( 4§ ) 
| January, 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
*** The Editor does not hold himself responsible for statements of fadts or 
opinions expressed in Correspondence, or in Articles bearing the signature 
of their respective authors. 
EXAMINERS AND THEIR SHORTCOMINGS. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
Sir, — You have lately given the world some interesting informa- 
tion on the methods employed by “ coaches” in preparing their 
men. Perhaps you will grant me a corner of your space to 
communicate, from my own experience and that of my late 
fellow-students, some fadts concerning examiners. I find that 
wherever the examination is viva voce , and where a single 
student is called up at a time, success or failure very much turns 
on chance. 
Suppose the examiner knows the candidate or his family, he 
will often chat with him on indifferent matters, and then just put 
a few questions in a perfundtory sort of way. If a candidate 
has been up before, and been plucked, the examiner is always 
doubly severe. I was asked by each examiner in turn “ Have 
you been up before ?” 
Sometimes an examiner takes a dislike to the looks of a can- 
didate, and treats him to the hardest and most unreasonable 
questions he can seledt. 
Some examiners, most unfairly and unjustly, try to unnerve 
and bewilder a student. On receiving a right answer they will 
put on a look of contemptuous surprise, and in various ways 
bully and insult their vidtim. In this manner they find pretexts 
for rejecting the timid and the hot-tempered, whatever may be 
their talents and attainments. 
I think it will be admitted by all right-minded men that if our 
present examination system is to continue it should be adminis- 
tered with absolute fairness and impartiality. 
I had nearly forgotten that in case of lady candidates there is 
a display of effusive gallantry, and every point is stretched to 
