College Examinations

THE greatest of the many difficulties that the professional teacher has to encounter in his work are those which concern examinations. To every natural educator, the labor of presenting the matter to the pupil, however serious it may be, has a very great charm. The task of understanding the learning which a thoroughly equipped and sympathetic instructor offers to him is a source of a certain pleasure even to the dull - minded youth. But these pleasurable and therefore profitable relations vanish in the process of accounting; in their place come others which are generally unpleasant, and often so far irritating as to break the bonds which the previous happy intercourse had established. I have never known a good and successful teacher, one who had the masterful art of opening and shaping the minds of his pupils, who did not recognize and deplore the evil influence of the prevailing examination system. Those who have in any measure analyzed the effect of the work upon their own minds have uniformly agreed with me in the persuasion that it was, in a certain way, degrading to their status; and all have expressed the opinion that the inevitable influence of the conditions which attend an ordinary examination is against the spirit which should prevail in a school.

These and other evils connected with the matter of examinations have been so clearly recognized in England and some other European countries that the task of gauging the knowledge of a subject which a student acquires in a college is usually taken from the hands of his teachers, and committed to a body of assessors, who have nothing whatever to do with the instruction of the youths whom they examine. Another and more passive way of meeting the difficulties is adopted by the German universities, where the proof of the knowledge which the student has attained rests mainly upon a single oral examination at the close of his period of higher study, and upon the somewhat uncertain evidence afforded by the thesis which he has submitted, and which is supposed to be altogether his own work. Neither of these methods of inquiry gives much satisfaction to those who are best acquainted with the results which have been attained through their use. Thus we may fairly say that the three methods of examination which have been at all generally employed, namely, that in which the instructor examines, that in which the examination is by outside parties, and that in which it is of an oral and rather perfunctory character, are alike unsatisfactory in their results.

Although the range of experiment in the art of testing the knowledge of students has been considerable, I am not aware that much attention has been given to the question which underlies the whole problem, namely, as to what is sought to be obtained by the trials to which we put the youth. It is plain that this point should be well determined before a discussion as to the means by which the examinations are to be conducted is undertaken. Otherwise it will not be possible to secure any adequate adjustment of the process to the ends which we have in view.

The aim of examinations is evidently to determine either the efficiency of the instruction given by the teacher, or the profitableness of the student’s work in a particular field. It is thus clear that there are fundamental differences in the end which is sought that make it seem likely that there should be a great diversity in the method by which we plan the inquiry. Moreover, the kind of information which we need to have as to the efficiency of the teacher’s or the pupil’s work varies exceedingly with the nature of the subject in which the particular instruction is given. Thus, whereas in all technical branches the object of the class work is to insure a very precise acquaintance with an array of facts, the student and master need to be criticised by their capacities for receiving and imparting such knowledge. On the other hand, where the object of the tasks is to give the youth the power of dealing with considerations of a larger nature, it may be ill advised to adopt a method of examination which will breed in him the habit of parrot-like rendering of certain memorized data. Unless these diversities in the conditions of school work are well borne in mind, it is not possible to secure a rational method of inquiry in the scheme of examinations.

The essential conditions of the examiner’s task demand also a clear idea of the effect of such tests upon the minds of both teachers and pupils. Where the matter of examinations is much before the mind of the instructor, where he feels obliged constantly to keep in view the adaptation of his teaching to a forthcoming test, the result will inevitably be to lower the grade of his teaching. While he is considering only the development of his subject, and is led forward by the enthusiasm which alone can give an academic quality to his work, he will instinctively be guided by the understanding which he secures from the older members of the class. As soon as he abandons this ground, and begins to think of the results of the next examination, he naturally directs his mind to the impedimenta of his class, the indolent or dull men who need twice or thrice the aid which the bright fellows require. He then, perhaps unconsciously, checks the rate of advance, threshes the empty straw of the lessons again, whips the laggards up to a little temporary activity, while the leaders lose heart and fail of attention. Thus, overmuch consideration of examinations tends to debilitate the tone of class work, and to accent certain of the evils which arise from our massive or unindividualized methods of instructing. If the process is carried far. it may arrest the development of the academic freedom upon which the best influence of the instructors in our higher institutions depends.

