When was the first school examinations and marks system held?
First SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS AND MARKS SYSTEM
The first SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS AND MARKS SYSTEM reference to, is contained in a letter written by Dr. Samuel Butler, Headmaster of Shrewsbury School, to one of his assistant masters on 10 October 1818 :
I feel myself … under the necessity of requesting that you will be more particular with regard to your marks. I lay great stress upon them, being the only clue I have to understand the merits of the different boys, except what. I can pick up from the monthly examinations, and I observe that your marks are greatly at variance with mine on these occasions.
The marks system referred to in the above passage was explained by the Headmaster’s grandson. the celebrated author of The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler, who was himself a pupil at the school, in his biography of the Doctor: ‘There were two sets of marks, one for viva-voce lessons, and the other for exercises—the object being to show at a glance which class of work the marks referred to. For lessons the marks were V (very good), W (well), w (pretty well), t (tolerable), i (idle), and b (bad)’.
Dr Welidon of Tonbridge, who had been an assistant master under Butler, stated that the custom of holding half-yearly examinations had first been introduced at Shrewsbury, and that hitherto the only method of assessing the boys’ progress was for visiting dignitaries to come at set periods to hear them at their lessons. In this respect Shrewsbury resembled most other schools of the pre-examination era. Promotion from one form to another was by seniority and unaffected by academic merit; once in the Sixth Form the principal stimulus to scholarship provided at lower levels—fear of the birch—was removed, and there was little incentive for the boy who lacked the love of learning for its own sake.
The half-yearly examinations were written tests held in the first week of term. Nicholas Carlisle, in his Endowed Grammar Schools in England and Wales, (London 1818), lists the exams taken by 130 pupils from 3 to 8 February 1817:
MONDAY: English Theme; English translated into Latin; English translated into Greek
TUESDAY: History; Latin Theme
WEDNESDAY: Geography; Latin Verses; Philology
THURSDAY. Latin translated into English; Algebra
FRIDAY: Greek translated into English, Euclid; Greek Metres and Greek Chorus
SATURDAY: Religion.
These are the earliest recorded written school exams. Each lasted between 1 hr to 2 hr and the first exam each day was held before breakfast. The boys were not told the subject of each paper before it was distributed. The examinations were presided over by the formidable Dr Butler in person who, Carlisle notes, `never quits the room’. After breakfast on the Saturday prizes were awarded and boys who had done well were promoted to a higher form.
External school examinations (i.e. examinations conducted by an outside and independent examining body): These were first held on 23-24 December 1850, when pupils of Mr Goodacre’s School at Nottingham sat for the Certificate of the College of Preceptors. The Examiner on this occasion was the Dean of the College, Dr Richard Wilson.
