SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 147 
Oral and Laboratory Tests. 
Tt will usually be desirable to associate oral with laboratory tests. 
Such oral tests might include (1) discussion arising from inspection 
of the note-books of the candidates; (2) discussion of the effect of 
varying conditions of experiment or of the actual placing and dis- 
placing of apparatus, such as lamp, lenses and screen, prisms, &c. (in 
such cases the candidate may be asked to predict effects and to verify) ; 
(3) examination of electrical connections, of a lock, &c., affording useful 
supplementary exercises serving to initiate oral discussion of principles. 
Laboratory tests are unsatisfactory unless the examiner is present. 
Examiners should rehearse each exercise under examination conditions 
as to limits of time, method, and apparatus (including drying facilities). 
The available supplies of water, heat, electrical power need to be known. 
The best tests are, as a rule, those which require scientific examination 
of common things other than laboratory specimens. One of the tests 
(which we will call type A) may usefully involve the carrying out of 
printed instructions; marks depending much on accuracy of result. 
The other (type B) may be a trial of resourcefulness in experiment; 
originality of idea and its general correctness being rewarded, while it is 
recognised that accuracy of result would be somewhat providential in 
the circumstances. 
The Committee is of opinion that teachers should take part in the 
setting of laboratory tests. It is not desirable to prescribe any plan 
for universal adoption, but the following is a possible method. Let four 
questions be set, numbers 1 (type A) and 3 (type B) by the external 
examiners, numbers 2 (A) and 4 (B) by the teacher, candidates being at 
liberty to select either 1 and 4 or 2 and 3. If time and laboratory 
arrangements permit, it will be useful to add a drawing test—e.g., of a 
biological specimen seen in the field of a microscope—or of apparatus 
arranged for a physical or chemical experiment. 
The use of squared paper should be restricted to purposes for which 
ordinary writing-paper is insufficient. The use of logarithms should be 
encouraged. In the more advanced examinations the use of books of 
reference (not notes) may be permitted; this is scarcely to be recom- 
mended for examinations below the level of the Second (Higher) School 
certificate. When the examination will determine the award of a 
scholarship, or of a certificate affecting the career of a candidate, the 
examiner should inspect the candidate’s note-books and take into con- 
sideration the order of merit in which the teacher of the subject has 
placed the candidates. 
It is hoped that, with precautions such as are suggested above, 
laboratory tests may afford trustworthy evidence which may be used in 
conjunction with the written examination to determine the abilities and 
training of the candidates. At the same time such tests will afford 
valuable opportunities for associating examiner and teacher, and prevent 
neglect of laboratory work, or its relegation to an inferior position, as 
has often occurred in the past in cases where written examinations only 
have been employed, 
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