Chapter V: Part I: Military System and Schools in France (4)

Next, each candidate is examined orally for three-quarters of an hour, on two successive days, by each of the two examiners separately, and each examiner makes a note of the admissibility or non-admissibility of the candidate.

At the close of this oral examination, the notes relating to the various candidates are compared, and if the examiners differ as to the admissibility of any candidate, he is recalled, further orally examined, and his written exercises carefully referred to, both examiners being present. A final decision is then made.

The preliminary examiners then supply the others with a list of the candidates who are entitled to be admitted to the second oral examination. On this occasion each candidate is separately examined for one hour and a half by each examiner, but care is taken that in all the principal subjects of study the candidate is examined by at least two out of the three examiners.

Each examiner records his opinion of the merits of every candidate in replying, orally and in writing, by awarding him a credit varying between O and 20, the highest number indicating a very superior result.

This scale of merit is employed to express the value of the oral replies, written answers, or drawings. It has the following signification, and appears to be generally in use in the French military schools:--

20 denotes perfect.

19}
18} “ very good.

17}
16} “ good.
15}

14}
13} “ passable.
12}

11}
10} “ middling.
9}

8}
7} “ bad.
6}

5}
4} “ very bad.
3}

2}
1} “ almost nothing.

0} “ nothing.

Considerable latitude is granted to the examiner engaged in deciding upon the amount of credit to be allowed to the student, for the manner in which he replies to the various questions. He is expected to bear in mind the temperament of the candidate, his confidence or timidity, as well as the difficulty of the questions, when judging of the quality of the reply, more value being given for an imperfect answer to a difficult question than for a more perfect reply to an easy one.

The reports of the examiners, together with the various documents belonging to each candidate, are sent from each town to the minister at war, who transmits them to the commandant of the Polytechnic School to make out a classified list.

Very different value of course is attached to the importance of some of the subjects, when compared with others; and the measure of the importance is represented in French examinations by what are termed _co-efficients of influence_, varying for the several subjects of study and kind of examination. The particular co-efficients of influence for each subject in these written and oral examinations, are as follows:--

Co-efficients of Influence.

Oral examination--analytical mathematics, 20}
“ “ geometrical ditto, 14} 52
“ “ physics and mechanics, 16}
“ “ German language, 2}

Written compositions on mathematical subjects, 5}
“ “ descriptive geometry, drawing, and
description, 5}
“ “ logarithmic calculations of a triangle, 2}
“ “ mechanics, 2}
“ “ physics or chemistry, 4} 34
German exercise, 1}
French composition, 5}
Latin translation, 5}
Copy of a drawing, 5}
--
Total, 86
--

In order to make out the above mentioned classified list, the respective credits awarded by the examiners to each candidate are multiplied by the co-efficients representing the weight or importance attached to each subject; and the sum of their products furnishes a numerical result, representing the degree of merit of each candidate.

A comparison of these numerical results is then made, and a general list of all the candidates is arranged in order of merit.

This list, and the whole of the documents from which it has been drawn up, are then submitted to a jury composed of the

Commandant of the School.

The Second in Command.

The Director of Studies.

Two Members of the Board of Improvement.

The Five Examiners.

It is the special business of this jury carefully to scrutinize the whole of the candidates’ documents, drawings, &c., and they further take care that a failure in any one branch of study is duly noted, as such failure is a sufficient reason for the exclusion of the candidate from the general list.

As soon as this general list has been thoroughly verified, it is submitted to the minister of war, who is empowered to add one-tenth to the number actually required for the public services; and thus it may happen that one-tenth of the pupils may annually be disappointed.

IV. THE SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND THE COURSE AND METHOD OF STUDY.

A brief description of the buildings may be a suitable introduction to an account of the studies that are pursued, and the life that is led in them.

The Polytechnic School stands near the Pantheon, and consists of two main buildings, one for the official rooms and the residence of the commandant and director of studies, the other, and larger one, for the pupils. Detached buildings contain the chemical lecture room and laboratory, the laboratory of natural philosophy, the library, fencing and billiard rooms.

