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Healthcare Oral Exam

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The Master of Healthcare Administration degree is a popular choice among professionals aspiring to leadership roles in healthcare, but the research requirements for an MHA degree often represent a bit of confusion for prospective applicants. Many people assume that all graduate degrees require an extensive research component, even as students are attending rigorous classes in their chosen field. While true in many cases, this is a blanket statement that doesn't represent all graduate degrees or even all Master of Healthcare Administration programs nationwide. Before enrolling in such a program, it's important to understand the potential research requirements as well as the many alternatives to traditional graduate research placements.

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degree programs, it's not the only way that faculty members assess a student's overall comprehension of key material during their enrollment at the school. Some programs are abandoning the traditional thesis in order to focus on more highly effective skills assessment techniques. In these cases, students will write only a small series of research papers in their classes, focusing instead on a major, end-of-program assessment.

The Oral Examination: A Hot Trend in Graduate Education

When the thesis is cast aside, it is almost always replaced by an oral examination in the presence of a student-selected faculty panel. Sometimes called a "comprehensive examination," this exam follows different rules than almost any other test in grad school. Students are typically permitted to select one or several topics that they feel most confident about. Then, the faculty panel will convene prior to the oral exam and select anywhere from one question to 5 questions in those subject areas.

On exam day, students will have to be prepared with a comprehensive knowledge of their chosen topics. Faculty members will ask their chosen questions of the student and, with only a whiteboard or computer projector in front of them, students will have to orally work through the program and present their answer to the panel. If the student presents a satisfactory answer to each question, they pass the

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