ORAL EXAM. RULES MODIFIED

The efforts of the Student Council toward improving the regulations of the oral examinations were recognized at a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences last Tuesday when two important amendments to the present system were adopted. These changes were in substance the recommendations as a result of a compromise between President Lowell and the Student Council, represented by a special committee composed of W. H. Trumbull, Jr., '15, president of the Student Council, D. Kimball '15, and C. H. Smith '15, chairman of the committee on scholarship. The purpose of the new regulations is to lessen the liability of men going on probation, and to afford a fairer opportunity than the present oral examination gives. The recommendations as passed by the Faculty read:

"(a). Students who at the middle of their Sophomore year have not passed the oral examination in French or German be required to take in the second half-year a tutorial course in that language provided by the department concerned. This course shall not count for a degree.

"(b). Students who at the end of their Sophomore year have not passed the oral examination in French or German may take a written examination at the beginning of their Junior year; those who fail to pass in this will be put on probation."

College to Provide Tutors.

This "tutorial course" is not to be a regular academic course with fixed meetings three times a week; the student will meet his tutor informally at intervals. The tutor, who superintends the reading of French and German done by the student, is provided by the College and is either on, or in close co-operation with, the board which has charge of the examinations, the object being to afford men the opportunity of acquiring the knowledge necessary to pass the examination, without employing a private tutor.

Those who fall to pass the oral tests in their Sophomore year are allowed the option of taking a written examination at the beginning of their Junior year before going on probation. This option is also granted at all subsequent examinations to students who are on probation. The written examination affords a student an absolutely fair trial before he is placed on probation, a student may appeal from the examiner's verdict. The examination will be of the same grade of difficulty as the oral, but consisting of a unit, such as an extensive, well-rounded chapter or episode, which need not be translated word for word, but closely paraphrased into equivalent English.