KEEPING ABREAST OF THE TIMES

This morning at 9:15 o'clock those men taking Government I will complete their year's work in the course by taking the final examination. And yet for a large number of these men this examination will have no real effect on the mark they receive for the course.

This fact is obvious to the large number of men who are taking the course now or who have taken it before, and is due to a system much more in keeping with secondary school education than with that given in college. The grading is so arranged that the numerical total in the weekly papers, the midyear and final examinations is ascertained, and the mark is given according to the total number of points. As a result there are always certain men who have been doing well, who would not even need to attend the examination in order to receive a satisfactory grade. It also means that except for men on the border line between two marks the examination has little significance, either as a possible means of raising a mark or of lowering it.

Such a system, which puts a premium on short disconnected papers and reducing the final examination to a position of comparative unimportance, cannot justify itself in Harvard University where the whole trend is towards comprehensive examinations, such as the divisional.

History I and Economics A. both elementary courses which fall in the same category with Government I, have worked out a far more satisfactory relationship between the short weekly checking up and final examinations, and there is no real reason why Government I cannot change its methods so that they are more in keeping with a policy which is being so universally followed elsewhere in the University.