EXAMINATION^ IN HORTICULTURE, 1910, 451 



EXAMINATIONS IN HORTICULTURE, 1910.* 



GENEEAL EXAMINATION. 

 Wednesday, April 20, 1910. 



Seniors : over 18 years of age. 



One hundred and seventy-four candidates in the British Isles and 

 eleven candidates abroad entered for the Society's Senior General Ex- 

 amination, held on April 20, 1910. Seven of these, however, did not 

 present themselves on the appointed date. 



The Examiners, the Eev. Professor Henslow, V.M.H., and Mr. 

 James Douglas, V.M.IT., report that of the 165 English candidates 

 securing a place in the Pass List, 42, or 25 per cent., secured places 

 in the first class; 88, or 53 per cent., obtained the second class; while 

 35, or 22 per cent., appear in the third class. 



Of seven candidates in India, four were placed in the second and 

 three in the third class. 



Of four in South Africa, two were placed in the first, and two in 

 the third class. 



Comparing the results of the questions in Section A with Section B, 

 it was found that 43 excelled in A, or 25 per cent., and 55 in B, or 

 31 per cent. ; while 57 were within 10 marks of each other, or 32 per 

 cent. ; and, lastly, 21 candidates obtained exactly the same total number 

 of marks in each paper, i.e. 12 per cent. 



Cases of wide variation in the marks secured in the two sections 

 were very few, and were mostly confined to the third class. Chese 

 results, therefore, seem to indicate that candidates had studied both the 

 theoretical and practical sections of the syllabus with equal attention, 

 a slight balance in favour of practical knowledge (Section B) over physio- 

 logical (Section A) being perhaps perceptible. 



Students always show a marked preference for certain questions, 

 as the following results will show : Of the eight questions of the A paper 

 — dealing with (1) soils, (2) air, (3) light, (4) water, (5) classification, 

 (6) root anatomy, (7) fertihzation, (8) fruit dispersal— there was an 

 evident bias towards the questions (2), (4), (6), and (8). The numbers 

 of candidates who selected these were 117, 97, 107, and 149, respec- 

 tively ; whereas the average number who answered one or more of the 

 other four questions was 42 only. 



Similarly of the eight questions of the B paper, numbered (9) soils, 

 (10) soils and fruit, (11) soils, good and bad, (12) budding and grafting, 

 (13) plants for forcing, (14) orchids, (15) vegetables for forcing, (16) her- 

 baceous borders — the preferences were for (9), (10), (12), ahd (15). 



* See also p. 214. I 



