ch of a concession was made:
"If your work proves to be excellent, your shortage will be
disregarded." So she went to work with that incubus, or
stimulus--whichever you wish to regard it--over her. Neither she nor
her committee knew how to plan her work, not knowing whether it was
to be for two years or for three. And not until the very close of
her year's work was her status determined--full credit then being
granted for her former degrees. Miss May's sane comment now is, "I
would not advise any one to try to shorten the regular four-year
undergraduate period of study."
(Author 1918)

It is demoralizing to both students and teachers. I refer to the
inevitable outcome of such a system; some students (sometimes few and
sometimes many) develop considerable skill in "working the Prof."
Teachers offering elective courses are constantly under great temptation
and students are shrewd enough to know it. And again, under the same
count: it is freely claimed by both teachers and students that the
cheating in examinations, of which we doubtless have our share (some
claim much more than our share, tho personally I doubt it), is very
greatly increased if not largely caused by our system of marking. In
hopes of remedying this some of the students are now urging the
adoption of the "honor system" of conducting examinations. (6) It is
impossible to create uniform standards corresponding to our various
grades. There are as many standards for each grade as there are
instructors. A grade of work for which one instructor would give an "A"
(1.3), another would give a "B" (1.2) and still another a "C" (1.0).
Standards can not be fixt. To show how greatly they differ, in marking
the work for the first term of this year one instructor gave only seven
per cent of his students extra credit, while another thus rewarded more
than seventy per cent of his. This range, however, is abnormal. But a
range of twenty-five per cent to sixty-five per cent is not, even tho
the two instructors have approximately the same students and do
approximately the same grade of work. Other evils and weaknesses might
be mentioned, but these are sufficient to show the tendency.

On the other hand, what strong paints can be urged as an offset? The
only ones I have ever heard offered are: (1) it is an incentive, and (2)
it does enable students to shorten the period of undergradu