From:  The Comprehensive Committee
To:  Students in in the CS Department
Subject:  The Winter, 1983 Comprehensive
Date: June 9, 1982

The Comprehensive Committee has made some changes
in the administration of the exam.  These will
take effect in Winter, 1983, on an experimental
basis.  These changes were discussed and approved
at the June 8, 1982 faculty meeting.


1. The exam will be closed book.
This enables us to ask more fundamental questions,
and to ask a set of questions which demands
much less than an hour per area to answer.

2. Each area will be tested for precisely one hour.
This reduces the time-management tension
and gives us a less "noisy" picture of competence in
each individual area.  The score indicative of minimal
competence in each area need not -- and will not --
be decided upon before the exam.  We understand that
total scores for many MS students will drop significantly,
and will take that into account when deciding upon
the minimum score for a Master's level pass.

3. The exam will be split over two days (Sat/Sun).
On one day, the areas tested will be AA, AI, and
Hardware systems.  The second day includes NA,
Software systems, and MTC.  This will reduce the
penalty on students who do not perform well on
an all-day exam.

4.  The Winter exam will be given January 8 and 9.
By giving the exam early in the quarter, we eliminate
the current behavior of staying away from classes
for a few weeks prior to the exam.

5. The programming project is part of the Comprehensive,
and as such is due by the middle of a student's
Spring quarter in their second year.  In 1981/82, students
can extend this deadline by filing a form
signed by the student, their advisor, and the chairman.