a moment and ask: when did examinations begin? In roughly what age? Can you tell us anything?

A — You may be surprised to learn that the idea of the examination goes back to 1115 B.C.; that was in China, for the selection of overseers for the public service.

Q — That is truly astonishing. But when did examinations begin in their present sense?

A — They began, I believe, in the West, in the universities of the Middle Ages; and the first records of school examinations as we understand them now are found at the University of Bologna, 1219...

Q — How, one wonders, do examinations now differ from those of the old ages?

A — Examinations were at first a matter of reciting information and facts. The modern methods, however, are a means of gauging the student's capacity and com-prehension — provided that this knowledge bears the student's personal stamp.

Q — And so the modern ten-dency of the school examination lays the stress on the student's personality and his own opin-ion, whereas the old tendency depended more on memorizing and learning by rote. Now I have another question. What is your view of this nervousness that pursues students and their moth-ers alike at examination time; and of the fact that hanging so great an importance upon the examina-tion very often leads students to neglect during the course of the year, and to excessive cramming at examination time? As you well know, matter that enters quickly is usually quick to evaporate from students' minds, and what a student studies in a short time he

soon forgets. I think that if the teachers' attention were placed on daily work, or on weekly tests, the students' attention would turn to steadiness in study, instead of depending on examination time alone.

A — I admit that the examination, in its present state, does a great deal of harm; but we can avoid this harm if the examination is given the impor-tance it is worth, without its being the sole means of judging a student's knowledge.

Q — And do not forget, either, the severe confusion that besets

some students, and which puts their answers far from being a measure of their knowledge.

A — This supports what I said: that the examination, to be just, must be given the value it is worth.

Q — And what, in your view, is that value?

A — I believe the value of the final examination should equal one third of the results of the whole year: the first half-year, with its examination, counts a third, the second half a third, and the final examination a third; and thus we give the pupil a fair