Bare Bluebooks

When the College more or less eliminated its mid-term grades a year ago last April, it gave individual instructors the privilege of still springing hour exams on their classes. Most of the instructors used this privilege; hour exams can be a very useful yardstick for both the student and his teacher, sizing up the student's progress well before he reaches the all-or-nothing final examination.

A lot of hour exams have been failing as this yardstick, however. They are the bluebooks that the student finds with a single big letter grade serawled on their cover, and no other comment. No exam really helps the student to learn unless he knows what he did wrong; a grade and a line of cryptic figures written on the inside cover are not constructive criticism. Despite their tremendous pressure for time, graders should comment on exams--telling students what they have done wrong and how they can tackle their errors. Coupled with expanded office hours and discussion in sections,--History 61 holds fine "bitch sessions" in which instructors and students hash over examinations--such comments could put a lot of wavering students back in business. As long as the college gives so much weight to its exams, the student ought to know as much as he can about how he is hitting them.