The MPH Comprehensive Exam (here, aka “Comprehensive Exam’, “Comp Exam”, “comps”, “exam”) is a required milestone for the Gillings MPH degree awarded by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Comprehensive Exam is designed to evaluate students’ ability to apply foundational public health knowledge and skills developed in the MPH Core courses to novel contexts, problems and populations. The exam is designed to further the development of students’ integrative and critical thinking skills. The exam (and the preparation for it) also provides students with the opportunity to practice and demonstrate skills communicating about public health issues and solutions with colleagues, other stakeholders and the general public.

The Comprehensive Exam will cover the knowledge and skills developed from taking the following required Core MPH courses:

• SPHG 711 – Data Analysis for Public Health
• SPHG 712 – Measurements & Methods for Public Health Practice
• SPHG 713 – Systems Approaches to Understanding Public Health Issues
• SPHG 721 – Public Health Solutions: Systems, Policy & Advocacy
• SPHG 722 – Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating Public Health Solutions

All MPH  degree students—residential, online (MPH@UNC) and distance (Asheville) must take the exam.

There is no longer a need to sign up for an individual timeslot for the comprehensive exam. Students will automatically complete the exam at the end of the SPHG 722 course.

There is no fee to take the exam.

The Comp Exam will be administered only in SPHG 722. Students must have completed SPHG 711, 712, 713 and 721 prior to sitting for the exam.

We gave this a lot of consideration. Most importantly, the cost was a barrier for students and the School. Each student would have been charged $385 to take the exam. If the student had to retake the exam, they would have to pay another $385. Also, we concluded the CPH exam did not reflect the integrated nature of our MPH Core program, nor could we ensure that it reflected all the changes to the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH) competencies. The Gillings MPH Comprehensive Exam is based on the integrated MPH Core curriculum, and there is no fee.

The MPH Comprehensive Exam will be submitted in writing via Canvas. Each student will receive two randomly assigned primary questions pertaining to the health topic of their group project. Student responses must not exceed 200-words per question. Students will have till the 11:59PM EST on the due date of the SPHG 722 final to complete the assignment. If a student needs accommodations related to the due date, please contact the teaching faculty. Students are responsible for uploading all exam documents in their entirety by the deadline. Faculty will not review any documents after the due date of the exam. If students do not turn in exam by the deadline, they will fail the exam and retake it at the next offering of the exam.

Students should be sure to answer each component of the question and answer them in the order in which they are listed in the question. Students should try to use topic sentences to indicate which component of the question they are answering. 

Yes, you can prepare your answers in advance, if you want, then submit via Canvas when notified of your two questions. As long as your responses are submitted by the due date you can prepare as much as you want in Canvas and save your progress.

Students should prepare their answers based on their knowledge gained from the completion of the MPH Core courses. The audience for the exam are faculty, colleagues, and others who might ask you for your public health perspective on the topic. These professional colleagues may have expertise that is different from yours, so avoid jargon. When you organize your answers for the primary questions provided before the exam, refer to your course materials and other relevant literature.

If your response includes a source that should be cited, then yes add reference(s) after your written response. Note: responses must be limited to 200 words per question and the reference will not be included in the word count.

Instead, you might say something as follows:
The World Health Organization, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has described how the COVID-19 is a respiratory virus that is transmitted by droplets.

Yes, you can discuss the questions and responses with your team and classmates in other teams. The teaching team encourages students to continue to discuss their projects with classmates. We encourage preparing for the exam together. However, your responses must be individual written responses that comply with the UNC Honor Code.

No, it is an individual assessment. You can discuss as a team but every student has to submit their own answers in their own words in compliance with the UNC Honor Code.

You may study together as a team, but each student must answer the question in their own words. The teaching team will use plagiarism software to confirm that everyone is following this policy, as mandated by the UNC Graduate School and Honor Code.

No, students will each utilize the health topic from their group project.

Students registered to take the exam are given access to the MPH Core courses content. Students are encouraged to look back at the team project experiences from their MPH Core courses to capture the nature and spirit of the Comp Exam.
Use of the internet and other sources is permitted. However, students should be able to answer the question without doing any additional research.

• Residential and distance (Asheville) MPH students will access the MPH Core courses content via Canvas.
• Former BSPH (who are current MPH students) and MSPH students also will be given access to the MPH Core courses in Canvas.
• MPH@UNC students will have Digital Campus access to their MPH Core courses.
• Students who took the 600-series of courses (BIOS, ENVR, EPID, HBEH, HPM) will be granted access to the following integrated MPH Core courses (SPHG 711, 712, 713, 721, 722) to review these syllabi and posted course materials so that they can refer to these courses along with their 600-series lessons in the preparation of their responses to the primary questions.

Please contact MPHCoordinators@unc.edu if you require access to these course sites.

Scores will be posted in the same time frame as semester grades in the format of Pass or Fail. Any student who does not pass the exam will be contacted by their respective MPH Program Coordinator.

Responses should be derived from data, empirical evidence, theory or other concepts taught in the MPH Core courses. Responses should not be based on conjecture.

If students need accommodations, they must register through the University’s Accessibility Resources & Service (ARS) and inform the SPHG 722 teaching team of their registration.. It is the student’s responsibility to complete registration at least four weeks before the start of the semester in which he/she will take the exam.

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. By university policy, a reexamination must be done at least 90 days after the initial exam date. A student becomes 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.

Passing rate averages at 98% each year. If a student has been engaged and participating in the assignments for the team project and understands the material covered in class, they should pass this assignment.

The goal and intention of the exam is to assess students’ knowledge and ability to speak about and discuss public health topics. It would not be surprising if some students did not pass the exam on the first attempt. If a student does not pass, we will put together a remediation plan to help prepare him/her to successfully retake the exam.

Yes, students must be registered in one credit in order to retake the exam.

Gillings SPHG 722 faculty will grade the exam.

SPHG 722 teaching faculty will follow the same rubric and be trained on grading the exam with the common rubric. Note that the MPH Comprehensive Exam score does not impact the SPHG 722 course grade. Students are responsible for uploading all exam documents in their entirety by the deadline. Faculty will not review any documents after the due date of the exam. If students do not turn in exam by the deadline, they will fail the exam and retake it at the next offering of the exam.

Exam grades are typically posted 30 days after the due date of the exam. The MPH program will notify you that the grades have been posted.

No. This assessment does not count towards your SPHG 722 grade.

SPHG 701 content will not be included.

Similar to the MSPH students who may have completed the old MPH core courses, they will have access to the Canvas sites for the SPHG 711, 712, 713, 721 & 722 to see the competencies addressed and types of assignments covered. Although much of the content from the old core courses may be relevant to the current exam, students may want to review additional materials and specific competencies covered in the new MPH Core.