"GENERAL" EXAMINATIONS

Among the many important recommendations made in the recently published Student Council Report on the tutorial system was the proposal to give different types of examinations to honors students and to pass men. By pointing out again the advantages of speculative questions over those demanding merely a display of memory power, the Report supported the large body of university opinion which leans in that direction. The Council erred, however, in advocating the exclusion of pass students from the plan.

The inability of mediocre students to deal with speculative questions has been considered a justification for the essentially factual examinations given in most fields. Without doubt the average student will fail to produce a finished essay on this difficult type of test. But that ought not to prevent the inauguration of papers which would test capacity for organizing material and for criticizing general ideas.

What makes the establishment of such genuinely "general" examinations imperative is not chiefly the need of judging rightly the original ability of the more brilliant candidates. It is rather the need of encouraging that ability. The type of examination set is important principally because it moulds the attitude of both undergraduates and instructors toward tutorial work. If divisionals demand primarily factual knowledge, the acquisition of facts is likely to become the student's goal.

Comprehension of underlying ideas and criticism of facts is clearly more important in education than is an undigested mass of information, even when it is that information which for Boston tradition constitutes culture. Essay questions demanding some reasoning and judgment on examinations undoubtedly foster the more mature and intelligent type of study which leads to real understanding and ability to criticize. It is in fields such as the fine arts and modern languages that the advantages of really "general" examinations are greatest. But the introduction of the speculative type of question on divisionals in all fields would be a distinct improvement, in the Harvard educational system.