The instructors seem unable to determine what should be a paper of fair length for a three-hour examination, as has been rather forcibly shown by some recent examinations. This is an old grievance, it is true, and one that has often been commented upon, yet its constant recurrence seems to call for even further notice. The only answer made to complaints on this subject is that the system of long examination is designed to bring to light the men who have failed to keep up with their work properly. Yet the force of this argument is greatly diminished when it is found that, in many courses, the harder working members of the elective have failed to complete the paper in the time prescribed. Another point to be considered is the effect such an examination has upon a man of nervous temperament, Few can have any conception of the strain upon a man so constituted who is endeavoring to reach a high grade upon the rank list, and yet sees the minutes hurrying by without bringing a commensurate amount of reduction in the unanswered portion of the paper before him. Why it should be that instructors' wish a hastily written and necessarily inaccurate list of answers to a need-lessly long list of questions is one of the unaccountable features of Harvard student-life.