In the midst of the supposed gloom that theoretically precedes the period of mid-year examinations, it has been encouraging to hear at least one professor announce openly that his questions would be formulated in such a way that the examined could use their originality and power to think for themselves; that he did not want his own views handed back to him, but rather the results of individual reasoning. In other words, he was asking his class to show some "signs of life".

The idea is not in itself new or startling. The fact of its existence is merely lost sight of about this time every year. It is a great temptation, when studying for an examination, to fill up with a mass of facts and quotations and useful bits from the lecture notes, neglecting entirely the formulation of personal judgment and criticism. Now facts are essential to show a general knowledge of a course; but the ability to think for oneself is an advantage which is coming to have more and more recognition. Professors--the great majority of them at least--are asking not what a man has "learned and conned by rote", but what he has actually got out of the courses.

A "parrot-student" may have increased his knowledge, but unless he can put that knowledge to work, he is still sadly lacking in true education. On the other hand, the man who has a fair estimate of the work required, and who has cultivated in addition the habit of using his head, will very rarely flunk out. What is even more, he will have acquired a power that the "parrot-student" can never know.