News
Garber Announces Advisory Committee for Harvard Law School Dean Search
News
First Harvard Prize Book in Kosovo Established by Harvard Alumni
News
Ryan Murdock ’25 Remembered as Dedicated Advocate and Caring Friend
News
Harvard Faculty Appeal Temporary Suspensions From Widener Library
News
Man Who Managed Clients for High-End Cambridge Brothel Network Pleads Guilty
FOR MORE THAN 40 years, on the first day of exam period. The Crimson has devoted its Opinion Page to an unquestionably worthy pursuit--the search for ways to ace Harvard exams.
It all started when Donald Carswell '50 published his blueprint for "Beating the System" on June 12, 1950. The next year, Carswell's piece won the Dana Reed Prize for excellence in undergraduate writing. And twice a year since then, The Crimson has reprinted his story for the benefit of Harvard students struggling to succeed on their finals.
In 1962, an anonymous grader sent us a pithy response to Carswell's piece, and his advice, "Grader's Reply," has run alongside it ever since.
IT'S TIME for something new. Carswell's three methods for beating the system--a strategy The Crimson has legitimized more than 80 times on this page--virtually guarantee a plunge into the recesses of Group IV.
Especially horrific is his idea for the artful equivocation, an example of which reads, "...It is not a question of the cart before the horse in either case, merely the old problem of which came first, the chicken or the egg." Did this kind dreck get Carswell into grad school?
And the Garder's Reply--though it adeptly points out Carswell's biggest flaws--doesn't give Harvard students a good guide for cracking the system. Anyway, we're tired of printing his sexist jokes about Cliffies' handwriting.
SO WE'RE offering a challenge to our readers. For next semester's exam period, we want to replace the two anachronisms below with the new ideas on how to get an A without investing too much time studying.
Students and graders alike are welcome to submit their ideas--long or short, witty of serious. Send your thoughts to: Editorial Chairs, The Harvard Crimson, 14 Plympton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.