RELIEF FOR FRESHMEN

English A. has always been regarded by those unfortunate enough to take it as a lifeless burden, and the present attempt of University Hall to reduce the membership in this intellectual chain gang shows a liberality which will be dully appreciated by incoming Freshmen. In the past the only ones to escapade the penalty were those prep school students who had achieved an honor grade in their College Board examination in English, this system being a distant discrimination against that large group entering under the highest seventh plan.

The two-hour examination to be given to Freshmen entering on the highest seventh plan before the beginning of the term should determine accurately enough whether or not a student shall be banished to the Siberian salt mines for a long, hard winter. While it is as necessary as ever that a Harvard student have a reasonably complete knowledge of the English language, this preliminary test will let under the wire many students to whom Freshman English would be a completely sterile routine.

As for the student who has not received an honor grade in his College Board examination, a needlessly complicated system has been devised. Since in most prep schools the College Board in English is taken in the senior year, there is no chance for the repeating course suggested by University Hall. Even if such a repeat could be made, it would be a complete waste of time to take another prep school course in English merely because one has failed to receive an honor grade in the first. Unless a man has failed his English College Board he, too, should be allowed to take the preliminary examination before the opening of his Freshman year, and so have a fair chance of proving his fitness to be pardoned from serving his term in English A.