Exam paper

“ APPRAISING AND TESTING PAPER The appraisal of a specimen of paper differs from testing in that an appraisal comprehends the value of an object in relation to its usefulness and marketability, whereas testing is merely an arbitrary method of expressing the chemical or physical properties of the object. ”

“ It is not easy to be an examiner, I found. I would rather write ten leading articles than one examination-paper. It appeared that I had to set themes for essays as well as questions in literature. We never learnt literature when I was young and I didn't know you could, but I borrowed a text-book from Mollie and did my best. ”

“ The perforations will not be found to run into one another unless they are very numerous, and if they happen to do so now and then, it is of little consequence in a statistical inquiry. The holes are easily counted at leisure, by holding the paper against the light, and any scrap of paper will serve the purpose. It will be found that the majority of inquiries take the form of "more," "equal to," or "less," so I arrange the paper in a way to present three distinct compartments to the pricker, and to permit of its being held in the correct position and used by the sense of touch alone. ”

“ A microscopical examination of paper documents, such as wills, notes, checks, etc., as to whether or not they have been mutilated or forged, is certainly the most reliable test, and by far the easiest and simplest method of determining the authenticity or spuriousness of a document. ”

“ The name of the paper has been attached to each example, not only in acknowledgment of the credit due, but in an effort to lead the student to consider the story from the point of view of the policy of the paper and of the character of the readers to whom it appeals. The student should compare all of the stories taken from each paper and should, if possible, examine the current issues. ”

“ The remainder of the term is given over to seminar work: each student reads his paper and holds himself in readiness to answer all questions his classmates may ask on his topic. The aims of such a course are obviously to develop a knowledge of sources and an ability to use intelligently the unorganized data found by the student. ”

“ Suppose there are a dozen papers in the same city which are entitled to the Associated Press dispatches. Instead of making a dozen separate copies, which might vary through mistakes, one writing answers for all the dozen. First, a sheet of prepared tissue paper is laid down, then a sheet of a black, smutty sort of paper, then two sheets of tissue paper, then a sheet of black paper, and so on, until as many sheets of tissue paper have been piled up, as there are copies wanted. ”

“ A third source of both subjects and material is the report of special studies in some field, the form of the report ranging from a paper read at a meeting to a treatise in several volumes. These reports of experiments, surveys, investigations, and other forms of research, are to be found in printed bulletins, monographs, proceedings of organizations, scientific periodicals, and new books. ”

“ It is difficult to anticipate or to completely cover all conceivable paper troubles, and when some one which may not be diagnosed on the basis of the general principles enumerated, consultation with some paper expert should clearly be sought. ”

“ Selection of paper to suit a particular job calls for experience in handling both the finished work and the plain paper. Judging papers as being equal to patterns or samples, and forming an opinion of comparative values, are also to be gained only by long experience. ”

“ In the schools of languages, subjects may also be selected for oral examination. 3. The times of examination for the several schools shall be appointed by the chairman. 4. At the hour appointed, the students of the class to be examined shall take their places in the lecture room, provided with pens, ink, and paper. The written questions shall then, for the first time, be presented to them, and they shall be required to give the answers in writing with their names subscribed. 5. A majority of the committee shall always be present during the examination ”

“ While it may seem very exacting to require that all themes be written in black ink, on paper of uniform size, and that they be numbered or dated and indorsed in a prescribed form, experience has shown that these details in the organization of the work are important for economy of time and effort on the part of teacher and pupils. ”

“ You are amazed at all the things you know which are not on the examination paper. ”

“ But the college diploma has no more power to hold the knowledge you have gained in college than a piece of tissue paper over a gas jet can hold the gas in the pipe. ”

“ Once, in the middle of the day, in the open country, just as the sun beat most fiercely against the old plated lanterns, a bared hand passed beneath the small blinds of yellow canvas, and threw out some scraps of paper that scattered in the wind, and farther off alighted like white butterflies on a field of red clover all in bloom. ”

“ The laboratory examination will be directed to testing his skill in experimenting. At the hour of the written examination the candidate will be required to hand in the original note-book in which he recorded the steps and results of the experiments which he performed at school, and this note-book must bear the indorsement of his teacher, certifying that the notes are a true record of the pupil's work." The requisition in physics is stated in similar language. ”

“ To each female student who has satisfied the Examiners in a Tripos Examination, a Certificate shall be given by the University stating the conditions under which she was admitted to the examinations of the University, the Examinations in which she has satisfied the Examiner, and the Class and place in the Class, if indicated, to which she has attained, in each of such examinations. ”

“ Examinations are suited in the first instance for the purpose for which they were originally designed in medieval universities—the test of technical and professional capacity; it has never been proposed to abolish qualifying examinations for doctors, pharmaceutical chemists, &c. ; the tests applied are (or should be) direct tests of capacity carried out under conditions as nearly as possible like those of actual practice. If a student can auscultate correctly, or make up a prescription, at an examination, he will in all probability be able to do so in other circumstances. ”

