Exams and the CEP

The problem of how best to examine students has never been an easy one, and in opening discussion on this point the Committee on Educational Policy may lead itself, into a morass of endless, impassioned, and boring argument. Yet there is surely no doubt that discussion is worth the trouble, for if even one or two ideas are exchanged--and there will surely be many more than one or two--the University's educational system will be strengthened.

It is easy to demand new Faculty legislation on exams, or a mellifluously-written policy statement damning the multiple-choice questionnaire, the written final, and everything else except such ideals as the oral exam. Such a demand, of course, makes little sense in terms of the practical business of running a university. The objectives it desires bear little relation to those of the Committee, which is quite clearly more concerned with getting them to force policy onto their neighbors. The CEP should take every necessary step to insure that the results of its investigations are distributed and discussed as widely as possible.