SENIOR CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1936, 19 December 1913, Page 4

SENIOR CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION.

Sir, —The time is now approaching for the annual Civil Service senior examination to bo held, and as a candidate who failed in the paper on Electricity and Magnetism last year owing to its severitv and unusual nature, I would be alad of an opportunity to throw out a hintto tho authorities concerned, to cou* sider outside candidates by not including ''Physics" in this year's paper. Any fair-minded person will agreo with me that it is unfair ta place in front of a'candidate a paper of 15 questions supposedly on electricity and magnetism', but- which is afterwards found to contain a number of questions on physics. Last year some candidates thought they had mistaken tho identity of the examination for that of a higher degree, but

after several months' anxiety a littlo light was thrown on their obscurity by some information to the oltect that the: paper was set for a double purpose to suit the convenience of the Education Board, i.e., for 'a teacher's examination and tho Senior Civil Service Examination.

There are. two points that appeal to me: (1) The inclusion of -Physics might easily have been pointed out by a few remarks that candidates for one examination or the other were expected to confino their attention to a. certain portion of the paper only. (25 Is it to bo expected that candidates who have to rani their living (some of them married men with families) in numerous modes of employment, should be placed 011 a par with teachers whoso faculties are trained to study and to .the art of remembering, by the nature of their occupation ?

■ Some readers ■' might think: Why bother 1 with the examination? The answer is 1 easily found in the keen competition for an existence where an examination certificate, proves' the counting card

I am only 1 voicing . the- opinions oxnrcssed among candidates, iu the hope that.it ma}' catch tho eye of the:examiner or those persons responsible for the setting .no of tho uaper, to whom examinations do not fall as a nightmare'upon the already heavy task of providing the necessaries of life. Thanking you' in ■■anticipation : and trusting that we mav get a fair deal for our hard-earned deposit of £1, and not have another twelve months' "swat" thrown to the dust, —I am, etc., , ./.:■ FATHEAD.