Comprehensive Examinations

Exam Schedule | Area Committees and Reading Lists | Instructions for Students | Comprehensive Exam Policy

The PhD program requires that students take two comprehensive examinations.

We offer comprehensive exams in the following core areas of department specialization:  

Colonialization, Racialization and Indigeneity; Sociology of Crime and Law; Sociology of Culture; Gender; Global Migration; Health & Mental Health; Political Sociology; Qualitative Methods; Computational and Quantitative Methods; Social Networks; Theory; and Work, Stratification & Markets. We recommend that students take 1-2 courses in the core area prior to taking the comp exam in that area.

In addition to the examinations offered in core areas, students may request to take a comprehensive exam in the following “emerging” areas of expertise: Aging & Life Course; Environmental Sociology; Family; Social Policy; and Urban Sociology. Students may file a request with the Grad Office to take an exam in one of these areas of expertise at least 6 months ahead of time; if the Grad Chair/Assoc. Chair are able to form a faculty comp committee in that area, they will approve the request. Note that courses will not be typically offered in these areas.   

We advise students to plan to take their Major comprehensive exam at the end of year one and their Minor comprehensive exam by the end of the second year, though the time targets may vary slightly depending upon the M.A. program the student enters from. Students have the option of taking the exams in February or in August. The Major exam is offered as a 5-day take-home exam, and the Minor exam as a 3-day take-home exam. The amount of time and the timing of the exam is non-negotiable. 

Differences between Major and Minor exams are described in the Comps Policy document (note that students are permitted to take both exams under the Major exam format). Students must notify the Graduate Office of intent to take the comprehensive examination via email to the Graduate Program Assistant by October 15 for February exam or April 15 for August exam.  The completed Comprehensive Exam Request Form is due to the Graduate Office after the group meeting occurs but no later than November 30 for the February exam or May 31 for the August exam. 

Area Committees (tentative) and Reading Lists

*Previous COMP Committees, Reading Lists, and COMP Exams Link 

Area Reading List	Prior Exam(s)	Exam Date	Chair		Member	Member
Colonialism, Racialization, Indigeneity - 2023 (PDF).pdf	CRI Exam - Feb 2023 (PDF).pdf	August 2025	Adese		Flores	Gray
		February 2026	Adese		Flores	Gray
Crime & Law Reading List, as of May 29 2023 (PDF).pdf	Crime and Law - Aug 2024.pdf	August 2025	Super		Bryan	Owusu-Bempah
		February 2026	Super		Bryan	Owusu-Bempah
Sociology of Culture - 2023.pdf	Culture Exam (PDF).pdf	August 2025	Leschziner		Mullen	Baumann
		February 2026	Leschziner		Mullen	Baumann
Gender - 2023 (PDF).pdf	Gender Exam (PDF) Gender Exam - Feb 2023.pdf	August 2025	Green		Taylor	Choo
		February 2026	Green		Taylor	Choo
Global Migration (PDF).pdf	Global Migration - Aug 2024.pdf	August 2025	Landolt		Ye	Korteweg
		February 2026	Landolt		Ye	Korteweg
Health and Mental Health - 2022 (PDF)	Health and Mental Health - Aug 2024.pdf	August 2024	Berry		M. Silver	Magee
		February 2025	Berry		M. Silver	Magee
Political Sociology - 2025 (PDF).pdf	Political Sociology - Aug 2024.pdf	August 2025	Levi		Hoffman	Pettinicchio
		February 2026	Levi		Hoffman	Pettinicchio
Qualitative Methods - 2025.pdf	Qualitative Methods Exam (PDF) Qualitative Methods Exam - Feb 2023 (PDF).pdf	August 2025	Fields		J. Lee	Doering
		February 2026	Fields		J. Lee	Doering
Quantitative Methods (PDF)	Quant Methods - Aug 2024.pdf	August 2025	Wheaton		Alexander	Fosse
		February 2026	Wheaton		Alexander	Grigoryeva
Social Network - 2023 (PDF).pdf	Social Networks Exam (PDF) Networks Exam - Feb 2023.pdf	August 2025	Boase		Erickson	Dokshin
		February 2026	Boase		Erickson	Dokshin
Theory - 2025.pdf	Theory - Aug 2024.pdf	August 2025	D. Silver		Veugelers	Plys
		February 2026	D. Silver		Veugelers	Plys
Work, Stratification, and Markets (PDF).pdf	Work, Stratification, Markets Exam (PDF)	August 2025	Schieman		Cranford	Welsh
		February 2026	Schieman		Cranford	Welsh

