PROGRESS: ECONOMICS 9a

The first meetings of courses are, as a rule, singularly unproductive and even a bit tiresome. There is, be sure, a certain feeling of relief in knowing that nothing of importance will be said, but in the average course such first impressions are deceptive and temporary. Hence Professor Cole threw the proverbial "pineapple" among the ranks of students in Economics 9a by announcing certain progressive measures which he intends to introduce into the course.

Economics 9a is an advanced course in its field. And each year there are members of this course, and similar ones, who, from what they have gathered from other courses in the field, or from their tutorial work, plus a little extra reading, would be perfectly capable of passing a final examination after attending the first lecture. Professor Cole intends to give just such an examination for those who care to take it. The results are then to be checked with those of the examination taken at the end of the course, and if they are found to tally fairly closely, within ten points for instance, Professor Cole will approach the Administration with the suggestion that in the future a successful grade in some such preliminary examination may entitle the student to full credit for the course and allow him to proceed to other and more profitable pursuits.

Any critical comment on such a suggestion must of necessity begin with that platitude which concerns the two sides of every question. There can be no doubt, particularly in view of the tutorial system, that in a field as general--even slightly chaotic--as Economics, there are bound to be certain courses which overlap. This being true, it is equally obvious that a student is wasting his time on any course the subject matter of which he has already covered. Divisionals must be faced and information of a diverse nature must be acquired. The question is, should a student be credited twice with work which he has covered but once, even though such a tempting lure is dangled before his eyes?

The whole purpose of the tutorial system has been to eliminate the necessity of taking an entire course in order to glean a very few facts, and together with the divisionals and the distribution requirements, it has successfully discouraged the practise, so flourishing in former days, of taking sixteen "snap" courses and getting a degree. Here is a instance where it has apparently failed, but the application is the same and a remedy is in order. Whether it be in the direction of departmental reorganization or that of closer tutorial supervision cannot here be discussed, but a system of preliminary examinations certainly does not fit in with the Administration's present policy of "broader education".