THE BLEAK NOVEMBERS

November hour exams, which always begin in October and eventually drool on into the month whose name they bear, have been the subject for many a long and vacuous dissertation. As topics for conversation they rival the tyranny of the Yard police and discussion of the current cinematic animadiversions. Extensive vocabularies have ornamented the theme; dire threats have furnished the motif. And consequent results of all this oratory have been, up to this time, entirely lacking.

As yet there appears to be no justification of the abolition of the examination system. The foundation of American education has been laid on this theory and until a new regime sets in examinations may be expected. The beginnings of a new regime have set in as a matter of fact, but in a very few institutions, of which Harvard happens to be one. On the other hand, even those most strongly in favor of the examination system might well seek the reason for the ones now afflicting the College. For Freshmen and men taking Freshman courses there is a possible legitimate excuse. For upperclassmen, who have survived the first year or years it is another matter--and a critical matter.

The hour examinations as conducted at present cover the work done in a period of four or five weeks. In that time the student has adjusted himself to the mechanics of the course and little more. The actual knowledge he has assimilated or is even supposed to have assimilated is comparatively minute. The outcome is this: a man who is gifted with imaginative powers may write an examination which compares very favorably with that of a man who has done his work with regularity and precision. Both receive the same grade. That grade influences the mid-year or final mark in varying degrees but it is safe to say that seldom is it quite ignored. Thus one who has received his start by a streak of luck, luck which rarely comes to pass in the examinations held at later periods of the college year, is saved in the end not by the pace which he has maintained but by the apparent agility with which he has greeted the opening gun. The opposite may happen equally well and a man for whom the basic elements of a course are difficult to grasp may never reach more than an average grade, due to the had impression made in November; for, in spite of assurances to the contrary, the handwriting on the wall in November is usually indelible and has not been wholly obliterated in February.

Opposing arguers may say that such a situation is feasible in any examination and that fate plays as large a part in Divisional and other important inquisitions as in the November minor agonies. If so, and there is a great deal of cause to believe that such is not the case and that it is in the present sieges that the majority of blunders arise, there is no adequate reason for continuing the opportunities for error. Few men "find themselves" in the November hours--one presumes that that is the ultimate cause for their existence--and many are the souls that are lost.