UNC Gillings MPH Comprehensive Exam Information Session
The MPH Comprehensive Exam at UNC Gillings is a crucial milestone for MPH degree students, evaluating their ability to apply public health knowledge and skills. The exam covers various core MPH courses and is conducted through Zoom meetings with faculty graders, focusing on health topics and questions provided in advance. This exam provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their proficiency in communicating public health solutions effectively.
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MPH COMPREHENSIVE EXAM INFORMATION SESSION SPRING 2022
GILLINGS MPH COMPREHENSIVE EXAM INFORMATION SESSION Goals for Today: Provide an overview of the MPH Comprehensive Exam Describe what the exam includes format and how it will be delivered Clarify grading, what happens if remediation is required, and overall timeline Offer tips and strategies to prepare Answer questions
OVERVIEW The MPH Comprehensive Exam is a required milestone for the MPH degree awarded by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The exam will be developed by MPH Core and Concentration faculty, and administered and graded by Gillings faculty. Gillings administrative staff will set up and coordinate logistics and scheduling processes. All MPH/MSPH degree students must take the exam. Residential, online (MPH@UNC) and distance (Asheville)
OVERVIEW The UNC Gillings MPH Comprehensive Exam is designed to evaluate your ability to apply public health knowledge and skills developed in the Core MPH courses to novel contexts, problems and populations. The exam (and the preparation for it) provides you with the opportunity to practice and demonstrate skills communicating about public health issues and solutions with colleagues, other stakeholders and the general public.
WHAT DOES THE MPH COMPREHENSIVE EXAM INCLUDE? The exam will cover the knowledge and skills developed from taking the following required Core MPH courses: SPHG 711 DataAnalysis for Public Health SPHG 712 Measurements & Methods for Public Health Practice SPHG 713 Understanding Public Health Issues SPHG 721 Conceptualizing Public Health Solutions SPHG 722 Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating Public Health Solutions
WHAT IS THE FORMAT OF THE MPH COMPREHENSIVE EXAM? Faculty will prepare a list of possible questions and health topics to which they are applied. These will be distributed to students in advance of the exam. The exam will take place in a Zoom meeting where each student will interact with two faculty graders (from different departments) in a 20-minute appointment. All Zoom appointments will be recorded. During the 20-minute Zoom appointment, each student will be asked to answer 2 questions on a specific health topic from the list of questions distributed to students beforehand. Students will have up to 5 minutes to answer each of 2 questions and 2 probes. Each question will include a follow-up probe question. These 2 follow-up questions will not be distributed in advance. Different students will get different questions and different follow-up probes.
WHAT DOES THE PROCESS LOOK LIKE? At the completion of the spring semester, we will share a set of broad preparation questions for you to use to prepare. Two weeks in advance of the exam, we will announce two substantive public health topics for the exam (for example, vaping in US high school students, or measles in children in the Ukraine) For each topic, we will provide 1-2 anchor articles or materials that provide some general background about the topics, but you are encouraged to further consult the literature and data to support your responses.
SAMPLE PRE-PREPARED QUESTION: Pre-prepared questions are broad conceptual questions that will be given to all students after the end of their spring semester. A probe is a follow up question asked during the Zoom Comp Exam meeting. Pre-prepared question (provided in advance) Follow-up probe (not provided in advance) Describe three determinants of the [health issue] [in the specific context] that each operate at different levels of the social ecological framework. Choose one of the determinants you just described and explain how it might contribute to inequities in the [health outcome within the identified population]. For one of these determinants, describe the types of data you would need to calculate the burden of disease resulting from that risk factor.
TOPICS WE EXPECT TO ADDRESS: Articulating issue as a PH problem Underlying causes Equity issues Interpreting data Engaging stakeholders Systems thinking/Socio-Ecological Framework Designing Policy and Program Interventions Evaluation (outcome; process) Sustainability
LOGISTICS OF THE MPH COMP EXAM The Comp Exam will be administered 2 times a year once in the Fall and once in the Spring semesters. You are expected to take the exam as soon as it is offered after you have completed the Core courses. You must be registered for at least 1 credit hour in the semester in which they take the exam. The dates for the Spring 2022 exam are Friday, April 29th and Sunday, May 1st. There are no fees associated with taking this exam
ACCOMMODATIONS If you need accommodations, you must register for accommodations via campus Accessibility Resources (https://ars.unc.edu/students) and inform Cassie Nakamoto of your accommodation. It s your responsibility to complete your registration four weeks before the start of the semester in which you will take the exam. Gillings school administrative staff will then coordinate arrangements for your exam accommodations.
GRADING THE MPH COMP EXAM The grading scale is Pass/Fail. We will use the same system for all students. Faculty graders will be trained to use a pre-established common rubric. There will be 2 faculty graders reviewing each student s response during each exam. If the 2 graders disagree, a 3rd faculty grader will do an independent review of the Zoom recording before deciding on the final grade.
WHAT IF I DONT EARN A PASSING GRADE ON THE EXAM? Remediation: If a student does not pass the comprehensive exam the first time they take it, an individual remediation plan will be developed for each student. Retake: By university policy, a retake must be done at least 90 days after the initial exam. Students must be registered for at least 1 credit in the semester that they retake the exam. Reinstatement: A student is academically ineligible if they fail twice. A student made academically ineligible under certain conditions, may be reinstated upon petition initiated through the student's academic program. An appropriate academic plan must be developed. https://handbook.unc.edu/masters.html
SAMPLE TIMELINE (Full-time student who matriculates in fall) First year fall & spring semester: Attend classes, organize notes and materials. Mid-May: Receive pre-prepared/advance questions from SPH May-July: Organize your thinking about the advance questions; begin to anticipate questions and practice answering them for different types of health topics Inform Cassie Nakamoto at Gillings School of your accommodation registration, if needed. Receive health topics and 1-2 background articles for Aug. 2020 exam. Research each health topic in more depth. Develop answers for advance questions applied to each health topic. Think about potential follow-up questions and practice answering them. Schedule time and date of your exam via online scheduling system. Take Comp Exam Mid-July: Early August: August: Mid-August: August 21(Fri), August 22 (Sat), OR August 24 (Mon) 2020
STUDY TIPS Practice in the format in which you will be assessed (i.e. get someone to ask you possible questions and practice answering them in a 20-minute Zoom meeting. Remember, you will have up to 5 minutes per question and up to 5 minutes per probe. Although all exam responses must reflect individual thinking, many students find it helpful to put together study groups to prepare for the exam.
QUESTIONS? This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
