DIVISIONAL EXAMINATIONS

For the general idea of a comprehensive examination to test the student's attainments in a field of study as a prerequisite to graduation, too much cannot be said. As a stimulus to thought and reading, and as a co-ordinating force, no better method than the preparation the divisional examinations require could probably be divised. Their whole idea is based on the presumption that men who come to college want an education and not merely a degree. Such examinations, demanding as they do a broad knowledge of a subject and not a temporary grasp of a few courses, are, indeed, the promise of the Harvard of the future.

The mechanics of the system here in the University, however, can be given no such praise. Candidates in the division of History, Government and Economics are compelled to carry a double burden--preparation for their divisionals and their regular college work as well. The establishment of History A, a half-course intended through lectures and reading to help students correlate their previous courses and appreciate the significance of the great epochs and forces of history, is a step in the right direction. One-half a course is not enough credit, however, for the preparation that success in the Divisionals requires. Any of the hundred Seniors who have just taken their examinations will tell you that Divisional preparation has taken fully as much time as any two courses he has taken.

One full course credit should be given in the future for the tutorial, preparation. The staff of tutors, moreover, should be doubled. Instead of regarding their tutees as an unimportant side issue and nuisance in their work as instructors in the University, the tutors might well devote the major part of their time to this duty, and become, as the catalogue euphemistically states, not task masters but friends.