Colleges require students to approve a departmental comprehensive examination before graduating:
Comprehensive examinations are meant to test student knowledge across one or diverse fields.
Departmental Comprehensive Examinations are for testing the area knowledge of the student before he or she graduates. It is generally different from final examinations.
The benefits are numerous like an assessment of the student knowledge and skill, valuation of his expertise, assessment of the effectiveness of the program, lacunae in the delivery of the course of study, and means and ways of improvement.
Also, it is essential for the department to have a comprehensive check as it also uplifts the image of the department in the eyes of the students as they come to know that it won’t be easy to get through and the chances of their taking the course for granted with a casual approach become less.
There isn’t any conceivable loss. So the department should surely go for these exams. Some might see it as an extra burden on the students but beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. A knight does not fear failures.