The basement floor of the larger building contains the kitchen and refectories. On the first floor, are the two amphitheaters or great lecture rooms, assigned respectively to the pupils of the two years or divisions, in which the ordinary lectures are given. The rooms are large and well arranged; the seats fixed, the students’ names attached to them. The students are admitted by doors behind the upper tier of seats; at the foot of all is a platform for the professor, with a blackboard facing his audience, and with sufficient room for a pupil to stand and work questions beside him. Room also is provided for one of the captains, inspectors of studies, whose duty it is to be present, for the director of studies, whose occasional presence is expected, and for the assistant teachers or _répétiteurs_, who in the first year of their appointment are called upon to attend the course upon which they will have to give their subsequent questions and explanations. On this floor are also the museums, or repositories of models, instruments, machines, &c., needed for use in the amphitheaters, or elsewhere. The museum provided for the lecturer on Physics (or Natural Philosophy) appeared in particular to be well supplied.

The whole of the second floor is taken up with what are called the _salles d’interrogation_, a long series of small cabinets or studies, plainly furnished with six or eight stools and a table, devoted to the _interrogations particulières_, which will presently be described.

The third floor contains the halls of study, _salles d’étude_, or studying rooms, in which the greater part of the student’s time during the day is passed--where he studies, draws, keeps his papers and instruments, writes his exercises, and prepares his lectures. These are small chambers, containing eight or, exceptionally, eleven occupants. A double desk runs down the middle from the window to the door, with a little shelf and drawers for each student. There is a blackboard for the common use, and various objects are furnished through the senior student, the sergeant, a selected pupil, more advanced than the rest, who is placed in charge of the room, and is responsible for whatever is handed in for the use of the students. He collects the exercises, and generally gives a great deal of assistance to the less proficient. “When I was sergeant,” said an old pupil, “I was always at the board.” The spirit of _camaraderie_, said to exist so strongly among the Polytechnic students, displays itself in this particular form very beneficially. Young men of all classes work heartily and zealously together in the _salles d’étude_, and no feeling of rivalry prevents them from assisting one another. The sergeant does not, however, appear to exercise any authority in the way of keeping discipline.

These chambers for study are arranged on each side of a long corridor which runs through the whole length of the building, those of the juniors being separated from those of the seniors by a central chamber or compartment, the _cabinet de service_, where the officers charged with the discipline are posted, and from hence pass up and down the corridor, looking in through the glass doors and seeing that no interruption to order takes place.

The fourth story is that of the dormitories, airy rooms, with twelve beds in each. These rooms are arranged as below, along the two sides of a corridor, and divided in the same manner into the senior and junior side. A non-commissioned officer is lodged at each end of the corridor to see that order is kept.

Such is the building into which at the beginning of November the successful candidates from the _Lycées_ and the _Ecoles préparatoires_ are introduced, in age resembling the pupils whom the highest classes of English public schools send annually to the universities, and in number equal perhaps to the new under-graduates at one of the largest colleges at Cambridge. There is not, however, in other points much that is common, least of all in the methods and habits of study we are about to describe. This will be best understood by a summary of a day’s work.

The students are summoned to rise at half-past five, have to answer the roll-call at six, from six to eight are to occupy themselves in study, and at eight they go to breakfast. On any morning except Wednesday, at half-past eight, we should find the whole of the new admission assembled in an amphitheater, permanent seats in which are assigned to them by lot, and thus placed they receive a lecture from a professor, rough notes of which they are expected to take while it goes on. The first half hour of the hour and a half assigned to each lecture is occupied with questions put by the professor relating to the previous lecture. A name is drawn by lot, the student on whom the lot falls is called up to the blackboard at which the professor stands, and is required to work a problem and answer questions. The lecture concluded, the pupils are conducted to the _salles d’étude_, which have just been described, where they are to study. Here for one hour they devote themselves to completing and writing out in full the notes of the lecture they have just heard. The professor and his assistants, the _répétiteurs_, are expected to follow and make a circuit through the corridors, to give an opportunity to ask for information on any difficult points in the lecture. A lithographed summary of the substance of the lecture, extending perhaps to two octavo pages, is also furnished to each studying room for the use of its pupils.

