The use of December Hour examinations in elementary courses has always been reminiscent of compulsory chapel attendance or some other relic of a bygone era. As such they are probably beneficial to the freshly matriculated student, acting as a check on his proclivities to let the daily assignments slide before the Midyears. Their presence in advanced courses, besides being unnecessary, places an undesirable strain on his preparation for course theses.

A flagrant offender in this regard has been History 2, covering during the first half year the period from the French Revolution to the fall of the Second Empire. The assignment for the December Hour consisted of reading from relevant parts of a half dozen books. One strongly recommended for the examination was Marriot's "Revolution of 1848", a single copy of which was placed at the desk in the Reading Room a week before. Assuming a constant demand for the book, it could be used for roughly 300 hours during the three weeks notice given. With approximately 200 men in the course, and allowing two and a half hours for each man to study the 100 pages assigned reasonably well enough for adequate preparation, the one book would have to be in use for an aggregate of 500 hours.

The actual examination Monday was divided into three parts, ostensibly allowing one-third of an hour for each division. The second question required an essay on the July Monarchy, in other words, the history of France from 1830 to 1848, giving the men 20 minutes to write on a question covering one fourth of the time treated in the first half year.

Needless to say, it is a physical impossibility to treat such a question creditably in the short time allotted. The test was so phrased as to allow the sufficiently prepared man no adequate opportunity to present his knowledge in a manner equal to the preparation and time expended. The type of examination, the evident mismanagement as to the assigned reading, and the requirement of a 5000-word thesis the week following the examination only add to the general dissatisfaction over having a December Hour examination at all.