EXAMINATIONS 



I DO not feel much diffidence in complying with the 

 request of the Editor of this Review, that I should 

 write a brief statement of my opinion on the recent 

 attack upon examinations, because I believe that there 

 are very few persons who have had so wide and con- 

 tinuous an experience in examinations as I have had. 

 In early days I was subjected to innumerable exam- 

 inations for scholarships, degrees, and fellowships, 

 both at Oxford and at Cambridge, and during the 

 past twenty years I have been almost constantly 

 employed in examining for scholarships, or degrees, 

 or fellowships, or other appointments on behalf of the 

 University of Oxford or of that of Cambridge, or for 

 my own or another college, or for the University of 

 London, or for the Civil Service Commissioners, or 

 the Public Schools Examination Board. 



A mere experience of a vast number of examina- 

 tions would not, I think, in itself enable any one to 

 form an opinion as to the good or evil results flowing 

 from the present examination system were that ex- 

 perience not accompanied, as it has been in my own 

 case, by constant occupation as a teacher : I have 

 been thus occupied both at Exeter College, Oxford, 



