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One
of the ploys students used to further their education with the least
effort was the fraternity file system. As students completed tests
these results were placed in the house file for use by future students.
To thwart such a system and make learning an individual effort,
one enterprising and demanding professor refused to return test
papers to students, choosing rather to hand each one a bit of paper
with his score written on it. There would be no discussion of the
test unless, of course, the student wanted to go over it privately
with the professor.
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The Yellow Crab of March 1930 demonstrated the student
anguish
of taking an examination and how it presumably ages
students.
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As in wrestling, there is a counterhold for each hold; so with students,
there is a countermeasure for anything that thwarts their path to
a chosen goal. Students in one fraternity decided to manage the
test storage plan without the tests. Several students in that class
would simply divide the test questions among them, each one being
responsible for a certain set of questions. At the close of the
testing session they reassembled and wrote the questions they were
responsible for, thus reconstructing the test. These questions were
then researched and the correct answers with the test were then
placed in the file.
In every class this professor's tests were assembled for the files.
Believing he had thwarted storage of his tests, the professor seldom
changed the test questions, and several generations of students
coasted through his tests without the requisite study he thought
necessary to master his material. No one ever knew whether he was
aware of the fact that his method had been breached and that his
tests were available to all. At any rate, he continued to use the
same questions over and over again.
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