In recent years, because students have requested it, we have also offered comprehensive exams in Life Course and Aging (PDF), Environmental Sociology (PDF).pdf, Sociology of Families - 2024.pdf, Social Policy.pdf, and Urban Sociology (PDF).

Comprehensive Examination Instructions for Students

The following instructions are mailed out to exam takers 2 weeks prior to exam start and at 9am on day of exam. Note: If you do not receive your exam by 9:15 am, contact the Graduate Office immediately.  

1. If you are registered with accessibility services and have an accommodation for the exam you must let us know 6 weeks prior to the exam. Please have the accessibility services officer email socgrad.assist@utoronto.ca directly. 

2. If you are ill or injured just prior to or during the exam period, write immediately to socgrad.assist@utoronto.ca and sociology.graduate@utoronto.ca to inform us. We will provide information related to the Verification of Illness (VOI) form. A doctor’s signature and the dates that the doctor indicates academic work cannot be performed are required with this form.  

3. Do NOT email the comp exam committee directly for any reason during or after the exam. If you have a clarification or other question that arises once the exam has been sent to you, direct your question to the graduate office.  

4. Answers must be submitted in Word format no later than 5:00 PM EST on Wednesday, DATE (minor/second comp) / Friday, DATE (major/first comp). Answers will not be accepted after this time. Your exam will be marked as a fail in these cases.  

5. For MAJOR exams:  You are required to answer THREE (3) QUESTIONS (ONE QUESTION FROM EACH OF PARTS A, B & C).  Each answer should be 10-12 pages (12-point Times New Roman font, standard margins, and double-spaced) in length. The complete exam should not total more than 36 pages in length (12-point Times New Roman font, standard margins, and double-spaced), not including references. THE COMMITTEE WILL NOT READ PAST THE 36th PAGE.  

6. For MINOR exams, assuming the standard shortened option: You are required to answer ONE (1) QUESTION. The answer should be 10-12 pages (12-point Times New Roman font, standard margins, and double-spaced) in length, not including references. THE COMMITTEE WILL NOT READ PAST THE 12th PAGE.  

7.  Academic Integrity: submitting comprehensive exam questions to ChatGPT or other generative AI tools in order to generate, write and/or edit comp answers is prohibited. All comp answers must be originally crafted using students’ own ideas, without the aid of generative AI. Notes about other uses of AI: *During the writing of the comp exam, students may use editing software that assists them with translation and writing revision, such as DeepL, Grammarly or the Microsoft Office suite. *While it is not mandatory, students can keep drafts of their work-in-progress prior to submission.* In the months leading up to the exam, students may use AI tools to help prepare and organize readings for the exam. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information generated by AI tools. In addition, no one other than you may read, edit or comment on your exam prior to submission to the comp committee and Graduate Office. It is your responsibility to read and be aware of the University’s Academic Integrity resources, and specifically the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. Please note, your exam may be run through a plagiarism detection tool, Original, for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of the Original service are described on the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation website: https://uoft.me/pdt-faq.  

8.  When your exam is complete, email the answers to the Graduate Office socgrad.assist@utoronto.ca. Students will receive results approximately four weeks after turning in the exam.    

Comprehensive Exam Policy

You can view the Comprehensive Exam Policy April 2024.pdf here.