THE SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2775, 12 February 1895, Page 4

THE SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION.

The following are extracts from the reports of the examiners as read at the Board of E ucation on Thursday, when the committee tabled their report on the scholarship examination of 1894-95. The examiner iu Geography says:— " The candidates on the whole display intelligence in dealing with the questions; the auswers relating to physical and mathematical geography being, however, except iu a few cases, lass satisfactory than those relating to other parts of the subject. While there is evidence of very full and accurate knowledge of countries and places, there is generally a rather vague notion of relation, e.g., of the relative sizes of Great Britain and her colonial empire, and of the relative sizes of Australia and New Zealand, and of their relative positions. Apart from the question of relation or comparison, the map-drawing is specially commendable." The examiner in Euclid writes :—" The first paper was carefully and fairly correctly done, but the standard of excellence on the whole is much below what has been presented by competitors iu former years." The examiner in French :—" There is ample evidence of careful training all through these papers. There were many faults in French spelling which evidenced oral acquaintance with the words. The test, taking the age of the candidates into ■consideration, was fairly difficult."

The examiner in Latin :—" The paper was well done by the majority of competitors. The queslious, however, were rather easy, and it is quite evident that the knowledge of the pupils was considerably beyond the requirements of the scholarship regulations." The examiner in Algebra ;—" The standard of scholarship is in my opinion decidedly below that of previous years. Only one candidate shows any real grasp of the subject. In the case of some of the others carelessness and haste account to some extent for their low position. 1 have marked the papers with great lenience, and made allowance for the fact that the paper was found too long for the time."

The examiner in Science :—" The paper of Harriet McKibbiu in Botany was excellent. The mechanics and hydrostatics paper was a very easy one, and was very succinctly but fairly well answered by Emma Cooper." The examiner in Grammar reported on both the senior and junior papers. In juniors composition was on the whole good ; punctuation was neglected except in three cases; two candidates only showed any knowledge of syntax, and one alone could even guess at the derivations sought for. As to the juniors the report was:—"Most of the candidates know the parts of speech ; six did not attempt the parsing. Iu composition six obtained full marks, all the rest (except five) did well; one did nothing. Accidence and syntax throughout are unknown."

The examiner in junior Science: " Physics was the only weak subject. The majority showed a very good knowledge of the other subjects and some papers were very good indeed. The papers throughout were neatly written." The exaniiuer on Reading, Spelling, Writing, Arithmetic and Drawing: —"The junior candidates as a whole made their best appearance in writing and drawing, the quality of the work in both subjects being in many cases very commendable. Very few showed conspicuous merit in reading, and fewer in spelling. Iu arithmetic those who gained 50 per cent, of the attainable marks were just less than half the numbor of competitors. The sums were as a rule well set down. Moat of the senior candidates gave iu good uapers in dictation and spelliug. Arithmetic did not reach a high standard of uifliit in any case. Iu freehand drawing all but Gue showed good work, and one of the two professing perspective presented a neatly-drawn exercise which was almost correct. Model drawing was good, but those attempting geometrical drawing had Bot prepared their subject."