His499 "Comprehensive Evaluation" has two components: a portfolio and a blue-book exam.

Portfolio
On "Portfolio Day" (usually 15 days before the scheduled exam), seniors will submit a portfolio to the chair of the department. The portfolio will demonstrate four categories of skills and experiences, as outlined below.

Students are responsible for creating portfolio items throughout their academic career and for preserving those items. Note that sophomores and juniors wishing their academic advisors to keep backup copies of portfolio items can submit such items to their advisors each year on Portfolio Day. Students should note that preparing the first two parts of the portfolio is excellent preparation for job applications and job interviews, and preparing the last two parts of the portfolio is excellent preparation for making graduate school applications.

• Intellectual Engagement Outside the Classroom (three items)
This should be demonstrated with three written responses to a history-related event for which the student received no academic credit. Ideally, the events should be from three different academic years. Among the documents that might be included in this section of the portfolio are personal ruminations on the historical significance of a movie sponsored by the history club, a copy of an email exchange with an off-campus historian, a report or essay contributed to the departmental webpage, or the text of a paper presented at a scholarly conference.

• Using History after College (one or two sets of items)
This should be demonstrated with one or two brief essays (300-500 words) on how you might transform a specific for-credit college assignment into something you will use in your life after Hanover College. For example, a student anticipating a career in secondary education might explain how he would transform a specific paper into a classroom project. Another student might explain how a specific presentation demonstrates skills useful in the business world. A third student might explain how a specific exam represents a body of knowledge that she will enjoy developing further through a plan of recreational reading. The papers, exams, or presentation notes should be included with the essays.

• Historiographical Analysis (one item or a pair of items)
This should be demonstrated with the paper that best illustrates the student's ability to analyze secondary sources and the "history of history." Students should submit the original graded paper, and they may also include a revised version of the paper.

• Analysis of Primary Sources (one item or a pair of items)
This should be demonstrated with the paper that best illustrates the student's ability to analyze primary sources. Students should submit the original graded paper, and they may also include a revised version of the paper.

Blue-book Exam
The examination includes questions from six categories: (1) European History through the French Revolution, (2) European History since the French Revolution, (3) American History through the Civil War, (4) American History since the Civil War, (5) World History, and (6) Comparative History. Students answer five questions, responding to questions from at least four categories and answering no more than two questions from any one category. The questions will reflect the previous three years' course offerings. Essays should provide historical arguments supported by specific details, but most questions will be general enough that the details from various classes might appropriately be used to support those arguments.

Grading
Each of the blue-book essays will receive a letter grade, and the final grade for the comprehensive exam will be the average of those grades.

Students will not receive credit for His499 until their portfolio has been approved by the department. Students whose portfolios are not approved will have the opportunity to revise and resubmit them.