knowledge that we confessedly cannot use, but this problem has to be solved by those who are responsible for the drawing up of examination papers. Our interest in this book is how to help the student to deal most advantageously with examinations as they are. It is almost certain that at some time or other you will have to face an examination of some kind, and it is therefore to your interest to consider how you can best prepare for that examination.
(1) The first thing to be done is to find out as much as you can about the exact nature of the particular examination that you must face. From one point of view it is rather a fine thing to despise examinations and give your whole attention to your studies. If we work up our various subjects in the best way, we are entitled to expect that the examination will fit into what we have done, and to complain if the examination results do not favour those who have studied in the best way. All this would be just and proper if examinations were ideal. But unfortunately this is not the case, and if the passing of an examination is of importance to you, it will be to your interest to take the proper means to acquaint yourself with its conditions. To prepare for an examination that is not conducted on the best lines may in some degree interfere with your mode of preparation, and may make you to some extent depart from your ideals. But as a rule skilful preparation for a given examination may be combined with a satisfactory scheme of mastering the
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