Monday, Mar. 30, 1925
Exams
In November of this year (TIME, Nov. 10), a meeting was held at Fessenden School (near Boston) with a view to setting up a set of entrance examinations for secondary schools similar to the College Entrance Examinations already well established in many colleges. Eighteen schools entered the arrangement: Andover, Arden, Bancroft, Buckley, Chestnut Hill, Exeter, Fessenden, Groton, Hill, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Loomis Institute, Mil ton Academy, Pomfret, Rivers, St. George's, St. Paul's (Concord), Tome Institute.
This month, anxious parents saw for the first time the program of this year's Secondary School Entrance Examinations made plain in a catalog, with the requirements for each subject. Examinations in English and Mathematics will be given on June 2, in Latin and French on June 3. There will be three examinations in each subject--for seventh, eighth and ninth grades. Each school will administer its own examination and correct its own papers. "What the child must know," is set forth in detail for each subject in the catalog:
[Latin, rule four.] Conjugation of the active and passive indicative of regular verbs of the four conjugations, including -io verbs of the third conjugation; the infinitives, active and passive; the indicative and the infinitives of the irregular verbs sum and possum.
[English, rule five.] Principal and subordinate clauses, including adverbial clauses of time, place and cause, and adjective clauses, but excluding restrictive adjective clauses and substantive clauses.
The commoner uses of nouns and pronouns.
[French, rule one.] The conjugation of the present indicative, the past indefinite, the future and the imperative of the regular verbs and the more common irregular verbs ; verbs of the first conjugation with orthographical peculiarities ; pronominal verbs.