According to the current official Graduate Catalogue, "candidates for the Master of Arts degree in art history are required to pass a written comprehensive examination after the completion of their course work and prior to undertaking work on the thesis." Normally, this examination takes place in the semester following the completion of course work.
The duration of the exam is set at three hours. It consists of two parts: slide identifications and essay questions. Students must determine the time and place of the examination in consultation with their graduate advisors, who in turn will request questions and the images to be identified from all the faculty involved in the test.
Faculty choose six images for identification from the most recent edition of Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Students are expected to identify each work (artist, title, name, date, place, etc.) and write a brief comment on its art historical significance.
Five weeks prior to the test, students receive from their advisors five questions that they must research and prepare to answer in well-organized, scholarly essays. The subject areas of these questions are based on the courses the student took at GSU. One theory question is normally included among the five. Each question is normally written and corrected by the faculty member who currently teaches in the relevant area. Of the five prepared questions, the test asks only two, one of which is usually a theory question. The student must answer both questions in the space of two hours.
The exam is taken individually in a quiet place where a slide projector or viewer is available. Usually, the test is written in the office of the student's advisor, and the student may be allowed to use the advisor's computer to write the answers.
The test is graded (Pass/Fail) by the advisor, in conjunction with the faculty members who prepared the questions and made the slide selections. If there is any doubt about whether the test is passable, or if there is any need for clarification, the student may be given a chance to expand his or her answers in a meeting with all the faculty involved in the test. If the student fails the comprehensive exam, he or she can take it again at a later date. However, students can only take this test twice. Students who fail the comprehensive exam on the second attempt will not be permitted to continue in the program.