Page:EB1911 - Volume 10.djvu/58

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46
EXAMINATIONS

TABLE III.—SCOTLAND: SCHOOL-LEAVING EXAMINATION

I.
Name of
Examination.
II.
Minimum Age for Entry.
III.
 Length of Course 
of Study.
IV.
Subjects.
V.
Co-ordination with Teaching.
VI.
Examiners.
VII.
Nature of Examination and General Remarks.
Scottish school-leaving examination (established 1888). (See pamphlet on the “Leaving Certificate Examination” issued by the Scottish Education Department, 1908.) 17 on 1st of January following the year in which the candidate passes the last of the written examinations. 4 years. Candidates must pass in four subjects on the higher grade standard, or in three subjects on the higher grade standard and two on the lower. A pass in drawing is accepted in lieu of one of the two lower grade passes. A pass in Gaelic is reckoned as a pass on lower grade. All candidates must have passed in higher English and in either higher or lower grade mathematics. The remaining subjects may be either science with one or more languages (Latin Greek, French, German, Spanish, or Italian), or languages only. But where two or more languages other than English are taken, the candidate’s group must include either higher or lower grade Latin. A pass in Spanish, Italian, or science (in which subjects there is only one examination) is reckoned as a pass on the higher grade standard. Schools are inspected, and the course of instruction must be approved by the Scottish Education Department, but the examinations are conducted by external examiners with whom teachers are not associated. The examiners are appointed by the Scottish Education Department. The examination consists of a written examination and an oral examination, on which stress is laid. The length of the examination varies with the subjects selected. The periods of examination vary from 1 to 21/2 hours. If the candidate selects on the higher grade, English, Latin, mathematics, and French, the examination extends over 191/2 hours.


TABLE IV.—UNIVERSITY OF LONDON SCHOOL EXAMINATION, MATRICULATION STANDARD

I.
Name of
Examination.
II.
Minimum Age for Entry.
III.
 Length of Course 
of Study.
IV.
Subjects.
V.
Co-ordination with Teaching.
VI.
Examiners.
VII.
Nature of Examination and General Remarks.
School examination, matriculation standard (established in 1902).

Note—A higher school-leaving certificate is awarded to pupils who (i.) have pursued an approved course of study for a period of years at a school or schools under inspection approved by the University; and (ii.) being matriculated students, have passed the “higher school examination” in at least three subjects at one and the same examination.

The minimum age of entry is 15, but if the candidate is under 16 he must remain at school until he is 16 years of age in order to be qualified for the school-leaving certificate, and cannot be registered as a student of the University until he has reached that age. The curriculum of each school is considered on its own merits. Pupils must satisfy the examiners in not less than five subjects, as follows:—

(1) English.

(2) Elementary mathematics.

(3) Latin, or elementary mechanics, or elementary physics—heat, light and sound, or elementary chemistry, or elementary botany, or general elementary science.

(4) and (5) Two of the following subjects, neither of which has already been taken under section (3). If Latin be not taken, one of the other subjects selected must be another language, either ancient or modern, from the list, and languages other than those included in the list may be taken if approved by the University, provided that the language is included in the regular curriculum:—Latin, Greek, French, German, ancient history, modern history, history and geography, physical and general geography, logic, geometrical and mechanical drawing, mathematics (more advanced), elementary mechanics, elementary chemistry, elementary physics—heat, light and sound, elementary physics—electricity and magnetism, elementary biology—botany, elementary biology—zoology, general elementary science (chemistry and physics).

Schools under approved inspection, and course of instruction approved by the University.

The papers are ordinarily set on the matriculation syllabus, but papers may be specially set more closely in accordance with the school curriculum provided that the syllabus proposed is approved by the University as at least equivalent to that for which it is substituted.

The examiners are ordinarily those appointed by the University for the ordinary matriculation examination. The examination extends over at least 18 hours, and includes an oral examination in modern languages.

The laboratory examination may be used in subjects like physics, chemistry, geology, zoology, botany, anatomy, physiology, to test powers of manipulation and knowledge of experimental methods. In some cases (e.g. in certain honours examinations) the examination may be prolonged over one or more days, and may test higher powers of investigation. But Practical. such powers can only be fully tested by the performance of original work, under conditions difficult to fulfil in the examination room or laboratory. At the French examinations for the prix de Rome the candidates are required to execute a painting in a given number of days, under strict supervision (en loge).

In medicine the clinical examination of a patient is a test carried out under conditions more nearly approaching those of actual work than any other; and distinction in medical examinations is probably more often followed by distinction in after life than is the case in other examinations.

For the doctor’s degree (where this is not an honorary distinction) a thesis or dissertation is generally, though not invariably, required in England. Of recent years the thesis has been introduced into lower examinations; it is required for the master’s degree at London in the case of Thesis. internal students, in subjects other than mathematics (1910); both at Oxford and London, the B.Sc. degree, and at Cambridge the B.A. degree, may be given for research, although the number of students proceeding to a degree in this way is at present relatively small. In certain of the honours B.A. and B.Sc. examinations at Manchester and Liverpool, candidates may take the written portion of the examination at the end of the second year’s course of study and submit a dissertation at the end of the third year. Theses are generally examined by two or more specialists.

5. Competitive Examinations.—The arrangement of students in order of merit led naturally to the use of examinations not only as a qualifying but also as a selective test, and to the offering of money prizes (including exhibitions, scholarships and fellowships) on the results. In 1854 selection by examination as a method of appointment to posts in the English public service was first substituted for the patronage system, which had caused grave dissatisfaction (see Macaulay’s speech on the subject, The Times of the 25th of June 1853). The first public competitive examination for the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, took place in