The announcement of Oral Examinations for next week calls attention to their status, and to some possible means of improving them in conformity with the plans of educational reform that are in progress at this University. Originally the Orals were intended to make certain that every undergraduate have a speaking knowledge of French or German, but they have proved in reality only a superfluous test of knowledge already attained in the elementary language courses. If these examinations are to continue in the future it seems desirable to change their name and purpose, in order that they may be more than mere irritating "compulsories."

A plausible suggestion for such a change would be to apply a set of examinations in the Junior, or early part of the Senior year to test a student's ability to comprehend the elementary French or German which is related to his field of concentration. For example, if a man should specialize in Physics he would be called upon to pass an examination in scientific French or German. A student able to pass such an examination would gain access to much valuable material which would otherwise be unavailable. There are some branches of the existing group system, such as Romance Languages, that are not suited to the proposed change, but in general the adoption of the new proposal will be in conformity with the desired educational reforms. Unless some such alteration is made we would suggest that the examinations be abolished, for at present they are little more than useless.