READING PERIOD THESES

The method of testing reading period work is not the least of the problems arising from the introduction of reading periods in advanced courses. Mid-year and final examinations in these courses usually contain a question of an hour's length which covers the reading period assignment. The time spent on this question is not only entirely out of proportion to the amount of course time spent in the reading period, but this procedure prevents the student from obtaining the most from his reading period work.

If the purpose of reading period is to allow the student course time for working along his own interests and also to encourage the student to do original thinking and intelligent correlation on the basis of the information obtained, the present system of testing is certainly not desirable. An examination essay is too frequently an attempt by cataloguing of factual data, or by hasty outlining of books read to convince the examiner that the student has covered the material. The good student, almost invariably finding two hours inadequate for a satisfactory presentation of his answers to the questions covering the rest of the course, must condense a factual summary into the frantic last ten minutes of the examination.

Many of these difficulties could be obviated if the student were required to hand in a thesis reading period subject before he takes the examination. The student then would in all probability devote more time to an intelligent correlation of the reading he has done; without the examination bugbear, he would be less concerned with demonstrating by more outline that he has perfunctorily read the assigned books and he would be more inclined to show his originality. The final examination could then have more time adequately to test his understanding of the remainder of the course.