WRITTEN ORALS.

At last the asperities of the orals have been softened, and the Student Council, acting as a mediator between students and Faculty, has gained a victory, for it is behind the change.

Indeed the orals are no longer oral. If a man wishes he may take a written examination at the beginning of his Junior year, or at any of the stated examination periods thereafter. As he will be prepared for this test by a half-year of tutoring, few men should stagger into Senior year under the onus of probation.

Probation now means something; it is a real disgrace under the new system; it is no longer a joke. This is one of the first benefits of the changed regulation.

Another is that the general feeling among undergraduates that the examinations are unfair tests will give way to a feeling that these examinations are real benefits and are not inquisitions conducted for the amusement of the modern language departments.