are handicapped mentally by the inability to write explicitly as are disparaged by the inability to talk quickly, briefly, and intelligently. So far as the student's welfare is concerned, there is no good reason to suppose that oral examinations would be a handicap. On the contrary, in the long run, the widely demanded training in self-possession, in repartee, wit, quick reply, would be of much use to almost everyone. This, too, is at heart a matter of adequate physical training, as "skill", already sufficiently discussed. Oral examinations require self-poise above all else save real knowledge. Both require a reasonable expression-intelligence.
Practical Examinations such as are given in physiology, physics, chemistry, and similar subjects are the ideal examinations. Their universal unpopularity shows well enough their value and their difficulty. They are the only kind of examination that show our real and practical efficiency. They make a test of what we can do, actually perform, rather than what we have merely learned about, second hand. Undoubtedly they are overdone in some professional schools. The proper place in general for the practical examination is in the normal school, for there
