Every year, before the examinations commence, the commandant and second in command, in concert with the director and assistant director, and in concurrence with the superior officer commanding the battalion for military instruction, are formed into a board to determine the amount of the minimum credit which should be exacted from the students in every branch of study. This minimum is not usually allowed to fall below eight for the scientific, and ten for the military instruction.

Any student whose general mean credit is less than eight for the scientific, or ten for the military instruction, or who has a less credit than four for any particular study in the general instruction, or of six for the military instruction, is retained at the school to work during the vacation, and re-examined about eight days before the re-commencement of the course, by a commission composed of the director and assistant director of studies for the general instruction, and of the second in command and the commandant of the battalion, and of one captain for the military instruction. A statement of this second examination is submitted to the minister of war, and those students who pass it in a satisfactory manner are permitted by him to proceed into the first division. Those who do not pass it are reported to the minister of war as deserving of being excluded from the school, unless there be any special grounds for excusing them, such as sickness, in which case, when the fact is properly established before the council of instruction, they are permitted to repeat the year’s studies.

Irregularity of conduct is also made a ground for exclusion from the school. In order to estimate the credit to be attached to the conduct of a student, all the punishments to which he can be subjected are converted into a specific number of days of punishment drill. Thus,

For each day confined in the police chamber, 4 days’ punishment drill.

For each day confined in the prison, 8 days’ punishment drill.

The statement is made out under the presidency of the commandant of the school, by the second in command, and the officer in command of the battalion. The credits for conduct are expressed in whole numbers in terms of the scale of 0 to 20, in which the 20 signifies that the student has not been subjected to any punishment whatever, and the 0, that the student’s punishments have amounted to 200 or more days of punishment drill. The number 20 is diminished by deducting 1 for every 10 days of punishment drill.

The classification in the order of merit depends upon the total amount of the sum of the numerical marks or credits obtained by each student in every branch of study or instruction. The numerical credit in each subject is found by multiplying the credit awarded in each subject by the co-efficient of influence belonging to it.

[The co-efficients], representing the influence allowed to each particular kind of examination, in the various branches of study are as follows:—

Second Division, or First Year’s Course of Study.

Descriptive Geometry,Course,6

General
Instruction.

Drawing and Sketches,240
Physical Science applied to theMilitary Arts,Course,6
Sketch and Memoir,2
History,6
Geography and StatisticalMemoirs,Course,5
Sketch and Memoir,2
Literature, Memoir on4
German,4
Drawing,3
Special Instruction:—Drill, Practice, Manœuvers(Infantry and Cavalry,)7
Conduct,3
50