The only way in which tlie dangers brought about by the necessary care of the weaker members of the class can be met is. it seems to me. by the institution of a secondary system of instruction especially intended for the laggards, in which the aim shall be to provide such pupils with the help which is essential to keep them abreast of their abler companions. Such parallel and supplementary teaching should be planned mainly for this end, but it would doubtless serve the brighter youths as a means of confirming the understanding which they had previously gained. This auxiliary work could be done by the officer who had the charge of the path-breaking work; but, when possible, it should be undertaken by a younger man. who attended the instruction it was designed to supplement, and who, noting the matter of difficulty from the student’s point of view, would be prepared to give the needed help to the class. In this way, the principal instructor would be free to lead, as he should, the better equipped portion of his classes with the least tax upon time and patience, and with that sense of independence of all but the essentials of his subject without which he cannot do good work.

Although the state of mind induced in the teacher by examinational requirements is an evil, it is much less serious than their influence upon the students. A good instructor will, by various devices, manage to keep his motives from permanent debasement of a seriously qualifying sort. In this, as in other occupations, the professional spirit is a great safeguard to him. In the case of the student, the risk of degradation in motive is the more serious for the reason that his mental character is less established, and the temptation to keep the examinations always in sight rests upon more immediate and reasonable needs than those which the instructor feels. The damage arises in manydifferent ways. With the good student, the frequent repetition of examinations interferes with the gradual and free organization of his acquisition, a process which should be as insensible as that of sound digestion. If, at short intervals, he has to assemble his gains, and to put them in shape for rapid and effectual exhibition, he is thereby forced to do work which, though it may be business-like, is essentially unseholarly. In these considerations, it should ever be remembered that, above all, we need to develop in the scholar the sense of the value of remote ends. Our first aim. indeed, should be to make it plain to him that his studies are a part of his life, in the largest sense of that word. He should be brought to look upon the knowledge and training gained by academic work as of exactly the same quality as the education which he is to seek in the more open world, where he is to be free to stand or fall. In so far as our system of tests serves to diminish this extended conception of education, it needs to be remedied. There can be no doubt that the frequent examinations which prevail in our academic schools tend to develop very powerfully, even in the abler men, who by nature have a scholarly turn of mind, a desire to secure temporary and immediate success rather than the far-looking accomplishment toward which we seek to turn them. No sooner is a student well started in his thought or inquiry in any division of the subjects from which we compel him to choose than we force him to change his state of mind and make ready for an accounting. In Harvard College, for instance, some form of an examination is, in most cases, required at intervals of not more than two months. As students have, on an average, five courses in hand at once, they are thus required to make themselves ready for the examiner on about twenty occasions in the space of eight months. There are few subjects which can be so taught that the student may profitably change the spirit of his work, at intervals of two months, from that of advance to that of review, especially where the retraced steps are taken, not to make surer of the knowledge, but to meet the requirements of an examination paper.

I know there are teachers who are of the opinion that good students take no account of examinations save to present themselves at the time of trial and yield what they may without special preparation, but I am sure that this is very rarely the case. Nearly all the high-grade youths I have known have been covetous of academic distinction, or perhaps in need of the scholarship money which they hoped to secure through their rank. Very often the two motives are combined, and alike urge the students to do the best they can to win a good rank. To attain this end, they have to enter on ways which are far from academic. Old examination papers are studied, and, if enough of them are gathered, it may be possible to contrive fitting answers to every question which, in certain classes of subjects, can properly find a place on the paper. Naturally, each teacher has his favorite group of questions, and is supposed, more or less truly, to be affected favorably or unfavorably by certain modes of statement. All these points are carefully studied, and a considerable income is at the command of the coach who is able to give useful information on these and other points which may help the student to a higher grade, not of knowledge, but of artful presentation.

However close and sympathetic may be the bond which exists between the teacher and his pupils in their advance work, it altogether falls away in this time of trial. The academic spirit is replaced by motives which are as low as those prevailing among professional turfmen or the speculators in a stock exchange. For a time it is a cheap game of wits between teacher and pupil, with all the ugly doubts as to fairness of question and of answer which is so well known to examiners. Into this ignoble slough the academic life temporarily. but repeatedly, descends from its realm of lofty purposes, thence to rise again as best it may after the evil days are past. Many teachers do not appear to feel the incongruities, at once painful and laughable, of this situation. This is, it seems to me, either because they have become over-familiar with it, or because they do not or cannot penetrate to the truth of the matter. Others, who perceive more or less clearly the evil which the method entails, look upon the result as in a way inevitable; as something for which human nature, and not clumsy methods, should be blamed.

