THE DIVISIONAL GRAB-BAG

After three years of preparation for the general divisional examination, it is rather a come down for the Senior to be given just one half hour to put in writing the result of his labor in each of the two departments in the division outside his field of concentration. An examination is a game of chance at best, and to attempt to test so much in so short a time increases the element of uncertainty.

If the questions had been confined to a type which can be answered in a few pages, the task would not have been so difficult, but matters were made worse by a selection of subjects which might well occupy a whole course of lectures. How any student, for example, can be expected to give in fifteen minutes an intelligent discussion of "the relations of England and the United States during the past one hundred years" is beyond the comprehension of the average undergraduate.

Now that the Faculty has instituted the divisional examination as an essential stepping-stone to the degree, there seems to be no reason for not doing the job thoroughly. One hour is certainly not sufficient time for a written examination on two of the most extensive fields included in the college curriculum. The divisional general examination had preferably be divided into at least two separate papers, each with the same time allowance as is now allotted to the whole. Otherwise the form of question should be radically changed.

The great majority of the students appreciate the value of the general examination: they realize, too, that improvements in the plan are being made each year. But in a spirit of constructive criticism they object to a system which sets a premium upon the barest skeleton of correlated fact and gives no times for careful thought and planning. If the new examinations are to be a test of general knowledge,--they should eliminate chance by giving the student enough time to show how much he knows.