In Harvard College the highest mark is eight. Four is considered as the average, and a student not receiving this average in all the studies of a term is not allowed to remain as a member of college. At Yale the marks range from zero to four. Two is the average, and a student not receiving this is obliged to leave college, not to return until he can pass an examination in all the branches which his class has pursued.
In Harvard College, where the system of marks is most strictly followed, the merit of each individual is ascertained by adding together the term aggregates of each instructor, these "term aggregates being the sum of all the marks given during the term, for the current work of each month, and for omitted lessons made up by permission, and of the marks given for examination by the instructor and the examining committee at the close of the term." From the aggregate of these numbers deductions are made for delinquencies unexcused, and the result is the rank of the student, according to which his appointment (if he receives one) is given.—Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass., 1848.
That's the way to stand in college,
High in "marks" and want of knowledge!
Childe Harvard, p. 154.
If he does not understand his lesson, he swallows it whole, without understanding it; his object being, not the lesson, but the "mark," which he is frequently at the President's office to inquire about.—A Letter to a Young Man who has Just entered College, 1849, p. 21.
I have spoken slightingly, too, of certain parts of college machinery, and particularly of the system of "marks." I do confess that I hold them in small reverence, reckoning them as rather belonging to a college in embryo than to one fully grown. I suppose it is "dangerous" advice; but I would be so intent upon my studies as not to inquire or think about my "marks."—Ibid. p. 36.
Then he makes mistakes in examinations also, and "loses marks." —Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 388.
MARKER. In the University of Cambridge, England, three or four persons called markers are employed to walk up and down chapel during a considerable part of the service, with lists of the names of the members in their hands; they an required to run a pin through the names of those present.
As to the method adopted by the markers, Bristed says: "The students, as they enter, are marked with pins on long alphabetical lists, by two college servants, who are so experienced and clever at their business that they never have to ask the name of a new-comer more than once."—Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 15.
His name pricked off upon the marker's roll,
No twinge of conscience racks his easy soul.
The College, in Blackwood's Mag., May, 1849.
MARSHAL. In the University of Oxford, an officer who is usually in attendance on one of the proctors.—Collegian's Guide.