Comprehensive Exam Question - Advice Request

Hi All!

I have a bit of a situation here, and I'm not quite sure how to respond. I'm hoping you all might enlighten me, or at least share your opinions.

I received my comprehensive exams from WNMU. They're in a take home format. Essentially, they chose six courses (3 History & 3 PolySci) and gave a question related to each course. I've noticed the these are striking similar to questions I had already answered while taking the courses. I had saved all my papers, and when I saw the questions, I looked back through them and saw that I had indeed already answered questions that were almost identical.

So here's my question... Am I able to use material I've already written to contribute to my exams? I'm not saying I should submit the same paper again, as I can definitely update it, but would it be wrong to build upon what I've already done? Or is that taboo and I should start from scratch?

Thank you for your advice!

-Matt

 

What rules did they give you for the exam? Is it open-textbook, open-notes? In that case, I'd say that you have really good notes to use in answering the exam questions.

 

They didn't give specific rules actually. They just said to answer the questions and submit them by the 29th. It's a take home format, and all of the take home exams I've taken for this program were open book and notes, so I assumed this one would be the same.

-Matt

 

Also remember that using wording from previous work without citations is plagiarism, even if it is your own work. :usa2:

 

Right, which is why I'm leaning towards updating what I had done previously. Just seems a bit odd that they'd give me questions I've already answered, but from talking to a few folks, apparently that happens often. A friend of mind was working on her EdS and her comps were all questions taken directly from a workbook they used in the program.

-Matt

 

They used a question they used previously, so there is no problem using an answer you used previously (with updating.) It happens all the time at other schools too.