Page:The Sunday Eight O'Clock (1916).pdf/114

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some difficulty. Of course it was an idiotic and unreasonable place for an appendix to be in and no doctor ought to be expected to get the right answer under those conditions,—but unless he does he is likely to lose his patient, and flunk the quiz.

My experience has been that in real life we seldom get the problems we are looking for. The questions that are put to us are not like those in the book, and the examinations we must pass are very seldom the ones for which we have made such painstaking, diligent preparation. It is very desirable to know what the book says, but it is quite as necessary to have cultivated judgment and the power of independent thought.

What are examinations for?

The more difficult and unreasonable they are—and in college they are neither to any extreme—the more they are a test of a man's judgment or his resourcefulness, or his independence and originality. The right sort of preparation for an examination ought to