Every so often a student announces the startling fact that European students have no examinations until the end of their final year, and laments the fact that this admirable idea is not carried out at McGill. This surprising revelation becomes less surprising, and in fact unspeakably tedious, after the umpteenth repetition.

Our universities have to weed out students who regard college as a very fine club, those who mistakenly believe that they are fitted for executive or other intellectual work, and who are actually excellent manual or physical workers (and we by no means underrate or disparage such ability, but such instruction is not the function of a university.)

If a student feels that examinations are too much for him, then he shouldn't be attending a university. If he has kept up his work (and he chooses his own courses, remember), the examination at the end of the course should merely prove to be a useful review.

We can honestly say that we have never encountered an intentionally tricky or unreasonably difficult examination. Allowances are always made for students who obviously know their work but do not have time to finish all the questions.

More unadulterated piffle is expended upon this subject by students who should know better than upon any other campus topic, including pacifism. --The McGill Daily