questionable asset may seem to certain college
professors, it is a serious fault in a high school teacher to have any
considerable number of normal children fail. The ambition of the good
instructor is to give an examination which shall at once be thorough,
reasonable, and intelligently directed toward finding what the student
has really learned. His purpose is to test accurately the various
abilities which he has endeavored to encourage in the student during his
course. He wishes to ascertain how much the student has really
progressed.

_Specific suggestions on formulating questions_

In order to do this the examination must be on the really material
considerations of the history. Questions on unimportant details should
be omitted. The student should not be expected to burden his memory with
the limitless mass of petty isolated facts contained in the average
history text. The questions should be on considerations that have been
carefully discussed, and not on facts that have received but cursory
attention.

The examination should not require too much time for writing. The
several hours' continuous nervous tension sometimes exacted by too
ambitious teachers does the average child more harm than the
examination can possibly do him good.

The examination should consist of questions that will jointly or
severally test the student's powers of description, generalization, and
analysis. They should test his knowledge of the sequence of events, his
ability to use a library or a map, his knowledge of the various phases
and the various periods of the history studied. In every examination
there should be at least one question dealing with the time and the
order of events, one each on the geographical, political, and social
history, one that is analytical, one that requires generalization, one
that will test his knowledge of the library, and one that will test his
powers of description. It is not necessary to limit the questions to the
customary number of ten. It is frequently advisable to give a class some
degree of choice in the selection of their questions by requiring any
ten out of a larger number asked. Certainly such a plan gives the
student a more favorable opportunity to demonstrate his ability without
in the least diminishing the value of the examination.

Examination questions, like all other questions, should be definite,
clean-cut, and reasonable. If possible, each student should be supplied
with a copy, inste