Soc Stud Extends Exam Date; Students Contest Grade Policy

The Social Studies Department Examination Committee decided yesterday to administer general examinations for junior concentrators this spring, despite a unanimous vote of the students last Tuesday to postpone the test until September.

Andreas Teuber '64, head tutor of Social Studies, said yesterday at a meeting of approximately 35 of the 50 junior concentrators that the committee decided students should "get the generals over with now," but will give students the option of taking the test any three days between now and June 8.

The exam was scheduled to be a five-day take-home exam to be taken next week, but students complained that they were informed of the date of the test only two weeks ago.

Social Studies students yesterday confronted Teuber, and Michael Walzer, chairman of the Social Studies Department, with questions concerning the validity of grades on the general exams.

Several students argued that to place a grade on the generals in addition to comments would serve no purpose, since the diagnostic test was designed to help students think in "appropriate terms" before writing the exam.

But Walzer said that by giving a grade to the exams, teachers cannot "fudge" making honest comments about a student's work.

Unless they have to give a student a grade, he said, they often do not tell a student the truth about his work.