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REPORT ON THE ANNUAL EXAMINATION HELD AT QUEEN'S COLLEGE
FROM JANUARY 3RD TO 16TH, 1896.
QUEEN'S COLLEGE,
HONGKONG, 31st January, 1896.
GENTLEMEN,--We have the honour of reporting to you the result of the Annual Examination held by us at Queen's College during the current month.
In accordance with instructions received from you we have examined, either by written work or orally, "all the subjects taught in the College including the Chinese school," with the exception of Shorthand which we understand is at an elementary stage-it being undesirable that boys commen- cing this subject should be subjected to any test in it until they have arrived at a certain standard of efficiency.
The examination occupied 11 days (January 3rd to 16th), exclusive of one day given to the Chinese school; and on 8 of these days the work was carried on in the afternoon as well as in the morning.
Papers were set in all the subjects offered except Reading, Conversation, and the Pupil Teachers' Practical Work, which were taken orally. Great care was taken to preserve, as far as possible, the standard hitherto adopted in the Annual Examinations, the questions being carefully chosen to test the knowledge which had been imparted to the boys in those portions of their subjects which they had been taught. Only in three instances was it pointed out by the Head Master that we had exceeded this limit, and then due allowance was made in the awarding of marks. The papers were generally slightly longer than usual, in order to give as much scope as possible; and it is hoped that the tabulated results on the mark sheets may afford some means of comparison between the work in this examina- tion and that of last year. We have, however, in order to avoid too severe a test, taken 40 per cent, instead of 50 per cent. for the minimum of marks necessary to obtain a pass." It was thus possible for any boy, doing a little well, to pass.
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In reporting upon the work of 566 boys it is impossible, without being inconveniently lengthy to give more than a general view of the examiners' opinion of the work done. To do this would necessitate a detailed report upon each class, or set of parallel divisions, and as this cannot be done we would draw attention to the mark sheets, which have been prepared to show not only the order of merit in each division, but also the percentage of marks obtained in each subject by each boy, and the percentage of passes in each subject in each division, as well as the actual uumber of passes and failures awarded to each boy.
With regard to the actual work, as might be expected in a school of this kind and size where some boys have been so long and some so short a time under tuition, the work showed great uneven- ness. But what is less easily accountable is the fact that the boys in one class, not excepting the First, showed great disparity of knowledge or of power to reproduce it. There were a good many cases of conspicuous success, but there was also a lamentable amount of weak and inaccurate work. The best subjects were Writing, Algebra and Book-keeping, and the worst Conversation, Composition, Latin, Euclid.
Marks were assigned for Writing throughout the school, and this was very creditable and satis- factory.
In Reading and Conversation the examiners took all the boys, 5 or 6 at a time, in a separate room and devoted from 15 to 25 minutes to each group. Every boy read before the examiners at least twice, many three times; and conversations were engaged in between the examiners and the boys, or between the boys themselves in the presence of the examiners. The reading and conversa- tion in the First and Second Classes were very satisfactory, showing that the test applied was not too severe, and also that boys could be taught to read clearly and intelligently, and learn to converse with a fair command of idiom. But the majority of this work in the rest of the school leaves room for much improvement. We do not think it a good plan that reading should be taught by Chinese Masters, and we are of opinion that more time should be given to the cultivation of the habit of