MATRICULATION PAPER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 300, 18 December 1937, Page 8

MATRICULATION PAPER.

| The unusually high standard set by ft* year's University entrance examiners has I aroused many complaints among the jrablie. Apart from the fact "that the Infantile paralysis epidemic forced pupils to begin work later than usual, the difficult and, in some eases, almost impossible papers should not have I been allowed to be printed. The arithmetic [and algebra papers were %he cause of Titter despondency among many candidates, and this feeling helped to lessen their zeal for attackI in? the other subjects. It seems that until 0110 of the examiners of each paper is a secondary school master or mistress no satisfactory conclusion will be reached- The University professors seem to have no ide» of the average amount of work covered by secondary school pupils. An example of this is tlie Knglish paper, which was not a very formidable one to the majoritv ol the candidates. but which hardly included any of the normal teaching durin-r the previous years, and thus did not test the student's gradnal assimilation of knowledge during his schooling. The University wishes to decrease the number of students entering the colleges. but is it wise that this should be accomplished by the stiffening of the mathematical papers, which to many undergraduates will bo of no use! The ultimate decision of the council will iprolvjbly be that this system of examining he al>olished. but in the meantime 1 strongly advise the lowering of the standard of the [University entrance. CUT BON'O.