STANDARDIZED SECTIONS

Students in large courses which embody several sections often comment upon the difference in marking and instruction readily discernable between any two of the various divisions. Not infrequently undergraduates change sections in order to "get a man" under whom they "can pass"; or less often transfer to a section where they "will learn something". A similar phenomenon is also noted in the case of half-courses, one of which continues the work of the other. Although the work of the second semester is usually started with practically the same subject, the identical lecturer, and about the same students in the course, a change of assistants sometimes plays havoc with the former relative standing of individual members of the class.

It should be possible without any very elaborate machinery to inculcate a more complete uniformity of grades and instruction than certain courses now exhibit. More frequent conferences between lecturer and assistants would undoubtedly help; all section papers might be made out by the lecturer, or at least by the head assistant, with the provision that they be alterable to the contingencies of each particular section. Specimen weekly papers could be collected at frequent intervals from all sections and, as is often done in the case of final examination books, the grades correlated and checked one against the other. All this, of course, means additional work for the professor in charge. But a more complete standardization of the integral parts of large courses is essential if the Faculty would achieve its oft-averred aim,--justice to every student.