Last week more than 400 boys at The Hill School, in Pottstown, Pa., filed into class and study rooms to take part in an event which has become a regular feature of the school year--the TIME Current Affairs Contest. For an hour they mulled over the questions and marked their answer sheets. Then, while the rest of the boys enjoyed a free afternoon, the 25 members of the school's Press Club met at their office and graded the papers. By the time their schoolmates returned for dinner, mimeographed slips were in their mailboxes, reading: "Your score in the TIME Current Affairs Contest was --. The highest score in your form was --."

Since Jan. 4, similar scenes, with local variations, have been enacted at more than 450 private schools and junior colleges. Additional schools will hold contests between now and Feb. 22. Shortly after that, many of you will take a more difficult version of the same test, when it appears in TIME as the News Quiz.

Public schools in the U.S. and Canada which use TIME as a text or classroom aid will hold their contests in May, when another Current Affairs Test is distributed to schools and colleges. In September, a shorter, 50-question Summer Review Test is offered to schools as a measure of how well the students have followed the news during their vacations.

More than 2,000,000 students have taken the Current Affairs Test since January 1935, when the first test was given. Two months later the first news test appeared in the magazine and immediately proved its popularity with readers. More than 1,600 schools and colleges and as many more clubs and individual readers requested additional copies of the first test.

By 1936, TIME was inviting schools and colleges to hold contests. We offered prizes for school and class leaders. Many of the schools which responded to the invitation that year (among them The Hill) are still holding the contests.

"We think the TIME Current Affairs Test makes the boys conscious of the importance of knowing about world affairs," says James V. Moffatt, assistant to the headmaster and adviser to the Press Club at The Hill School. His opinion is echoed by Dr. James I. Wendell, headmaster for 24 years: "It's a fine contribution to the stimulation of student and faculty interest in national and international affairs. It encourages the boys to read widely."

This year's prize for students who score highest in their groups is a three-inch, bronze medal (see cut). At many schools, the awards become part of traditional ceremonies at which student honors are announced. The Hill School, for instance, will present a TIME medal to the high-scoring senior at commencement exercises in Memorial Hall next June and to underclassmen on Junior Prize Day next September.

Faculty members and their wives are encouraged to take the test at The Hill and, at some schools, parents compete against teachers for top scores on the test.

Alvin C. Eurich and Elmo C. Wilson, originators of TIME'S quiz, make up the 105-question Current Affairs Test with the cooperation of TIME'S editors. TIME'S Educational Bureau prepares an analysis of scores for interested school administrators.

Copies of the test are often sought by industrial firms, stores and service clubs. This year, many men in all branches of the armed services are also taking the test. After surveying 800 Information and Education officers, we found interest so widespread that 170,000 copies of a 50-question test were sent to military installations in this country and overseas.

TIME'S tests will be more than successful if they produce anything like the enthusiasm shown by many readers who wrote in after our last News Quiz ran in October. Said a G.I. in Korea: "The generator failed, and we were left without electricity, so I worked out the quiz by candlelight." And a California housewife: "I love the quiz and take it each time with clammy hands and thumping heart exactly as if I were back in college and had to do well."

Good luck next time to them, to the students at The Hill and more than 2,000 other schools, and to those of you who take the quiz when it runs in TIME.

Cordially yours,

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