It is true that antiquity and widespread use always serve to raise the presumption that a custom is well founded, and it may fairly be said that examinations such as we are considering are almost as old as the teacher’s art. It may. moreover, be freely granted that in all grades of instruction it is necessary to have some means of judging as to the work which the student is doing or has done; yet I contend that these propositions afford no warrant for the examination system as it is arranged in the majority of our American and English colleges. It should be easy to devise a system in which the necessary information can be gained concerning the profit which the student is winning from his studies, without this incessant tax upon his mental freedom. Where classes are small and the men well known to the instructor, his judgment should be sufficient to gauge their acquirement or thoughtfulness, without resorting to the time-consuming and schoolboy practice of recitations. A college teacher, provided a class does not exceed twenty in number, can easily make sure of the status of each man. The ability to do this is one of the essential capacities of an instructor of any school whatever.

As long as an academic teacher knows his men.—and. in the best sense, he cannot teach when he has not a fair knowledge of his pupils,—his judgment of their mental state, based on close personal contact, is almost certain to be better than that, which he would form on reading a lot of written matter, produced in hot haste in answer to the few questions which can find a place in an examination paper. In an ideal condition of our education, the state of mind of every pupil should be well known to his instructor; but in the existing status of our colleges, it is impossible, in very many of the classes, to trust to the growth of such intimate acquaintance. Even in Harvard University. where the proportion of teachers to students, one to nine, is probably greater than in any other large school in this country or in Europe, in quite one half the classes the number of pupils is so great as to make close personal relations between them and the instructors out of the question.

While the judgment of the teacher concerning the work done in certain classes which are numerously attended cannot altogether be trusted, there are various ways of testing the advance of the student which are not open to the objections which ordinary examinations present, and which can readily be made to serve as tests of his faithfulness and understanding of the subject which he is pursuing. Although the suggestions which I shall make in this matter may appear to belong in the dry details of academic pedagogy, it seems pardonable to ask their consideration, for they go to the centre of our problem. Let us, in the first place, note the important fact that all academic teaching is intended to breed in the youth the habit of continuous methodical thought, and of action related to such thinking. Therefore, the plan of instruction may — indeed, should — include, where possible, such written exercises as may serve to keep the student continually in face of the problem with which he is dealing. This record can be made advantageously in either of two ways: first, by the notebook, in which is kept the current account of the work which the student is doing; and second, by means of theses, in which he is called on to reshape the knowledge he has acquired. Practically. all the subjects taught in our colleges, or at least those which properly belong there, and not in the secondary schools, freely lend themselves to one or the other of these methods of testing the work of the students.

To some teachers this project may seem undesirable, for the reason that they conceive it as affording a temptation to persons of weak morality to present the work of others as their own. It appears to me that this is no fit answer to a proposal of this nature ; it is certainly one which, in my opinion, does not deserve any consideration whatever. A college or a university which, for such a reason, in any way limits its actions merits an indignant condemnation. It is morally bound to proceed on the assumption that it is dealing with men who will carefully guard themselves from dishonor. In so far as there is a spirit in our institutions which makes such confidence in the youths unsafe, it is the result of the ancient system of suspicion and espionage, which has led young men to look upon all examinations as legitimate occasions for subterfuge. It is the first duty of a college to breed in the youth the habit of manly, honest conduct. There is no way to do this save by perfect trust. In every college there will be found, from time to time, ignoble spirits who are not quickened by this treatment. For these, when they are discovered, there is but one course of action, —that advised by the sage: they should be taken to the edge of the academic world and dropped off.

In the manner indicated above, and in many other ways, each appropriate to the needs of particular branches of instruction, it will be possible to secure adequate information concerning the status of each student throughout the period when he is attending a course. At the end of each year, it may, at least for the present and in certain departments, be necessary to have an examination. This will be needful only in those classes where the number of students is excessive. Experience in Harvard College shows that where there are only a few, say less than a score, students in an “ elective, ” and they are all doing thesis work, it is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, to have any final examination whatever. In proportion as the work of instruction is brought to a proper basis of individualized relation with the student, all reason for these set examinations will cease.

