Material for Officers.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 8, 24 February 1909, Page 69

Material for Officers.

The British Army Qualifying Board lias a poor opinion of the quality of the candidates who presented themselves for txaroination for commissions at the last examination. It has just issued its report on the examination, and makes the following comments: — "The English essays, as a whole, were mediocre; most of the candidates could express themselves with some facility, though many of them were too fond of

colloquial phrases; but very few indeed were able tn arrange their thoughts in proper sequence or to rise above the obvious anti the common place. “The work in dictation was very uneven; some of the candidates made the most grotesque mistakes both in ortho graphy and in punctuation; many others lest marks by purr carelessness ami iu attention. The precis writing was in most cases unequivocally bad. Its badness was not to be accounted ha by the fact—which was generally apparent —that the writers had little idea of the purposes served by precis writing. “Their work was often written in e slovenly manner defaced by interlines, lions and corrections, and by bad spelling, arrangement, and composition. But the vital defects were recklessness in misstatement and an apparent inability of the writers to read a simple narration with any degree of care and intelligence “There is still an unduly large proportion of candidates who know practicel’.y nothing of g e <sgrapb.y. “On the whole the quality of the work in chemistry was distinctly poor.’’ Of the 326 candidates presenting themselves fur the whole examination Hi passed.