M.A. Exam Rules

The following rules apply to any M.A. exam whose major field is Literature or Cultural Studies. For details on M.A. exams with a major field in Linguistics, please contact the linguistics faculty.

• The M.A. exam consists of a 6 hour written exam on a major field and a 4 hour written exam on a minor field. In the major exam, the student will respond to 3 out of 4 questions. On the minor exam, the student will respond to 2 out of 4 questions. The major and minor exams will be taken on non-consecutive days of the same week in a room on the 2 nd floor of Humanities. All exams must be written by hand in Spanish.

• Possible major fields are Latin American Literature, Spanish Literature or Cultural Studies. Possible minor fields are any of the above or Literary Theory, Spanish Linguistics, General Linguistics or Applied Linguistics. If a minor field is chosen in a literature field, the student must consult with the corresponding faculty member(s) to determine which texts from the major list will constitute the minor list. Although the reading list in Latin American Literature that is given on the departmental web site indicates that certain texts can be substituted with others by the same author, this is no longer the case.

• Exam questions will be composed and evaluated by faculty in the respective fields. If Literary Theory or Cultural Studies is chosen, questions may be composed and evaluated by any member(s) of the literature faculty. All literature faculty members, however, regardless of their specific field, will read all the exams and arrive collectively at final evaluative decisions. See rules 5 and 6 below for exceptions.

• If Literary Theory is chosen as a minor, the student is responsible for reading all the texts currently described on the M.A. list as “Mandatory” and “Highly Recommended.” The student will be required to demonstrate a mastery of literary theory in general and should use the two lists as a resource to that end. The student is also strongly advised to consult with faculty members ahead of time regarding texts or theories that would be particularly important to know. Feminisms by Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires is an additional text that is hereby added to the Literary Theory list.

• If Cultural Studies is chosen as a major, the student is responsible for both the Latin American and Peninsular lists. If Cultural Studies is chosen as a minor, the student is responsible for the list corresponding to the major field. In that case, the faculty member(s) specializing in the major field will compose the minor exam and be its principal evaluator(s).

• Any faculty member who is not teaching in the Department the semester of the exam will not be involved in any part of the exam. There may be an exception to this rule, however, if s/he is the only faculty member in the field at hand. In that case, the student is required to consult with the faculty member while s/he is still teaching in the Department in order to ascertain how the exam in that field will be composed and evaluated and by whom.

• The exam will be evaluated in the same way regardless of whether a student has indicated an intention to apply subsequently for the doctoral program. The results of the exam will be communicated to the student in an official letter from the Program. In this letter, the student will be informed whether s/he passed all, part, or none of the exam. All or part of the exam may be retaken once. Students who excel in the exam may be invited in the letter to apply for the doctoral program.

• Students are welcome to take food and drink to the exam but may leave the exam room only to go to the restroom. Students may not consult with each other or any reference sources at any point during the exam. Computers and cell phones and any other technological devices beyond pens and blue books may neither be present nor used during the exam. An exception will be made for music-listening devices, so long as the music is inaudible to all other students in the exam room. Non-compliance with any of these rules will result in failure of the entire exam.

• Students who wish to take the M.A. exam, offered every semester in October and April, must inform the Director of Graduate Studies of their interest no later than September 15 for the fall exam and March 15 for the spring exam. Students are strongly advised, however, to consult with faculty members regarding exam preparation long before these dates.

• The above rules are intended to govern the exam in nearly all cases. Due to the possibility, however, that exceptional circumstances may necessitate rare adjustments to these rules, students are strongly encouraged to contact faculty members well in advance regarding any such changes.