ENGLISH A

Both in its conduct and in its subject matter English A is primarily a preparatory school course. As such, it should be designed only for those students who have failed to obtain a mastery over simple English expression during the course of their school education.

It has for years been in practice compulsory for all Freshmen because the anticipatory examinations, which come a week before college opens, have been attempted by very few and passed by an oven more negligible percentage. Consequently, about a third of each entering class have been forced to go over the ground thoroughly covered in school, and to reach the end of English A knowing no more about the mastery and use of words than at the beginning. Hours have been wasted which might properly have been spent in starting their collegiate education rather than in repeating school work.

That this condition has at last been faced and at least partially solved by the English Department is a matter of no mean moment in the development of the Harvard curriculum. The abolition of the useless anticipatory examination and the lifting of the English. A requirement for all those who have passed the comprehensive entrance examination with a grade of 70 or above are certainly steps in the right direction.