of facts, apart altogether from our own particular preferences.
When examinations are regarded as tests, they follow two lines. Some of the questions are intended to test merely whether the student knows certain things. Here the point is whether the student can reproduce what he has learnt. This is the lower kind of examination, and does not rise above the level of Bradley Headstone's mechanical stowage, and mental stocktaking. Other questions, however, are set on the principle of getting the pupil to apply the knowledge he has acquired. The student may know all the facts necessary to solve a given problem and yet be unable to solve it. On the other hand, if he can solve the problem, he has given proof that he knows the facts on which the solution depends. It would seem, therefore, that all examination questions should be such as involve problems, for if the pupil can apply knowledge, it proves that he possesses knowledge.
But it is felt that certain pupils may have acquired knowledge without having the ability to apply it, and that, therefore, there ought to be a certain number of questions in every examination paper for the benefit of those who have honestly acquired knowledge that they cannot successfully apply. It is maintained that the examination may be used to test the industry of the candidate as well as his ability. It may be very reasonably questioned whether any good end can be served by acquiring
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