Examinations, particularly English examinations, have come under considerable undergraduate fire recently at Harvard. The criticism has been definite and leveled at specific examples of offending question papers. In general the trend of the charges made against examiners is that they single out obscure minor points in the work, demand aimless memory ability, and the papers are absurdly out of proportion to the three hours alloted for the writing of the blue books.

Some of the greatest university teachers have had trouble with examinations. Nearly all of them express the impossible wish to abolish the entire system if a substitute could only be found. Woodrow Wilson when President of Princeton had section men make up his final tests. He is known to have on occasion described the result as the "limit" and assured his students, "I'll see that it won't harm you".

Just at present the revolt against the evils of the system seems to be gathering force. The criticism of a Yale English examination made in the World and reprinted elsewhere in these columns is worth the notice of all who have recently had graphic examples in Cambridge of how unsatisfactory examinations can be.