(This editorial is the last in the first part of a series in which the Crimson is undertaking an examination of undergraduate life at Harvard. The editorials in the first part of the series have attempted to reveal the situation as it is, not to reach final conclusions nor to recommend changes. Later editorials will view the picture as a whole and take a definite stand on problems that have been raised, and the final part of the series will make definite recommendations.)

On the muddy battleground of educational philosophies, examinations play a unique mundane role. They are hard to fit into the ideals and dreams of almost anyone's pedagogical program, but they have nonetheless managed to become, from the student's point of view, the target of the year's effort at almost all of the colleges and universities in the United States.

Harvard is no exception. President Eliot may reform, concentration may battle distribution, General Education may arise from an academic whirlpool--but for the student, learning remains a process of absorption for 16 or fewer weeks and disgorging of knowledge for three hours at the conclusion of said process.

Numerous Complaints

Complaints about the final examination system are frequent and loud, and the fact that nothing substantial has been done about it seems to indicate that no adequate substitute to fit the needs of Harvard College has been found. A few courses use term papers, but so few that they hardly presage any large-scale alteration in the system. The unchanging nature of examinations, though perhaps impressive in traditionalist argument, hardly answers the large number of intelligent charges made against them.

No one defends final examinations on the ground that they can ever be absolutely balanced, complete, or fair. The briefness of the writing period, the rigidity of the examination form, and the large range of possible questions in almost any course make the perfect examination and ideal for which no teacher can struggle very hard. In addition, the instructor in charge of the course has extreme freedom in drawing up the test and may use great discretion in choosing and weighting the questions.

Assistants Take Over

Once a faculty member has finished composing his final examination, his connection with the course is ended. From then on the work is done by any number of assistants who, although they are probably just event college graduates themselves, have complete control over the grade received by each undergraduate. Most assistants have so many papers to correct that marking is certain to become come mechanical and is also likely to be affected by errors of carelessness from tine to time. Anyone who has found on obvious mistake in the marking of his bluebook and has attempted to have the course grade changed knows what an impressibly involved process that is--how everyone from the instructor to the department had to the entire faculty must approve a change once the grades are "in."

It is unusual for an undergraduate even to see his bluebook once the examination is over. Although it seems apparent that if examinations make any pretense at being on educational process they should he returned to the students for review, few courses have gone to the trouble of making their examination readily available after being corrected.

One corollary effect of Harvard's examination system is the complete paralysis that occurs in the College's non-cramming activities during the examination and reading periods. Lectures and meetings disappear, all sports temporarily cease, and any none-course intellectual occupation becomes dormant.

Most important criticism or the examination system here will center, however, about its validity in finding the right level of grade for each student. By the time they have reached their Junior year most students have been forcibly made to realize that the premium on a majority of non-scientific final examinations is on ability to organize and to write clearly more than on quantity of factual knowledge or understanding of the material in a course.

Cramming Pays

The students realize, too, that despite Dr. Arlie V. Bock's yearly disjoiner, intensive cramming just before an examination will often produce a much better mark for a quick-minded student than long hours earlier in the term. The fact that the Social Relations Department, in spite of expert knowledge in the field and constant experimentation, has been unable to approach perfection of method is an interesting proof of the difficulties of testing.

The long-term answer to the examination problem in Harvard College will probably not come as a product of work in the Social Relations Department or of the efforts of the experts on testing, for the essential difficulty is not one of methodology--whether an examination is objective or subjective or a mixture. The examination systems is closely tied to the lecture system, to the whole modern tradition of Harvard education. Until that tradition is altered, examinations, except possibly for minor reforms, are here to stay.