BOOKS AND BLUES

As the examination period draws out to a lingering death at the end of the week, the slaughtered host of undergraduates will depart for mountain or urban resorts for a few days, nursing the profound desire never to look a blue book in the face again. But the blue books turned in during the last fortnight represent the distillation of four months of work, plus the soul-searing heat of cramming. Yet in a number of courses the chance to see a blue book after it has been written is altogether denied, or made so hard that the exploratory genius of a Peary is needed to freeze the book out of the files. Clearly it is up to the college to adopt a uniform policy insuring the return of these papers.

Unpleasant as it may be, the process of going over old examinations pays dividends. There is no easier way to find out what mistakes not to repeat, how better to organize material under pressure, and how to perfect the art of padding little substance, than by reviewing past experience. And often nebulous ideas, hastily put down, can later be recovered and put to good advantage by further investigation and study.

For concentrators in given fields, course examinations serve as milestones on the road to divisional, showing how far the student has progressed and how the instructors like his method of presentation. Thus access to past papers helps to improve the technique of writing under fire. Furthermore, when all papers are returned, the onus of careful correcting rests more heavily on the assistants. For, when no examinations are given back, only the very bad or very serious-minded undergraduate ever lets loose a squawk about his grade.

In the past the working of the college in this regard has been hit-or-miss. Some courses are careful to return their books, while others file them away in the departmental offices or in the waste-baskets. The appropriate time for University Hall to formulate a definite police and see to it that the examination blue books are given back to their authors is at the end of the current mid-winter session.