“ The test blanks should be passed to the candidates, with well-sharpened pencils or pens and ink. The examiner should then hold up in full view of the group a test blank showing the three pages of figures on which they are to work. He should then get the attention of everyone to the work by saying “Look” or “Watch.” With a piece of chalk, he should then go through the pantomime described above for giving the examination to an individual. Care should be taken that none of the brighter candidates begins work before the signal for everyone to work. ”

“ Dinner over, we produced a bundle of pens, a copious supply of ink, and a goodly show of writing and blotting paper. For, there was something very comfortable in having plenty of stationery. ”

“ A careful record of the experiments should be kept by each student in a suitable note-book. It is suggested that those students desiring more time in writing out the experiments than the laboratory period affords, take notes as they make the various tests, and then amplify and rearrange them in the evening study time. ”

“ it was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when what you want to be asked is Kings of England. ”

“ The examiner's mind runs into grooves, and a highly skilled class have sorted and surveyed the possible field. In each subject or book there are only available, in practice, some few hundreds of possible "questions." The system of publishing examination papers, and close study of the questions over many years, have taught a body of experts to reduce, classify, and tabulate these. ”

“ Usually the examination is regarded as a test to determine the accuracy and extent of the student's information, which form may be called a question-and-answer examination or quiz. A more desirable form of examination is one which requires the student to survey his information on a particular topic, and to summarize the same or to state his own conclusions concerning either the relative importance of the different items or his interpretation of the meaning or application of the facts. ”

“ Whenever a class is given a series of review questions for the purpose of requiring a general review of a whole subject, the result of the exercise is to fix in the student’s mind certain larger elements of the study and to establish certain broad habits of selection. Written examinations may be, from this point of view, devices of training, not merely tests of results. The examination method as a training method has, accordingly, an important place. ”

“ What evils usually accompany them? Outline a plan by which these purposes may be achieved unaccompanied by the usual evils. 302Is memory of facts the best test of knowledge? Suggest other tests by which the value of a pupil’s knowledge may be judged. Experts sometimes vary more than 70 per cent in grading the same manuscript. The same person often varies 20 per cent or more in grading the same manuscript at different times. An experiment with your own grading might prove interesting. Do you and your pupils in actual practice regard examinations as an end or as a means to an end? ”

“ As a rule enough of each response should be recorded to enable one to score it at any time later. The great advantage of the Record Booklet is that it permits this. Only the most expert examiner should limit his record to pluses and minuses.
5. The examination should be thorough. It should include at least one year in which there is no failure and at least one year in which there is no success. When lack of time necessitates an abbreviation of the examination, this should be done by using only the starred tests rather than by shortening the range of the examination. ”

“ The duty of the Examiners was twofold, firstly to ascertain by inspecting the schedules given by his Masters that the candidate had completed the necessary residence and attended Lectures in the prescribed subjects, and secondly to examine him in the contents of his books. If he passed this Examination, he was admitted to determine.
Determination was a great day in the student's University life. It retained much of its primitive character of a student's festivity. ”

“ A convenient stimulus to the proper sort of review is found in the requirement that pupils prepare an abstract or topical outline of the ground which has been covered, and submit it, preferably from memory, for class criticism and discussion. If the teacher asks questions, she should be very careful to see that they are questions of large scope which demand organization, or still better the application of organized knowledge. This brings us to the problem of testing.
The only adequate test of school education, as of all other [103] education, is action. ”

“ With regard to examinations, it must be remembered that they are a means of testing what has been taught, not of teaching—of stamping the sovereign, not getting the gold: the test or stamp cannot serve as a substitute for the thing to be tested or stamped. ”

“ Then he shall draw three other tickets for the examination in pedagogy; and so on, for the examination in the other studies. In the drawing of the questions for each subject, there shall always be twenty-five tickets. The questions which are answered shall be replaced by others.
2. In the explanation concerning the capacity of children, in a point relative to any of the subjects above named, the competitor shall read in a textbook [227] of the schools the bit that shall be indicated by one of the examining judges, and shall proceed with the book closed to the explanation of what he has read. ”

“ The standard of scholarship is high. Great stress is laid on ease and facility of expression, on the ability to form independent judgements, on originality. No one can get a ‘First’ in the Class Lists on mere hard work and [76] ‘grinding’, or by a display of erudition and an imposing array of facts. The examination papers are really a series of essays. The examination generally consists of written papers, followed some days or weeks later by a ‘viva voce’ examination. In Science, practical laboratory tests are required. ”

“ One volume contains directions to pupils for performing their experiments, sufficient to prevent aimless work, and yet not so full as to interfere with the inductive method. The other volume, the Text-book, is similar to the ordinary textbook, telling how the experiments should result, giving the pupil a correct form of statement for the conclusions and laws which he has learned in a practical way, and furnishing other information. The experiments are on light. On every right hand page in the Book of Experiments is left a space for the insertion of the pupil's own notes. ”

“ XV. The examination will be held upon the general subjects fixed for examinations for admission to the lowest grade of the group and upon such other subjects as the general nature of the business of the office and the special nature of the position to be filled may seem to the board of examiners to require. Due weight will be given to the efficiency with which the several candidates shall have previously performed their duties in the office; but no one who shall fail to pass a minimum standard of 75 per cent in the written examination will be certified for appointment. ”