THE BLUE BOOKS

Deficiency among the various departments of the College in the method of correcting examination papers has become entirely too prevalent. In many cases, this deficiency has reached such a degree that the papers are not returned at all. In others the papers are handed back with the only marks on them a column of figures denoting the number of points obtained on each question. There are, in short, few courses in which the correcting of examinations is of any definite value to the student.

There is rarely a student who does not leave an examination knowing that he has made several errors, but being ignorant of what those errors might be. There is, moreover, only one way by which the students may discover their errors and profit by them without taking the trouble of restudying the entire subject involved in the question. This one way is by getting back the paper, corrected, the mistakes marked, and in some cases remarks as to what would have been more pertinent.

The question as to whether or not the additional time that would be required for this could be found is not as important as it would seem, for in one of those courses in which the papers are not returned it is the custom to read over A and E papers as many as six times. Although this is an exceptional case, it would seem to show that there is sufficient time to correct papers in such a way that they would be of help to the student.