No Books to Burn

There has always been a bit of the mystic in midterm and final grades. The student troops off to Memorial Hall and writes for an afternoon. Soon thereafter he receives a postcard; the only evaluation of his efforts is in a cryptic, insufficient mark. Though there were frequent requests by students who wanted to see the error of their ways, professors had a good excuse for not returning blue books. University regulations, they said, forbade handing the tests back to the students. Instead, the professor had to store the books for a full year. The ruling, perhaps, was a little vague, but there it was. As it turned out in the last few days, however, it wasn't there at all. An enterprising University Hall secretary dug through the archives and came up with word that what the professors did with blue books was of no official concern to the administration.

The consequences of this trip to the archives go beyond depriving some professors of an annual bluebook bonfire. Students should now be given back their books. No longer will the reasoning behind a particular grade be the secret of a grader, pried from him only a specially-arranged meetings. If a student is to write for three hours, he deserves to know where he failed or succeeded. Under the new University regulation, or lack of it, there is no reason that he must be deprived of this knowledge any further.

If the grader takes time to Marshall his arguments and set them down, the marking process will be slowed considerably. But the value in a detailed reply by the grader outweighs the expense and time involved. Examinations can do many things. They can separate knowers from guessers. But to be thoroughly useful, a test must enlighten the student as well as evaluate his past work. If the graders had to back up their decision with an opinion, careful evaluation of essays would be better insured. It is time for examination books to be out from in front of fireplaces and back in the hands of the author.