DIVISIONALS AND THESES

As they are at present constituted, divisionals loom as a major operation, which one approaches with a sort of desperation. The detailed part of these examinations ought to be given in the third year, and the Senior exams should be single (choice of several) essay questions on broad subjects of one's field. At any rate, they should not all be dropped like a guillotine at the end of the last year, to behead the student who has not developed a neck stiff enough to withstand such assaults. What the Senior examinations should alone determine is a man's fitness for honors. They should not deprive the man who fails of his degree. Such examinations should be given in the Junior year, with a second chance in the Senior year granted to those who fail in the first.

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Why not have more course theses and less hour examinations? The student has an opportunity in the thesis to develop that particular fraction of a course which interests him; in the hour examination he has to answer, with gritted teeth, detailed, and often stupid, questions which he has learned the day before and forgets on the next. From the emphasis placed on these tests rather than the theses, small wonder that epithets sometimes fly freely.