CRITICISM OF KNOWLEDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

CRITICISM OF KNOWLEDGE.

CANDIDATES LOW STANDARD. H. G. WELLS—CRICKETER. Sharp criticism of the unsatisfactory standard of knowledge shown bv candidates for the Army Entrance Examination, appears in the summary of the reports made to the Civil Service Commissioners by the examiners issued recently. There are some astonishing " howlers'' in the general knowledge section. " Tho interest of the candidates in the present day," stale tho examiners, " is too much routined to the sphere of rcreation. Rubens was understood to lie a revue musician, and IT. G. Wells a boxer or a cricketer, while, threc-quarteis of tho candidates took Robert Cecil lo be the Elizabethan statesman." Candidates are advised to avoid mere vituperation, of which two examples are given. Lenin is described as "an absolute devil in human form," and certain supporters of the Monroe Doctrine as " avaricious ghouls." Only a small proportion of the candidates showed a. satisfactory knowledge of Latin and Greek, according to the examiners, and in composition was distinctly worse than translation. Ignorance of familiar grammatical terms and the simpler rules of syntax arc given as the cause of most failures. In French and German essay, the examiners state: "'lt is surprising how poorly the incidents represented m the pictures were related as a rule, but there are some praiseworthy exceptions, which show what a littlo spirit and imagination can do."

In ono case although the title of the pictorial incident to be related was " Les cerises bien gardecs," four candidates wrote about apples and most made tho word cerises masculine. In the oral test, tho examiners added, tho French pronunciation of the candidates was bad.