EXAMINATION PAPERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 79, 2 March 1929, Page 8

EXAMINATION PAPERS.

METHODS OF MARKING. Per Press Association. THAMES, March 1. In the course of lengthy letters to the Thames Star in regard to his statement concerning the marking of matriculation papers, Mr W. H. Hoult, rector of the Thames High School, says that the matriculation examination to-day, in its unwieldiness, cannot compare well with that of 25 years ago. “The number of hopeful candidates has vastly increased. The English examiner and his assistants have to mark, I believe, some 4000 papers in three weeks. Only a very tew minutes can possibly be given to a candidate’s two or three hour English paper, the culmination . of three or four years’ work at secondary schools. Judgment is nearly as swift as, but far more erratic than it will be on the student’s final Day of Judgment. Teachers generally criticise most violently the marking of the English and French papers, it is here undoubtedly that the queerest results were obtained. Mathematics, science, history and so on can be more definite, as items can be right or wrong. The present break-neck system cannot pretend to do justice to such elusive things as languages. “Now for a word or two on the examining personnel. So far as I understand, it is at the head of a paper that one generally reads ‘Examiners: professor —'and assistants!. ’ From evidence gathered from testimonials from young teachers applying for positions at this school, I am, I believe, on safe ground when I state that ‘assistants’ are frequently students at the Universities. Furthermore, the same testimonials in some cases will show that these young folk have never had any practical teaching experience. I here hasten to state that 1 do, not wish to challenge tho honesty of any young assistants, nor do I suspect for a moment that any assistants have ever, favoured 'any special candidate or school. Ido in all seriousness, however, question tho ability of such students, who have never had any teaching experience, to sit in judgment qn, say, English or French composition. Directions can be given them carefully, but even then the risks of uneven marking are appalling.”