University of Virginia Library

Exam Woes, Etc.

There are about 3300 students in the
College. Approximately 2340 students attend
classes in Cabell Hall auditorium and Maury
Hall auditorium weekly. Assuming that the
number 2340 represents the same student
more than once in some instances, it is
obvious that a tremendous portion of College
students attend one or more classes
in these two rooms during a given week.

In neither room are there desks on which
students can take notes or take quizzes.
In only one of them (Maury Hall) is there
a blackboard, and that is nothing but a
shoddy portable one. And yet instructors
are expected to teach and students are expected
to learn in these rooms.

Further, especially pertinent now, students
are expected to take quizzes and exams in
these rooms, Everyone is familiar with the
tremendous importance of exams at this
school. Mr. Cauthen, dean of the College,
stated that well enough when he said, "We
consider the exam to be the final climax
and most important exercise of a course."
It's a sad state of affairs when students
have to perform "the most important exercise
of a course" on their knees.

If that were not enough, there is often
an insufficient number of seats for everyone
taking an exam in Maury Hall. This is a
real problem because the Honor Committee
recommends that professors do not allow
students to leave the room to take an exam,
and understandably so; to allow students to
go wherever they please to take an exam is
to put a dangerous burden on the Honor
System.

At the same time, however, it is a dangerous
burden on the Honor System to require
students to take exams on their knees in
crowded rooms. We know of more than one
case in which students have had to take
three-hour final exams sitting on the floor
in Maury Hall with fellow students sitting
right beside them. Aside from the obvious
strain placed on the Honor System by such
a situation, imagine the strain placed on
one's ability to perform well on an exam
when seated on the floor.

That such conditions exist in a university
which has at its command the resources
this one has is outrageous. With new buildings
going up all around us, with dormitories
standing empty as others are built,
it does not seem too much to ask to have
the current situations improved. It would
be neither difficult nor relatively expensive
to replace the archaic seats in Maury Hall
with desks such as those in Gilmer Hall
auditorium or to install a reasonable blackboard.
Unfortunately, since Cabell Hall is
primarily an auditorium, nothing can be
done to improve its conditions as a lecture
room.

Because of this, we hope that some of
these new buildings will contain lecture
rooms large enough to relieve the pressure
on these two rooms and thus on the students
and professors; if they do not, we
urge those who are responsible for the
planning of classroom buildings to include
in them such lecture rooms. Until this pressure
is relieved, until the students can attend
their classes under reasonable conditions,
they are not getting all they are paying
for to come to the University.

There is one other aspect of the whole
exam syndrome which could be improved.
In view of the crucial nature of exams
and the amount of preparation they require,
it is unfortunate and unfair that a student
should ever have to take more than one in
a given day. We realize that it is impractical
and unwise to allow students to reschedule
their exams at times other than the regularly
scheduled ones, and so we suggest that the
exam period be extended in future years. Ten
days instead of eight for taking exams does
not seem infeasible when we remember
that the current eight-day program occupies
a period of nine days. The addition of two
days would give students a far better chance
of having their exams spread out over a
number of days, than they now have.

Whether or not the exam period is extended,
it seems that it could be planned
a little better than it now is. Almost everyone
has several courses in blocks III, V,
VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X, and yet the
exams for these blocks repeatedly fall close
together and on days when departmental
exams are given; none of these blocks are
scheduled for either of the last two days.

If the exam period were extended and if
exams for the heaviest blocks were spread
out throughout it students could devote to
preparing for the exams, to a much greater
extent than they are now able to do so, the
energies which the "final climax" of a course
deserves.