There can be no doubt that the disappearance of the examination work from our colleges will, apart from the moral gain, and that which will be won from the more uninterrupted pursuit of learning, be most advantageous to their system in that it will make an end of the pernicious kind of training which these exercises afford. To write a very successful series of answers to such questions as are in most cases necessary to set. the student must be skilled in the art of remembering only that part of the subject matter which he can profitably have in mind at the time of trial. There must be none of that shadowy border to the answers which naturally appears in a careful statement of most truths; there can be no personal element indicative of the essential doubts and misunderstandings of his mind. The result is that the papers of the very best man are apt to have an excessively definite quality, which the instructor has to overlook in weighing the work; he may know that, if he had been given time, the man would have brought in the note of scholarship. It needs no argument to show that exercises of this nature do not make for true learning. Yet even in Harvard College, where the system of tests is perhaps in as fair shape as in any other American school, the average student is called on to spend, in the four years of his course, about one hundred and sixty hours in these required tasks. They afford no training which is likely to be of use to him in his subsequent career, and they distinctly make against the spirit of true critical learning. When we add to the tale of hours spent in the examination room the time devoted to the preparation for the examinations, mostly occupied in framing the brief, ill-defined statements which are to find a place in the papers, it is easy to see that somewhere near one fifth of the student’s time, and probably an even larger share of his energy, are given to this unrequiting labor.

I am aware that this, like all other contentions against the existing order of things, is apt to be misunderstood; therefore, it maybe well to assert that this is a plea, not for the abolition of academic tests, but for the replacement of the present system of non-educative and degrading conditions, such as are induced by the examination room, with a system in which the continuous ongoing work of the student shall be the basis of judgment as to his accomplishment. It is, in fact, a proposition to clear away a part of the rubbish inherited from other centuries, when men put less faith in youth than it is the privilege of our time to entrust. It is a measure which is made logically necessary by the introduction of the system of free choice in studies. With the acceptance of the principle that men should “study what they most affect ” the last trace of justification for the old police method ceased to exist. The proctored examination, with its education in trickery and shams, should now be regarded as an anachronism, and be speedily cleared away. To insure its disappearance, it is necessary that our colleges should, in every department of their instruction, provide enough teachers to make it sure that the progress of every student can be constantly well known. Where, as in certain cases, it is essential to have the teaching given by lectures to large classes, there should be a sufficient amount of assistance to enable the instructors to manage the method of continuous tests. When this is secured, we may expect to create a true academic spirit among the youths, who, under the criticism, will be allowed to remain in the academic body. Not the least of its advantages will be found in the effect which it will, if properly availed of, have upon the numbers in classes in attendance on our colleges. The fitness of the student to receive the higher instruction which our colleges seek to give would be speedily and clearly determined in a way which is not possible with our present systems of inquiry.

We have not considered the method of examining much in use in British schools, where the trial is made, not by the teacher of the subject, but by independent examiners, in whose appointment he has no share. There are certain apparent advantages in this system which, on their face, served to commend it to those who were interested in the matter. It is evident that the inquiry which these assessors have a chance to make might afford a reliable basis for criticism of the teacher as well as the pupils. It seems, moreover, as if a set of examiners, free from prejudices concerning the individual men which the instructor is commonly, and sometimes justly, supposed to acquire, would insure a better measure of justice to the pupils. Furthermore, the instructor, separated entirely from the critical position with reference to the class, might be deemed freer to maintain a purely academic spirit in his teaching. As in many other educational schemes, practice has proved that disadvantages not readily apprehended have outweighed the gains which this system affords. It has been found that the students, even more than in the classes in which the teacher conducts the examinations, are disposed to turn their attention to the immediate end of passing the papers they are to have presented to them. Unless the instructor is willing to do the duty of a coach, and shape his work with reference to the probable form of these papers, his class are likely to look away from him for the aid they need. The method of determining the rank of men appears to have all the defects of the American system, and to lack the advantages arising from the close personal relations which our method brings about between master and pupil.

