“I like being in the class with everyone rather than people who are picked from a possibly inadequate placement system,” says Gross, who also agreed on the advantage of having a diverse group of “minds and skills” in the class.

TESTING INTO 20

But in order to find the talented writers, the expository writing program plans to roll out a new placement exam for the Class of 2015.

The current exam, which takes place over two hours, prompts incoming freshmen to respond to a passage by calling on “evidence of your own observations and knowledge, whether from personal experiences, current or past events, or from your reading” in two hours or less.

“[An ideal placement test] should be an experience of rigor, and there should be gravitas to it,” Jehn says.

Jehn says the redesigned exam will allot more time—perhaps 72 hours—for students to complete their essays and that it will place greater emphasis on responding to a text instead of prompting students to draw on a broad selection of personal experiences and knowledge.

The new test would ask students to compose an essay based on a smaller selection of evidence and would be more similar to the work done within the Expos program.

“I like the idea of having to take some time to reflect on the reading that you’re doing and having to take some time writing the piece,” Jehn says. “Obviously 72 hours is still only 72 hours, but that gets you more of a taste of what’s to come.”

—Stephanie B. Garlock and Julie M. Zauzmer contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction.

CORRECTION: Feb. 13, 2011

The Feb. 11 article "Emerging Expos 30" misattributed a statement regarding the appropriate time required for the expos placement test. The statement was, in fact, made by Thomas R. Jehn, the director of the Harvard College Writing Program.