Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, 'Evangelical Church Conference' to 'Fairbairn, Sir William' / Volume 10, Slice 1 - Various

There are in England a number of school examinations which, under prescribed conditions, also serve as school-leaving examinations, and give entrance to certain universities, especially the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations (both established in 1858), and the examinations of the Oxford and Cambridge “Joint Board.” A movement to reduce the number of entrance examinations and to secure uniformity in their standard was set on foot in 1901. In that year the General Medical Council communicated to the Board of Education a memorial on the subject from the Headmasters’ Conference. The memorial was further communicated to various professional bodies concerned. Conferences were held by the consultative committee of the Board of Education in 1903, with representatives of the universities, the Headmasters’ Conference, the Association of Head-Masters, the Association of Head-Mistresses, the College of Preceptors, the Private Schools’ Association, and with representatives of professional bodies. The committee were of opinion that a central board, consisting of representatives of the Board of Education and the different examining bodies, should be established, to co-ordinate and control the standards of the examinations, and to secure interchangeability of certificates, &c. , as soon as a sufficient number of such bodies signified their willingness to be represented on the board. They recommended that the examination should be conducted by external and internal examiners, representing in each case the examining body and the school staff respectively, and that reports on the school work of candidates should be available for reference by the examiners (circular of the Board of Education of 12th of July 1904).

The “accrediting” system in the United States was started by the university of Michigan in 1871. A school desiring to be accredited is submitted to inspection without previous notice. If the inspection is satisfactory, the school is accredited by a university for from one to three years, and upon the favourable report of its principal any of its students are admitted to the university by which it has been accredited without any entrance examination. In practice it is found that many students whom their teachers refuse to certify are able to pass the university entrance examination. The statistics of nine years show that the standard of the certified students is higher than that of non-certified students. Two hundred and fifty schools are accredited by the university of Michigan. In 1904 it was stated that the system was gaining favour in the east,[3] and that it had been adopted more or less by all the eastern colleges and universities with the exception of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia.

4. Methods of Examination.—Examinations may test (i.) knowledge, or, more exactly, the power of restating facts and arguments of a kind that may be learnt by rote; (ii.) the power of doing something, e.g. of making a précis of a written document, of writing a letter or a report on a particular subject with a particular object in view, of translating from or into a foreign language, of solving a mathematical problem, of criticizing a passage from a literary work, of writing an essay on an historical or literary subject with the aid of books in a library, of diagnosing the malady of a patient, of analysing a chemical mixture or compound; and (the highest form under the rubric) of making an original contribution to learning or science as the result of personal investigation or experiment. Examinations are carried out at present by means of (1) written papers; (2) oral examinations; (3) practical, including in medicine clinical, tests; (4) theses; or a combination of these.

In written examinations the candidates are, as a rule, supplied with a number of printed questions, of which they must answer all, or a certain proportion, within a given time, varying, as a rule, from 1½ to 3 hours, the latter being Written. the duration most generally adopted for higher examinations in England. Whereas in France and Germany the questions are generally few in number and require long answers, showing constructive skill and mastery of the mother-tongue on the part of the candidates, such “essay-papers” are comparatively rare in England. In many subjects, the written examinations test memory rather than capacity. It has been suggested that sets of questions to be answered in writing should as a rule be divided into two parts: (i.) a number of questions requiring short answers and intended to test the range of the candidate’s knowledge; (ii.) questions requiring long answers, intended to test its depth, and the candidate’s powers of co-ordination and reflection. A necessary condition for the application of the second kind of test is that time should be given for reflection and for rewriting, say one-third or one-quarter of the whole time allowed. A further distinction is important, especially in such subjects as mathematics or foreign languages, in which it is legitimate to ask what precise power on the part of a candidate the passing of an examination shall signify. Owing to a prevailing confusion between tests of memory and tests of capacity, the allowance for chance fairly applied to the former is apt to be unduly extended to the latter. In applying tests of memory, it may be legitimate to allow a candidate to pass who answers correctly from 30 to 50% of the questions; such an allowance if applied to a test of capacity, such as the performance of a sum in addition, the solution of triangles by means of trigonometrical tables, or the translation of an easy passage from a foreign language, appears to be irrational. A candidate who obtains only 50% of the marks in performing such operations cannot be regarded as being able to perform them; and, if the examination is to be treated as a test of his capacity to perform them, he should be rejected unless he obtains full marks, less a certain allowance (say 10, or at most 20%) in view of the more or less artificial conditions inherent in all examinations.

