"You Will Have Three Hours..."

Just about one month from today, little groups of harried, drawn-looking students, carrying blue-books will be found waiting outside the offices of many a Faculty member. These people will come in one by one and each will make about the same complaint. It will be something like, "but I didn't see that we were supposed to answer only two of the five questions," or perhaps "you mean there were questions on the back of the examination sheet?"

And virtually every one of these unfortunates will be told that it's too bad, that nothing can be done about it, and that next time, perhaps they had better read the examination before trying to write it.

The problem is an old one, and on the surface a trivial one. A lot of people are simply so nervous and anxious during an examination that they fail to think carefully what the whole thing is all about before they begin. Even the veteran facing his 30th blue book can be struck by this particular malady; it happens to the blase as well as the quivering.

Like nearly every simple problem, this one has an obvious answer, and it is a little surprising that no one has done anything about it. Professor Donald C. McKay suggested a solution to the Dean of the Faculty recently: to tack an extra 15 minutes on the examination period, in which the questions would be handed out but the blue-books held until the time came to start writing. During the 15 minutes, students would be able to read the exam and think about it, but would be forbidden from writing anything or making notes.

Apparently this solution has been suggested before, and rejected. Now the Administration has rejected it again, and from what we know of its arguments, they are specious. The objection is that when non-science students, who would be given the extended time, receive their blue-books, would disturb already-writing scientists in the same room. But there is no reason why a science student wouldn't benefit as much as his neighbor from seeing his exam in slightly more relaxed surroundings. And it would always be possible to admit the non-scientists to be admitted to the room 15 minutes earlier, with the examination itself starting after the scientists file in, pick up their papers and nervously start to work, perhaps even over-looking a question or two.