CEP Preparing Studies Of Examination Policy

The year-long discussion of examination policy within the Faculty Committee on Educational Policy is nearing an end, but it is conjectural whether any definitive policy will emerge from the Committee's study, Dean Monro said yesterday.

The CEP subcommittee on examinations, headed by Leon D. Bramson, assistant professor of Social Relations, has prepared a collection of essays forming the main body of its study. Consideration of the essays and what to do with them will probably take place at the next CEP meeting on March 20. It is likely that the essays will eventually be published in the form of a booklet.

Monro said that the main purpose of the report on examinations is not to define a formal policy, but to stimulate discussion of the system of examinations and on questions concerning the value and purpose of tests themselves.

It is hoped that the report will influence thinking about examinations on the level of the individual teacher. The study is not intended to make professors conform to an "ideal" type of examination, but to encourage them to think creatively about the tests they give.

Although the collection of essays has not yet been made available, it is known that the essays range from a minor history to a single letter. By encouraging contributors to approach the topic in any form, the CEP has been able to get a diversity of viewpoints.

Among the chief essays is a 40-page history of examinations at Harvard, written by Paul H. Buck, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor.

"Cow" and "Bull"

William G. Perry, director of the Bureau of Study Counsel, raises, among other things, some important questions about grading methods. In his essay, Perry contends that graders often tend to penalize students for "bull, relevance without facts," but frequently reward "cow, facts without relevance," because "cow" more than "bull" is an indication that the student has done the required work.

David C. McClelland, chairman of the Department of Social Relations, has written on some of the psychological and ethical problems connected with examinations, while George Wald, professor of Biology, has given a detailed account of examining and grading--by points--in his popular Natural Sciences 5.

The CEP's general study of examinations was originally prompted in the fall of 1961 when University policy on examinations seemed unclear on certain specific issues such as exemptions from the three-hour final examination rule for all undergraduate courses.