Radio Enters Battle Against Examination Bogey

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 19, 23 November 1934, Page 12

Radio Enters Battle Against Examination Bogey

Matric Large ‘Lectures From 2YA: Drew Forth e Interesting Comments There's 3 no such thing at the moment as the "antroublea brow of youth.» Saventeen-year-olds are wearing as many furrows above the eyes as Prinie Ministers. and every reference library has its quota of youthful seekers after kuowledge. No, this state of affairs -has nothing whatever to do with the general economie conditions of 1934, for it is an annual occurrence, growing in intensity till the first week in December when the load is suddenly lightened-for better or for worse. It all has to do with that bogey of school life-the matriculation examination, which starts in a few days.

™" This year the New Zealand Broadcasting Board threw in its lot with the prospective candidates and organised a series of special broadcasts for matriculation students: ‘The’ lectures were given by fully-qualified men from 2YA, Wellington, and rebroadcast by the other national stations. There were eight broadcasts all told-two in each of four subjects-Inglish, history, geography and mathematics. That the broadcasts were of definite yalue was evidenced by the results of questions that the headmaster of Wellington College (Mr. W.. A. Armour): put to -the boys in his matriculation forms. "Sixty-four of the.boys who are sitting the examination listened in," said Mr. Armour to a "Radio Record" representative. "I asked them how many had. actually enjoyed’ the whole series. of broadcasts. Bleven said that they had-the others, while they admitted to listening in to the whole series and getting a- great deal of useful advice from. the talks, looked. on them as rather a necessary evil. When I questioned them as to whether they had. derived: actual benefit from the broadcasts sixty-three. out. of the sixty-four said that they had. It may be interesting © to look at the actual. opinions on each subject. "From the history. broadcasts 59 of the boys admit having benefited. The work was and the lectures were concise and: The only complaint. seemed to be that there was scarcely enough time for the lis teners to ‘take the notes down. "Comparatively few of the matriculation students at Wellington College are sitting the gedgraphy examination this year, so that only 16 listened ‘in te the lectures on this subject. One lad said that he had- not. been particularly impressed with the talks, :as the subject matter was all to be found , in one of the text books he was using, Another’ complaint was that the lectures were not generalised enough, but [ think most of the boys rather misunderstood the purpose of the. broadcasts. They wanted the talks. to. cover more ground-they wanted new and strange facts-in ‘other words, they probably wanted to. be entertained to some degree. Actually the’ ‘geography lectures were well handled and- the: ground was covered in a useful manner. They were principally: intended to give assistance in: ‘preparing. for the | examination. From the remarks of the boys it would appear. that the subject had been well taught in the class-toom-and that the principal statements:

made by the lecturer had already been impressed on the pupils. "All but six of the listeners ‘to the Kinglish broadcasts were most enthusiastic about this series. The boys con sidered that the lecturés were systema tic, and some of them considered them the best of the series. The whole subject was covered and ample time was given io take: down the notes. The cnly piece of real eriticism was from &. boy who said that the lectures were too general, that not enough. actual examination ‘tips’ were given. of course, there are some candidates who prefer to go into an examination room armed with a series of ‘tips’ rather than with any real knowledge. "About 20 boys said they were benefited by the mathematics lectures. The complaint seemed to be that the leeturer talked a little too fast when giving the examples, but the methods suggested by him for setting out the papers were considered most’ helpful The general comments on the series were that the lectures should. be a little longer than half. an hour, or, as an alternative, there should be more in each series. The inclusion of French, Latin and the sciences would. also be a good move." » The headmistress of the Wellingtov Bast Girls’ . College (Miss A, M. Batham) said that the broadcast Iectures had been. of direct: benéfit. to the girls in her school who. had listened in. A new voice telling them essential facts had ‘had. the. effect of . giving them confidence. and on , them more vividly certain points that they had perhaps not gathered in ordinary class routine. "We have had many interesting comments on the broadcasts," said the general manager of the New Zealand Board. (Mr. E. 6. Hands), "and the results have been sufficiently encouraging-for tis to consider making the matriculation lectures a regular annual feature, We have been pleased to have’ the: comments of various headmasters and mistresses, and their advice will: certainly be useful in drawing up future broadcasts: of this nature.’