408 On Technical Education. [July, 
some years ago by a Professor of Chemistry at one of the 
Colleges at Cambridge, will only learn what will pass them ; 
they cannot be induced to stray beyond the limits of pro- 
bable questions ; the training they receive, according to the 
Recftor of Lincoln College, Oxford, is not training in inves- 
tigation, in research, in scientific procedure, but in the art of 
producing a clever answer to a question on a subject of which they 
have no real knowledge. 
Written examinations, however perfectly the questions 
may be framed, cannot be made efficient and practical tests 
for any of the Inductive Sciences, whether experimental or 
observational ; but, as long as they are employed as tests, 
the questions given ought chiefly to be of the kind that 
would test as completely as possible whether the examinee 
had acquired a knowledge of his subject or whether what he 
had acquired was mere information. Knowledge questions * 
as I will term them, are rarely given in examination papers 
on Chemistry ; the questions generally relate to particular 
fadfs, and are therefore mere information questions ; and it 
is this class of questions that are chiefly given at the Depart- 
ment’s examinations. Indeed the practical difficulties of 
awarding marks equally and fairly to such a large number of 
students, if questions were given which would test as effi- 
ciently as possible whether the examinees had been trained 
in learning the science, to reason, and think, themselves, on 
what they were taught, would be almost impossible ; because 
many of the questions would only be answered in part by 
the majority. The examiner would, therefore, before he got 
through all the papers, have become so utterly wearied as to 
the number of marks he ought to assign to each of the 
numerous answers to each of the different questions, that 
his faculty of judgment and comparison would be lost long 
before he had completed his task. Nor are the difficulties 
overcome by distributing the papers amongst several ex- 
aminers. Indeed, another difficulty then arises, for, for 
questions of this kind, the standard of the different examiners 
would vary, and, as the teachers are paid on the result 
system, they would receive unequal payment, on account of 
the difference in the standards of the examiners. I am 
afraid, also, if such questions were set, some of the assistant 
examiners, who are paid so much per dozen papers they 
examine, would perform their task in a more perfun(5tory 
manner than they are considered to do at present ; for it 
* I have given examples of what I term Knowledge Questions in my work 
“ Education, Scientific and Technical,” in the chapter on Examinations and 
Examiners. 
