EDITORS HARVARD HERALD: Whenever the examination period comes, the undergraduate begins to ponder upon the injustice and hardship of this world and wonders whether life is worth living after all. He constantly notices cases where the greatest injustice occurs and wonders if it is not possible to prevent such things. It certainly does seem hard in the first place that the examinations, which are to give us the main part of our marks for the year, should all be placed at the end of the year when the weather is least suited for studying. In the Law School it is the custom, I believe, to allow men option of taking their examinations either in the summer or in the fall. Why cannot this custom be introduced into the college, in the case of all the lower class men. A man is expected to render an account of a year's work in three hours of the hottest weather it is possible to scare up. He jumps from recitations to examinations, and his only desire is to get through the period, regardless whether he does well or not. In many of the courses here, the lectures and recitations merely serve to point out to a man the best authorities on the subject he is studying. To read all these authorities takes all a man's time. In some courses it is almost impossible for a man to do justice to the subject, on account of lack of time. And yet, when the examinations are over, he is expected to be prepared at once on all these books, little or no time being given him for review. The instructor continues giving out references by the hundred pages every lecture until the last recitation bell of the year peals forth its joyous notes, and the luckless undergraduate is expected to do all this reading, and, at the same time, get up on the work of the earlier part of the term. Of course it may be said that many men are not willing to work during the summer for an examination in the fall. But there are many who are, and there is no more reason for the existence of the custom in the Law School than in the college.

Again, I object to having examinations of three hours, in which a man is expected to give all he knows of a course that he has studied a year. The man, in such an examination, is generally given a paper that he cannot do justice to in twice the time allotted, and the rapidity with which he can write forms an important factor in the examination. The examinations should be much more numerous and much shorter, although a man should not be limited as to time.

An oral examination, such as is required for honors, would be a great improvement over written examinations. To the objection that the instructors have not time, the remedy is to allow men to offer themselves for examination at different times of the year, whenever they feel themselves ready. There is no reason why the time of holding the examinations should be fixed.

These suggestions may seem silly, but anything is better than these long, wearying, sweltering examinations in the month of June.

M.