The lecture, as we have said, commences at half-past eight o’clock; it lasts an hour and a half; the hour of writing up the notes brings us to eleven. The young men are now relieved by a change of occupation, and employ themselves (still in their places in the rooms of study) at drawing. A certain number, detached from the rest, are sent to the physical and chemical laboratories. The rotation is such as to admit each student once a month to two or three hours’ work at a furnace for chemistry, and once in two months to make experiments in electricity, or other similar subjects. In this way, either at their drawing or in the laboratories, they spend three hours, and at two o’clock go to their dinner in the refectories below, and after dinner are free to amuse themselves in the court-yard, the library, the fencing and the billiard rooms, till five. At five they return to the studying rooms, and for two hours, on Mondays and Fridays, they may employ themselves on any work they please (_étude libre_;) on Tuesday there is a lecture in French literature, and on Thursday in German; at seven o’clock they commence a lesson, which lasts till nine, in landscape and figure drawing, or they do exercises in French writing or in German; at nine they go down to supper; at half-past nine they have to answer to a roll-call in their bedrooms, and at ten all the lights are put out.

Wednesday is a half-holiday, and the pupils are allowed to leave the school after two o’clock, and be absent till ten at night. The morning is occupied either in study, at the pleasure of the students, or in set exercises till eleven, when there is a lecture of one hour and a half, followed, as usual, by an hour of special study on the subject of the lecture. On Sunday they are allowed to be absent almost the whole day till ten P.M. There is no chapel, and apparently no common religious observance of any kind in the school.

Such is a general sketch of the ordinary employment of the day; a couple of hours of preparatory study before breakfast, a lecture on the differential calculus, on descriptive geometry, on chemistry, or natural philosophy, followed by an hour’s work at notes; scientific drawing till dinner; recreation; and general study, or some lighter lecture in the evening. Were we merely to count the hours, we should find a result of eleven or eleven and a half hours of work for every day but Wednesday, and of seven and a half hours for that day. It is to be presumed, however, that though absolute idleness, sleeping, or reading any book not authorized for purposes of study, is strictly prohibited, and when detected, punished, nevertheless the strain on the attention during the hours of drawing and the lectures of the evening is by no means extreme. Landscape and figure drawing, the lecture in French literature, and probably that in German, may fairly be regarded as something like recreation. Such, at least, was the account given us of the lectures on literary subjects, and it agrees with the indifference to literature which marks the school. Of wholesome out-of-door recreation, there certainly seems to be a considerable want. There is nothing either of the English love of games, or of the skillful athletic gymnastics of the German schools.

The method of teaching is peculiar. The plan by which a vast number of students are collected as auditors of professorial lectures is one pursued in many academical institutions, at the Scotch universities, and in Germany. Large classes attend the lectures in Greek, in Latin, and in mathematics at Glasgow; they listen to the professor’s explanations, take notes, are occasionally questioned, and do all the harder work in their private lodgings. Such a system of course deserves in the fullest sense the epithet of voluntary; a diligent student may make much of it; but there is nothing to compel an idle one to give any attention.

It seems to have been one especial object pursued in the Polytechnic to give to this plan of instruction, so lax in itself, the utmost possible stringency, and to accumulate upon it every attainable subsidiary appliance, every available safeguard against idleness. Questions are expressly put _vivâ voce_ by the professor before his lecture; there is a subsequent hour of study devoted to the subject; there is the opportunity for explanation to individual students; the exaction of notes written out in full form; the professor also gives exercises to the students to write during their hours of general study, which he examines, and marks; general vivâ voce examinations (_interrogations générales_,) conducted by the professors and _répétiteurs_, follow the termination of each course of lectures; and lastly, one of the most important and peculiar parts of the method, we have what are called the _interrogations particulières_. After every five or six lectures in each subject, each student is called up for special questioning by one of the _répétiteurs_. The rooms in which these continual examinations are held have been described. They occupy one entire story of the building; each holds about six or eight pupils, with the _répétiteurs_. Every evening, except Wednesday, they are filled with these little classes, and busy with these close and personal questionings. A brief notice, at the utmost of twenty-four hours, is served upon the students who are thus to be called up. Generally, after they have had a certain number of lectures, they may expect that their time is at hand, but the precise hour of the summons can not be counted upon. The scheme is continually varied, and it defies, we are told, the efforts of the ablest young analysts to detect the law which it follows.

