Bureau of Study Counsel Provides Tips in Exam Writing, Class Work

Cambridge's only officially-sponsored and operated tutoring school is run from a fifth-floor office in Holyoke House, holds classes in the isolated University Museum at the unspeakable hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and teaches College students how to read. The Bureau of Study Counsel, however, also gives tips in writing examination papers and direct tutoring in Harvard courses. It has been called by one student "the best thing for learning since No Doz."

Despite its success in helping students out of immediate academic pitfalls, the Bureau's most unusual work is concentrated in the field of reading. With the aid of modern scientific devices, William G. Perry, Jr. '35, director of the Bureau, and Charles P. Whitlock, his assistant, try to correct the one defect which underlies many D's and E's--poor reading speed and comprehension. Each one gave a section in the reading class this fall, one at 8, the other at 5 in the afternoon.

The classes, held in the geology lecture room of the University Museum, consist of films, selections read for speed of comprehension, lessons in skimming and note taking, suggestions on writing exam papers, and dramatizations of the attitudes behind different methods of studying.

The film projector shows pages of print on the screen. Each line of print is revealed jump by jump at increasing speeds. At the beginning of the course the speed was 190 words per minute. By the 19th day the speed had risen to 600 words per minute. The subjects of the films ranged from "Napoleon" and "Barzun on Hokum" to "The Ituri Pygmies."

According to the question sheet which all students filled out at the end of the course, most of them took it in order to improve their speed and comprehension. Many were freshmen who took advantage of the priority on seats which the Bureau offers by letter to those freshmen who did poorly on the required reading test. The class has at times included a large number of upperclassmen, many graduate students, and even professors.

Parodies and Plays

Most students did not expect, however, the additional work on taking notes and writing exams, and were generally surprised on how interesting the classes were. The instructors threw in parodies, pantomimes, and miniature one act plays which maintained a reasonable level of interest even at 8 a.m. These efforts led one student to remark on his comment sheet that "Mr. Perry's adroit stage manner and delightful witticisms have been a constant joy."

Although one student complained of ending up with only a loss of sleep and the loss of his car bumper in an accident while trying to get to school on time for the class, the average student raised his speed of comprehension about 80 percent on the tests given. The instructors warn against accepting too literally the meaning of these test scores. Along with the students, they seem to feel that the general gains in confidence and "know how" in approaching reading material were of equal importance.

The reading class is, of course, only one of the ways the Bureau helps students. At the beginning of the year it offers short refresher courses in trigonometry and mathematics and reviews of grammar for those entering the intermediate language courses such as French C and Spanish C. This fall for the first time it gave a six-meeting review in English grammar.

"Supervision"

Perhaps the center of the Bureau's work is in its individual counseling and tutoring. Just as the reading course is aimed at not only giving the student an increase in reading speed, but also helping to solve his study problems in general, the tutoring program, which the Bureau calls "Supervision," teaches the student not only the information he may lack in a given course but helps him to improve the efficiency of his learning process. Thousands of hours of direct contact with students encountering trouble with their studies have revealed to the Bureau certain skills necessary for efficient study. It tries to pass these on to the student.

This basic premise of the Bureau is what distinguishes it so markedly from the commercial tutoring schools which were banned from the University by faculty vote in 1940. The "tute" schools were designed only to cram a student through a course, and considered themselves most successful when a student came back for more. The Bureau, however, tries to make the student independent of further help.

The counseling that the Bureau does consists of getting the student to discuss his working problems. Often these can be cleared up once he talks them ever with someone trained to understand them. The problems vary from mechanical methods of note-making to what Perry calls the more personal "hopes and fears, values and choices that influence academic work." Many students who are receiving honor grades avail themselves of this opportunity to learn how to improve their efficiency.

Some students come to the Bureau expecting to be given a formula or "pink pill" that will automatically better their grades. Some of those who took the reading course even expected before-hand to have their reading speed raised a certain, specific amount. The ability of the Bureau to help a student, however, depends upon the initiative he takes and how actively he takes part in the discussion, as the final expert in his own affairs. "We serve the student best as his consultant," Perry says. "He can't come and expect to be told what to do even when he feels at quite a loss. We have to listen to him and understand how he sees things before we are able to help him."

Although the Bureau has difficulty handling all the work that comes to it now. Perry says that "I am opposed to the expansion of this office in an endeavor to meet all the problems there are."

He stated that the money used to expand the office would have to come from funds available for the faculty and would prevent adding more section men in certain over-crowded section courses.

Close Contact Needed

Because the whole idea of this kind of counseling is new, and relatively little is known about it, Perry feels that the Director should be in close contact with the students, doing counseling work himself, instead of becoming an administrator as he would in an enlarged office. Perry believes that because he is still learning so much himself, he could not properly supervise additional counselors.

The Directors of the Bureau believe also that counselors should work in and with the teaching faculty. Whitlock this year is teaching a section in Social Sciences 112; Perry teaches Guidance 12 in the School of Education. Perry warns of the split which can follow any thoughtless expansion of professional counseling:

"An overdose of professional guidance services can lead to a specialization in which the faculty feels less responsibility for the students as people, leaving the emotional and personal areas to those who profess to be trained to deal with them."

One of the main functions of the Bureau is therefore, "to act as a source through which the faculty may explore the nature of the process at the receiving end of teaching," says Perry. As an example, he cites the conferences which the Bureau holds with groups of freshman advisers at which problems of advising are discussed.

"Although every instructor must consider the students' problems in the learning of his own subject," Perry said, "there is a place for an office which makes this kind of general observation and thinking a full-time job."