Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: [Prospectuses, 1864/5 to 1883/4]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![none but a skilful swimmer can calmly anticipate a falling overboard ; and I never heard of one not skilled in swimming who did thus save his life by coolly trusting to specific gi-avity. And so it is with examinations. They are not to be made light of; not to be calmly contemplated. Steady work according to the cun-iculum may be, and often is, a sufficient means of passing, and for other reasons such woi'k mu.st be done; but I believe that for the great majority of students it is not enough, and that for various reasons nearly all need help and practice to qualify them for examii\ations. If a man would run no risk of drowning he must learn by practice how to float and swim : if he would inn i\o lisk of being plucked he must leam by practice how to pass; he must be in the constant habit of examinations. This used not to be. Twenty, or less, years ago, reading and attendance on lectures and self-iTistruction were sufficient for the great majority of students; but they are so no longer. The examinations are twice as numerous as they used to be, and the best of them are more difficult; and very few are safe to pass them without some special preparation. Now this preparation for examinations may be conducted in two ways, of which one is discreditable, and the other is not. I wish to speak to you about them fairly, because, not onl}* in our own profession, but in all those callings for which exami- nations are now held, a confusion of the Mr and the unfair methods of preparation has led to the unjust discredit of tho fair one; and both alike have to bear the bad names of cramming, grinding, coaching, and the like—names implyii\g processes to which the best .students may well hesiti\te to submit. Let me distinguish them. The discreditable method is that in which a student, who hits come near the end of his time without having ever honestly worked, and who is really quite unfit for practice, is enabled to ]-)a.ss cxanniiations by being quickly crannned with the answci-s to all the questions that he is likely to be svsked, and with nothing more—too much knowledge being as dangerous in this case as too little. This can be done for some examinations in three or four months, less or more, according to the wiis and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21507326_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