The oral examination is better suited than the written to discover the range of a candidate’s knowledge; it also serves as a test of his powers of expression in his mother-tongue, or in a foreign language, and may be used (as Oral. in the examination for entrance to the Osborne Naval College) to test the important qualities (hardly tested in any other examinations at present), readiness of wit, common-sense and nerve. It may be objected that candidates are heavily handicapped by nervousness in oral examinations, but this objection does not afford sufficient ground for rejecting the test, provided that it is supplemented by others. Oral tests are used almost invariably in medical examinations; and there is a growing tendency to make them compulsory in dealing with modern languages. Oral examinations are much more used abroad than in England, where the pupils during their school years receive but little exercise in the art of consecutive speaking.

TABLE I.—PRUSSIA: ABITURIENTEN EXAMEN

I. Name of Examination.	Abiturienten Examen (established in 1788).
II. Minimum Age for Entry.	Age only limited by condition of length of school course. The usual age is 17-18.
III. Length of Course of Study.	9 years. Candidates who have not attended the 9 years’ school course may be admitted to the examination on special application.
IV. Subjects.	In Gymnasium.	Written. German essay. Mathematics. Translation into Latin. Translation from Greek into German.	Oral. Latin. Greek. English or French. Religion. History. Mathematics.
	In Real-Gymnasium.	Written. German essay. Mathematics. Translation from Latin. Translation from German into or essay in English or French. Physics.	Oral. Latin. English. French. Physics or Chemistry. Religion. History. Mathematics.
	In Ober-Realschule.	Written. German essay. Mathematics. An exercise in French and in English (an essay in one language and a translation from the other into German). Physics or Chemistry.	Oral. English. French. Physics. Chemistry. Religion. History. Mathematics.
V. Co-ordination with Teaching.	The object of the examination is defined as being a test of whether the candidate has fulfilled the aims laid down in the curricula, &c. , prescribed for a Gymnasium, Real-gymnasium, or Ober-realschule, as the case may be, and the subjects of examination are those prescribed in the curricula for the kind of school concerned. The report on the school work of each candidate in his various subjects is laid before the Examining Board before the beginning of the examination.
VI. Examiners.	The Examining Board consists of a government inspector (der Königliche Kommissar) acting as chairman, the headmaster of the school, and the teachers of the highest classes in the school. The inspector may nominate a deputy, who is as a rule, the headmaster of the school. Each teacher concerned selects for the written examination three alternative subjects in his branch, from which, after receiving a report thereon from the headmaster, the inspector makes a final choice. The papers are marked by the teachers concerned and circulated the the whole Board of Examiners, who then decide whether individual candidates shall be (i.) rejected, (ii.) admitted with (ii.) admitted with oral examination, or (iii.) submitted to the oral examination.
VII. Nature of Examination and General Remarks.	The written examination extends over four or five days. Only one paper is given each day, for which 3 to 5½ hours are allowed (5½ hours for the German essay). For essays in foreign languages dictionaries may be used.

TABLE II.—FRANCE: BACCALAURÉAT

I.
Name of Examination.

Baccalauréat de l’enseignement secondaire.

This examination has been carried on under different forms since 1808. The regulations summarized here date from 1902, when the baccalauréat described replaced the baccalauréat-ès-lettres, baccalauréat-ès-sciences, and baccalauréat de l’enseignement moderne.

II.
Minimum Age for Entry.

Part I., 16, or, with special permission, 15.

Part II. may not be taken within an academic year after passing Part I.

III.
Length of Course of Study.

There is no requirement of attendance. Part I. of the examination corresponds exactly to the subjects taken in the “second cycle” of secondary education, and Part II. to the classe de philosophie and classe de mathématiques.