FORENSIC SCIENCE COMPREHENSIVE FINAL FOR SPRING 2009
On- Campus portion of Comps is scheduled for Saturday, March 7, 2009 from 9am- 11am.
Keep in mind this is the same weekend as Daylight Savings; Daylight Savings starts Sunday, March 8th. Set your clocks forward one hour Saturday evening before you go to bed.
You have two opportunities to take the Comprehensive exam. If you do not pass on the second attempt, there is NO third attempt. You are terminated from the program.
All examinees will be required to travel to MC for one portion of the exam, and 99% of you will have an at-home/open book portion. NOTE: A second ANNC regarding exam location and time will be posted the Monday before Comps.
The exam is comprised of three questions (essay style), and two of those Qs require you.
♦ Focus/Concentration Q
♦ Elective Q
♦ Law Q***
Concentration Qs will be available for download via Blackboard (Bb) starting 8AM on SAT. March 7th, until 8AM, MON. March 9th. As it is w/any other course, the NetID portion of your GW email address must be used to access Bb. From where you access BB is your decision; no special space will be reserved for this portion of the exam. As exam books are graded using anonymity, you will be assigned an exam number (provided on your exam packet) & this will be your Special ID to mark at the bottom right on each of your response pages.
Elective Qs: The core courses for your specific focus/concentration are NOT elective options. Please read the following to be aware of topics that cannot be answered as your elective question.
CSI Focus 207, 251, 252, 253, 256, 257
CHM Focus 206, 211, 238, 239
TOX Focus 231, 232, 234, 235, 236, 237
FMB Focus 201, 211, 228, 241, 242
Law Qs: If your final grade for FORS 221 was lower than A-, you will be required to answer a Criminal Law Q.
Eligibility:
Student must have completed 27 credit hours (9 courses) within the program to qualify to take the comps.
*For students within a concentration, all core classes must be completed before exam can be taken.
Format:
Students w/Concentration
¨ Each concentration will have its own examination, and you will be
required to download your question from Blackboard. The allotted time frame in
which you’ll have to answer this question has not been finalized, but it will
be a minimum 24 hours.
¨ Your concentration question (60% of exam score) will cover all of your
required courses. It will be a case scenario format where you will be expected
to read the provided case scenario and supporting material and answer all of
the questions in the downloaded PDF file.
¨ The remainder of your exam will consist of one law* question (20%) &
one elective (20%) question.
Students w/o Concentration
¨ Your exam will have to do nothing with Blackboard.
¨ You will be required to answer five (5) questions; one law* question &
four elective questions (focus on your strengths).
¨ The structure of your entire exam will range from short detailed
questions to longer essay questions to case analysis.
¨ The exam will include a question from every FORS course offered.
Please note that questions may have been created by a single instructor or a
group of instructors who have taught that particular subject. If more than one
professor has taught a course, there is generally one question per instructor.
If a course is taught in a series (e.g. CSI-1 & CSI-2), there will be one
question pertaining to each content area.
¨ Answering two questions from the same topic is not permitted.
*Students having received a final grade of A or A- in CrimLaw-I, will not be
required to answer a law question.
Signing Up:
In order to be eligible to download your question from Blackboard and to be admitted into the classroom to answer the remaining questions, ALL students must register with April. Exam sign-up REQs are done via forsc@gwu.edu only...no in-person or telephone requests will be taken. Proceed
by creating a new MSG titled FA08 Comps Sign-up. Within the MSG body,
indicate your NAME, GWID, and AOC (concentration) in the following
format, no 3-paragraph/page MSGs necessary:
