TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

ACCORDING to the "College Bible," no final examination shall ever extend beyond three hours. Every instructor is therefore expected to put such a paper as the average student will be able to answer in the specified time. The paper set for the final examination in Sophomore Rhetoric on February 21st was one which the average student was not able to answer completely in the space of three hours. Three hours and a half after the examination began a majority of the class was still in the examination-room, nor was the room empty when four hours were up. Now, since we were particularly requested in this examination to "pay attention to form as well as substance," we should like to request of the instructor some attention on his part to the swiftness with which the minutes pass, and also to the imperfect powers of man. This, I think, but a fair request, for, when more is expected than a mere answer to the questions, the questions themselves should be such that they will allow time for the extra work. When the instructor looks over the books, I trust he will bear in mind the fact that they were written, in some parts, by mortals who were prevented, by a longing for lunch, from giving up their whole minds to Rhetoric.