless of what you know. That kind of a blue-footed booby would scare me, too.

But dominant discourse and the President say that testing is good and we must test. If you want to change dominant discourse to provide a more equitable playing field what do you do? Illocutionary discourse, followed we hope by governance discourse. Right now, your faculty don't know why you complain about the comps, except that you don't like tests. Let's do a little illocutionary work ourselves. What is overwhelming about the comps? What would help?

Now, Penny, this is an instance in which many of you have expressed discomfort with the measure, but you guys have not yet gotten together to talk with the faculty about the kind of measure being used. Testing sucks. I agree. But what would work better? I don't think it would be nearly so nettlesome and discouraging if the comps questions bore some relation to the issues you are most interested in for your thesis. Perhaps the faculty could provide questions that they might want to ask at an oral thesis exam, and you could study those and answer them as an essay question set for comps.

Most of you really express an interest in a thesis. So why can't we take that interest and use it to create comps questions that would intrigue you instead of scaring you to death? That would be easier for faculty than the long struggle with thesis writing, easier in that sense also for you, and would give you some of the depth of knowledge you might gain for a thesis. Here is a good opportunity for governance discourse.