The effect which was expected from the knowledge of the teacher’s work which the system of separate examiners apparently should furnish has not been secured. Except in matters of an elementary sort, and a few technical branches of higher learning, it is very difficult for an examiner to determine the value of the teacher’s work by an inquiry as brief as these tests necessarily are. However unsatisfactory the results of the examinations may be, there will be doubt as to the place where the blame should rest. Where the instructor sends up pupils who write brilliant papers, there will remain the question whether the success has not been due to an undesirable limitation in the range of the teaching, or perhaps to an overnice adjustment of the instruction to the range of the questions which are likely to be set in examination. Out of the examining boards has come the exaltation of the coach or the professional man who undertakes to prepare the student for the trial he is to undergo. His task is not usually that of education; his business is not even to instruct; it is in general the simple function of providing the man with the precise store of information, and giving him the desirable speed in yielding the matter in the form required by the papers which are likely to be set. In certain classes of work, as, for instance, in the preparation of men for the honor examinations, the coaches give instruction which is measured by intellectual standards of a very high grade; but it is related, not to large independent action, as all university education should be, but to the immediate and essentially trivial success which is sought.

As long as the attainment of students is estimated by the brief tests of the examination room, the coach will be an element in academic teaching. Under our American system, where the teacher is also the examiner, it is possible for the instructor in a measure to shape and control the work of these assistants of the students; or, if he is willing to take the time for the task, to deprive them of their patronage by giving the members of his classes such an opportunity of reviewing their studies that the paid helper will be unnecessary to the slowest-witted of the men. So far as my own experience goes, the coaches of Harvard College have generally proved helpful to the instructors. The best of them serve as mentors to youths who need spurring to their tasks, and all of them are glad to cooperate with the teachers in insuring sound work on the part of their charges. Under a system where the profit the student was winning was continually tested by a sufficient record of his work from week to week, these unnamed assistants would, most likely, become entirely serviceable in educative work. Their task would no longer be to fit the men for the momentary trial of the examination room; to help them at all, they would have to devote their energies to true accomplishments.

Not the least of the advantages which would be gained by the proposed change in the method of gauging the work of the students would be the increased opportunity which it would afford for determining the real value of the influence of the teacher upon his pupils. At present, it is impossible to measure this in a satisfactory way. The examinations are not likely to reveal it. and general repute is of uncertain value, for many elements of character enter into the complicated equation which constitutes the reputation of a man. Given, however, a system of record by notebooks, by theses, and perhaps other means whereby the student will clearly and continuously exhibit his progress in the line of thought which the teaching involves, and we shall have a sound basis from which to estimate the quality of the instruction. From this record, the inspectors who represent the governing boards of the schools could readily form an idea of the range and scope of the instruction given in the several departments. It was once the custom of the visiting committee of the overseers of Harvard University to examine the books in which the answers to the test questions were written, but of late the inutility of the practice has become so evident that it is no longer undertaken.

We should not overlook the profit which the habit of making a somewhat continuous record of his work has upon the student s mind. In the case of every capable youth, such a task is sure to stimulate him to exertion by that spur to his interest which the task of registering thought always applies, I may mention the results of a simple experiment which I have of late essayed in a large elementary class in geology. Trying to win some profit from the dust and ashes of the examinations, I have urged the young men to rewrite their answers to the questions of an examination paper, deliberately, and after they had carefully reconsidered the subject matter. The exceeding advance in the quality of these rewritten books, not only as regards the substance, but in the scholarly tone of the performances as well, that element of shading to which I have previously adverted, shows at once the difference in the moral and intellectual quality of the two methods of record. As the second writing had no reference to the college arithmetic, the labor was truly academic in its nature. Much of the work was done by students who are in the habit of making a poor record in the examination room. It was most instructive to see how certain men. whose minds have the peculiarities which prevent them from yielding anything of value in the swift processes of the examination room, could do excellent work when they had time for deliberate thinking. We know full well that it needs a different kind of mill for each variety of grain, but we are content to go on in our ancient clumsy effort to win in the same rude way the good from the infinite diversities of humankind.

It is doubtless too much to expect that the highly individualized care of each student which is necessary radically to cure the flagrant evils of our examinations can at once be secured. Yet we may hope that those teachers who see and appreciate the singular burden which they impose on education will protest against them, and. so far as possible, shape their work so that it may lead away from these ancient ills. It is clearly the duty of all who are interested in making our colleges the best nurseries of sound learning and true manliness to strive for this end.

Nathaniel Southgate Shaler.