Sept. 24, 1874J 



NATURE 



417 



in combination with a power of discriminating what is, 

 and what is not, important in an examination point of 

 view. These, in the hands of an experienced teacher, an 

 able "crammer," or with well-selected books at their dis- 

 posal, are able, by dint of hard work, so far to make up 

 lor their own deficiency in originating power, as to 

 appear, in an examination conducted on ordinary methods, 

 indistinguishable from those who, by accurate observation 

 and much less reading than themselves, have from their 

 superior capacity been able to obtain the same amount 

 of information. What is the result ? Taking an in- 

 stance in which one of each of these classes com- 

 petes, one against the other, perhaps the former has 

 come out senior and the latter second in the examina- 

 tion list. The latter knows that he might have done 

 better without much effort, and is in no way injured by 

 being beaten. But the former is in a very different posi- 

 tion. He finds himself placed above a man of acknow- 

 ledged great ability, and from this in his smaller mind 

 he infers that he is greater still, considering that he has 

 beaten all. He goes forth into the world with a conscious 

 and unfounded feeling of power ; sets up for being a 

 genius ; and though his capacities may be anything but 

 inconsiderable, he completely over-estimates himself If 

 he is a man who has to get his living entirely by his own 

 work he most probably attempts the highest things ; to 

 become a barrister or a physician rather than to follow 

 the routine of a solicitor or a general practitioner, for 

 which in reality he is more suited. When the struggle 

 for life commences in earnest he has the continual morti- 

 fication of seeing others, to whom he has been led by his 

 examination results to think himself superior, passing him 

 on account of their greater ability. This sours his dispo- 

 sition, depresses him unwarrantably, compels him ulti- 

 mately to relinquish his higher aspirations, and, as a 

 despondent cynic, makes him take to the more humble 

 line of action which at the time of his success he despised 

 so thoroughly. 



This is not an overdrawn picture, its counterpart may 

 be seen on all sides, and many more like it will be forth- 

 coming if some radical change is not made in the method 

 of examination now in vogue. What that change must 

 be deserves the serious consideration of all interested in 

 the progress of every branch of social economy, as well as 

 of those who have the responsibility of filling posts of 

 scientific importance. In this respect we think that the 

 older Universities, Oxford and Cambridge, in their more 

 venerable honour exammations, set by far the best ex- 

 ample. How accurately, in many of the colleges, the 

 exact mental capacities of those of its undergraduates 

 who are candidates for honours are known, is also more 

 than surprising to the uninitiated. The reason of this is 

 that the examiners are men of acknowledged ability, and 

 •what is as much to the point, they have themselves gone 

 through the same training, with the same objects in view, 

 as those whom they are comparing. The ultimate object 

 of work has no doubt a very important bearing on the 

 manner in which it is undertaken ; and it is hardly to be 

 wondered at that in a competition like that for the India 

 Civil Service, in which so painfully large a number of 

 subjects is frequently included by some of the candidates, 

 specialist examiners find it extremely difficult to judge, 

 from the undigested mass of answers they hive to com- 



pare, which is the least bad of the candidates before them. 

 In institutions like the University of London, the system 

 of offering scholarships to be competed for in special 

 "honours" examinations, which follow those for simply 

 obtaining the degree, has, in many cases we could refer 

 to, had the same injurious effect of giving men a false 

 estimate of their own practical power of getting on in life ; 

 and whether in the long run the older method of con- 

 ferring degrees after a pass examination only, without any 

 associated pecuniary reward, is not the best is still a sub- 

 ject quite sub j ltd ice. In Medical Science this is particu- 

 larly the case, for in it, more than or as much as in any 

 other, a purely theoretical knowledge of any department 

 of Chemistry, Physics, or Biology, is but of slight value 

 in comparison with the experience of the bed-side, when 

 the commencing practitioner is called upon to diagnose 

 and prescribe without any assistance from others. 



In the Universities of Oxford and of Cambridge we 

 have an opportunity of watching the working of the two 

 different systems of examining competing candidates. In 

 the former the lists appear with the names in each 

 arranged alphabetically in three or four classes, and not 

 according to the actual merit in each class. The public are 

 therefore told by this method the average standard to which 

 a man has risen, and no more ; for the rest they are left 

 to judge by other entirely independent and perfectly 

 voluntary performances by which he has the opportunity 

 of exhibiting the quality of his ability. In Cambridge 

 the tripos lists place each man in exactly his place with 

 regard to the other men of his year who have taken up 

 the same subject as himself, and every attempt is made 

 to maintain all the triposes at such a standard that corre- 

 sponding classes indicate similar ability. From the re- 

 marks with which we commenced it is evident that the 

 Oxford system has many advantages ; and that the other 

 is liable to lead to the injurious result we have mentioned, 

 which in that particular case it does not, on account of 

 the antiquity of the system and the extremely careful way 

 in which the examinations are conducted. 



It is the fashion in most modern examinations to in- 

 clude a large number of subjects, many of which may be 

 taken up by each candidate. This, no doubt, is a mistake 

 in many instances. It is not so much information that is 

 wanted in a young man — that will come when the stimulus 

 for showing it becomes greater, but the exhibition of 

 mental capacity ; and with examiners of any worth, who 

 have had any experience, it is not at all difficult to esti- 

 mate the powers of candidates from a very few answers 

 in a very few subjects, especially if any viva voce and 

 practical questions are included. 



A competitive examination should therefore have for its 

 object the estimation of the power of the candidate, and 

 that only. It should be so conducted as to place him on 

 a standard table in such a position that if it were possible 

 from a physical examination of his brain to judge of his 

 brain capacity, the results of the two methods would 

 coincide. This can be best attained by restricting the 

 examination to a f;w subjects ; by asking questions which 

 call for method in their answers rather than fact ; and by 

 having able examiners who are acquainted with future 

 work to be expected of the candidate. Candidates tluis 

 selected in the long run must certainly be found more 

 latisfactory than those chosen by any other method. 



