180 EXAMINATIONS IV 



cal form the results of study. Such examinations, 

 however, assume a different aspect when they are 

 conducted, as is too frequently the case, by an 

 examiner appointed ad hoc, who is a stranger both to 

 the examinee and to his teacher. A further modifica- 

 tion which is as a rule injurious though not, perhaps, 

 under all circumstances is introduced when the 

 examination is made competitive, and the results 

 are published to the world with the examinees' names 

 arranged in order of merit. There is, I think, a 

 distinction to be drawn here between the examination 

 of schoolboys and that of university students. My 

 strong impression is that competition by examination 

 for pre-eminence in class among schoolboys is not 

 injurious, but, acting upon healthy young natures, 

 serves as an unobjectionable stimulus to exertion. It 

 also seems to me that, whilst frequent or even 

 annual inspection and examination by external ex- 

 aminers is open to the same objections in the case 

 of schools as in that of universities (to be mentioned 

 below), there is not the same objection to a "leaving 

 examination" or "university matriculation examina- 

 tion " being conducted by examiners who have not 

 been the teachers of the candidates. Such an ex- 

 amination as that last named may be regarded as 

 a means of criticising and testing the performance 

 not merely of the schoolboys but of the schoolmasters. 

 And it is right that they should be so tested and 

 directed by those charged with the later steps of 

 education, namely, the authorities of the university. 

 The university must necessarily be regarded as the 



