How It Works
Date of exam
The Spanish Masters exam will usually be offered during the third week of October and the third week of March.
Topics
Beginning Fall 2024, the Spanish M.A. Exam consists of three questions per area and students must answer one of the three options. Students will complete a total of two responses per day. A short break will be provided between the two questions each day (approx. 10 mins). The exam is based on the reading list and material covered in the 66XX-level M.A. classes.
There are 6 areas for the exam: 4 literature, 2 linguistics
- Area 1: Peninsular Literature (from the Middle Ages to the 18th century)
- Area 2: Peninsular Literature (from 18th century to present)
- Area 3: Latin American Literature (Colonial to 19th Century)
- Area 4: Latin American Literature (Modern period 20 Century to present)
- Area 5: Second language Acquisition
- Area 6: Hispanic Sociolinguistics OR History of the Spanish Language
Requirements
- All exams are graded according to the Pass/Fail Rubric below for the Spanish Masters Exam and the “80% rule”
- Students need to pass 4 out of 6 areas to pass the exam.
- Students need to pass at least one in each category: Peninsular Lit, Latin American Lit, and Linguistics (e.g. at least 1 or 2, 3 or 4, 5 or 6)
- For Area 6, students might choose if they prefer to answer the questions for Sociolinguistics or for the History of the Spanish Language.
- Students might choose to answer BOTH topics for Area 6 (Sociolinguistics or for the History of the Spanish Language), but they are required to pass only one in order to pass Area 6.
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Logistics of Area 6: Since students have the option to answer both topics for Area 6, then each topic would need to be administered at a different time, e.g. Sociolinguistics Wed 7 - 8pm, History of the Spanish Language Thursday 6 - 7pm. If they can only choose one, then both can be administered at the same time.
PASS/FAIL Rubric for the Spanish Master's Exam
A Passing response on a question from the Spanish Master's Exam does all of the following:
- addresses all aspects of the task
- demonstrates knowledge of the subject matter
- reflects accurate understanding of concepts and terminology
- develops arguments and/or presents information in a coherent and well focused manner
- includes insightful analysis
- integrates appropriate evidence
- appropriately cites sources of information where required
- features clear, accurate sentence structure and word choice
- avoids persistent grammatical or orthographical errors
- follows formatting and organization of the Modern Language Association (norm for all written work in Spanish graduate classes)
A Failing response does some or all of the following:
- neglects or fails to answer major aspects of the task
- demonstrates weak knowledge of the subject matter relevant to the task
- frequently misuses concepts and terminology
- shows incoherent, fragmented development of arguments and/or organization and presentation
- confuses historical and literary periods and their characteristics
- includes little analysis; relies mainly on summary (or plot summaries)
- often fails to integrate appropriate evidence, including examples and previous assertions and the development of arguments
- neglects to cite sources where required
- features pervasive problems in sentence structure, word choice, orthography
- ignores basic Modern Language Associate formatting and organization
The '80%' rule of the Evaluation of the Spanish Master's Exam
To receive a PASS on the Spanish Master's Exam, the student must receive a passing grade on 80% of the exam's questions, either the first time the exam is taken or by the end of any retakes.