THOSE ARITHMETIC PAPERS

Evening Star, Issue 23564, 1 May 1940, Page 5

THOSE ARITHMETIC PAPERS

INVESTIGATION DISCLOSURES ' SEVISION PASSES ANOTHER ■ 170 [Pee United Press Association.] > WELLINGTON, - April 30. That the Executive Committee records its strong disapproval of the lack of responsibility and of reasonable carp shown by the examiners of arithmetic in the 1939 University entrance examination and recommends the Senate to debar each of them from acting as examiner in any entrance examination during the pleasure of the Senate, but in; no case for less than five years.” In a statement issued with the resolution the Executive Committee of the Senate states that ifmet on January 24 to. consider the results of the University entrance examination before thby were issued.' At this meeting, which was held before any publicity had been given to the, matter, it was noticed that the marks in arithmetic presented anomalous features. It was. however, considered inadvisable to postpone publication of all the results on this account. but in order to, ensure that no candidate suffered ■ an injustice from the marking in arithmetic a special investigation was ordered. In the first place. 50 scripts selected at random were submitted to one of the professors of mathematics for comment. As this preliminary , scrutiny ..showed, that the fears of the committee 'were justified tit was resolved to invite a senior professor of mathematics and his assistants to reexamine all the scripts in which an alteration in the arithmetic mark might benefit an unsuccessful candidate. This re-examination, although carried out with all possible despatch, unfortunately involved considerable delay in the final adjustment of results. The re-examination disclosed a number of errors of various descriptions involving a very large number of cases. Altogether 170 additional candidates passed the entrance examination as a result of>the re-marking. The committee was well aware of the hardships that might have resulted from the unavoidable delay in reaching the final result of the entrance examination, but was of the opinion that no other course than that adopted would have done justice to all the candidates. It might be explained that since 1931 the Senate 'has had in operation a scheme of scaling to ensure that the results in different subjects marked by different examiners in succeeding years do: not vary too widely. In the case 1 under review the low, average in the arithmetic necessitated a generous scaling allowance. The differences in the marks announced to candidates after the re-marking are due to the result of • re-marking taken in conjunction with the scaling allowances. As the re-mark-ing of the scripts in this case was not a reconsideration _in the ordinary sense, : no.reconsideration fee has been charged. : In the case of those candidates who j sent in the usual deposit fee for recon- ! sideration in arithmetic the fee is being ; refunded. :