Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/816

Rh 780 EXAMINATIONS should not himself study examination papers, or speculate on the most profitable course, but should trust to his tutor, who will tell him that the best way to get marks is to learn honestly, as if for learning s sake alone. The stimu lating effect of examinations leading to gain acts on parents and on schoolmasters. It leads parents to exert themselves to procure, not the best education for their sons they can, but the most direct preparation for competitions. This fosters low notions of education : people overlook the value of developed faculties and good mental habits, and seem to think that if there were no examinations their sons would want no schooling. Often it is of great importance for a youth to pass an examination when there is no time for him to get genuine knowledge ; this knowledge must then be simulated by a process called &quot; cram,&quot; which means that the &quot; portative memory,&quot; or carrying power, must serve as a make-shift for all other faculties. School masters find a zest given to their work by looking to the places their pupils may gain, but the course which will earn the best place is not always that which will be the best for the youth in the end ; and then the master is pulled in the wrong direction by the eagerness of the boy or his parents, and sometimes of his own subordinates, all of whom look first to success. Masters, let it be said, for the most part resist nobly, and aim at doing real good ; but the pres sure put on them adds to the wear and tear of their work. Secondly, examinations serve as guides. A youth may seem to be listless only because his energies have not been turned into a definite channel; when he is shown his work, and is started in the way to do it, he becomes quite another being. Besides, a good examination shows what is meant by knowing a subject. The pupil or even a teacher by looking over a thoughtfully drawn up paper of questions gets a higher standard of knowledge ; he sees the way of dealing with the subject secundum artem as opposed to any slipshod easy-going way of handling it. On the other hand, examination papers which are so meagre that the pupil finds no call on him for intelligence, or in which he can pass by doing a very small portion of the paper, have a most injurious effect. They give the pupil a low view of know ledge, and cripple the teacher, because the pupil is confident of passing with what he thinks he can learn in a week or two before the examination. Thirdly, examinations oblige a person to be able to pro duce his knowledge, and encourage him to bring it out in a terse and lucid style. They give no credit to loose or floating knowledge. Notions that are in solution are not available ; they must be crystallized in definite form before an examiner will accept them. Great difference is also made between an answer which is perfect and one which is not ; and this exerts a good influence, for one of the com monest defects of loosely trained minds is that they are very deficient in exactitude, and do not appreciate the enormous difference between going &quot; somewhere near &quot; the mark and hitting the precise point. But examinations, even when well conducted, have ill as well as good effects. They destroy spontaneity. Nine young people out of ten may quite rightly be made to move in a good &quot; regulation groove,&quot; but the tenth would be better for having room to expatiate. The candidate who is getting up his books is busy about learning, not in think ing. If independent thoughts suggest themselves he puts them aside ; his business is with his &quot; books,&quot; for his own thoughts cannot be set. This tendency may be obviated by allowing scope in the answers for some discursiveness (but this has its evils also) or by introducing essays, but a man s mind no doubt becomes &quot; examination bound &quot; if he is subjected to repeated definite mechanical examinations. He is kept in a state of pupilage, and only reads to recollect when he is of an age to reflect, to examine, and to judge. This leads to the question of age. Examinations, though good for boys, are bad for men. Those which deal with general education should not be continued beyond the age of 22. Professional examinations, or examinations in the highest parts of science, intended for those who mean to give their lives to study, must come later, but should be as little competitive as possible. By a &quot; competitive &quot; ex amination is meant one in which a candidate is depressed or excluded by the superiority of another. Another point is the strain on the mind produced by competition. This strain is much greater,, as has been said above, when many &quot; information subjects &quot; have to be carried in the head at once, than when the pupil has only to exercise in his examination a power which he keeps about him ; because, in the former case, he is constantly harassed by the fear that he is dropping something. It is bad for a student when he is interested in his chemistry to feel a panic about his English literature. Nothing wears out the mind so much as being pulled many ways at once, especially if this state of distraction is prolonged. Yearly trials, for instance, for some appointment, a new subject being now and then added to increase the candidates weight of metal, s.o habituate the mind to an artificial stimulus that pupils become incapable of studying without it. They can feel no interest in a subject if it is not to be set in an examination ; and in time their power of attention is weakened, and their minds become like india-rubber bands which have been too long on the stretch. On the other hand, young people may be expected to be equal to one great effort or perhaps to two. Such occasions may call out some heroism or self-denial, and these qualities are much needed. But for this purpose the teacher should regard the examination with respect, and teach his pupils to respect it, he must not help them to outwit the examiners. In this view it is well that the teachers should have some influence in framing or altering the examina tion scheme. They will then regard it as in part their own. Moreover, the pupil should have the examination in view at the end of a long vista of study ; the preparation for it should not be hurried. The feeling of being short of time adds to worry, and prevents good work. There are always some students of an anxious disposition who will over-fag themselves at the approach of an examina tion. This is more frequently the effect cf over-worry than of over-work. It will usually be found on inquiry that the hours of work per diem have not been excessive, but the evil is that they have had no rest; when not at their books they are letting their minds run on their work, fancying they are forgetting something, they are haunted by the idea of the examination, and become physically un fit for it. But we must not throw the blame of the mischief that may thus accrue to them on the examinations. Such cases do not commonly occur among those who are aiming at the highest places, and are most exposed to the strain of competition ; very often the sufferers are merely pass men, and they are in fact unequal to any call on their nervous energies. The examination is the first call they encounter, and their weakness is shown in that; but they would probably have been in the same condition the first time they were called on to face any responsibility, such as to make a speech, or preach a sermon, or write an article by a given day. After an examination or two- this nervous ness is overcome by the stronger sort. No doubt young men have to encounter a severe strain at some examinations, and this should be reduced by lessening the load on the memory at one time. It may be very desirable for young men to learn something of six or eight subjects, but they should not be examined in all at once. It is also desirable that those who are exposed to strain of any kind should be under the eye of one who knows the laws of mental and