It will be seen at once that such a system, where, though nominally professorial, so little is left to the student’s own voluntary action, where the ordinary study and _reading_, as it is called in our English universities (here such an expression is unknown) is subjected to such unceasing superintendence and surveillance, and to so much careful assistance, requires an immense staff of teachers. At the Polytechnic, for a maximum of 350 pupils, a body of fifteen professors and twenty-four _répétiteurs_, are employed, all solely in actual instruction, and in no way burdened with any part of the charge of the discipline or the finance, or even with the great yearly examinations for the passage from the first to the second division, and for the entrance to the public services.

With a provision of one instructor to every eight students, it is probable that in England we should avoid any system of large classes, from the fear of the inferior pupils being unable to keep pace with the more advanced. We should have numerous small classes, and should endeavor, above all things, to obtain the advantage of equality of attainment in the pupils composing them.

The French, on the other hand, make it their first object to secure one able principal teacher in each subject, a professor whom they burden with very few lectures. And to meet the educational difficulty thus created, to keep the whole large class of listeners up to the prescribed point, they call in this numerous and busily employed corps of assistants to _repeat_, to go over the professor’s work afresh, to whip in, as it were, the stragglers and hurry up the loiterers. Certainly, one would think, a difficult task with a class of 170 freshmen in such work as the integral and differential calculus. It is one, however, in which they are aided by a stimulus which evidently acts most powerfully on the students of the Polytechnic School. During the two years of their stay, the prospect of their final admission to the public services can rarely be absent from the thoughts even of the least energetic and forethinking of the young men. Upon their place in the last class list will depend their fortune for life. A high position will secure them not only reputation, but the certainty of lucrative employment; will put it in their power to select which service they please, and in whichever they choose will secure them favorable notice. Let it be remembered that fifty-three of these one hundred and seventy are free scholars, born of parents too poor to pay 40_l._ a year for their instruction; to whom industry must be at all times a necessity, and industry during their two years at the Polytechnic the best conceivable expenditure, the most certainly remunerative investment of their pains and labor. The place on the final class list is obviously the prize for which this race of two years’ length has to be run. What is it determines that place? Not by any means a final struggle before the winning-post, but steady effort and diligence from first to last throughout the course. For the order of the class list is not solely determined by success in the examination after which it is drawn up, but by the result of previous trials and previous work during the whole stay at the school.

For, during the whole time, every written exercise set by the professor, every drawing, the result of every _interrogation particulière_ by the _répétiteurs_, and of each general interrogation by the professors and _répétiteurs_, is carefully marked, and a credit placed according to the name of the student and reserved for his benefit, in the last general account. The marks obtained in the examination which closes the first year of study form a large element in this last calculation. It had been found that the work of the first year was often neglected: the evil was quickly remedied by this expedient. The student, it would seem, must feel that he is gaining or losing in his banking account, so to call it, by every day’s work; every portion of his studies will tell directly for or against him in the final competition, upon which so much depends.

Such is the powerful mechanism by which the French nation forces out of the mass of boys attending their ordinary schools the talent and the science which they need for their civil and military services. The efforts made for admission to this great scientific school of the public services, the struggle for the first places at the exit from it, must be more than enough, it is thought, to establish the habits of hard work, to accumulate the information and attainment, and almost to create the ability which the nation requires for the general good.

We may now follow the student through his course of two years’ study. The first year’s work may be mainly divided into three portions of unequal length; two of them of about four months each (with an additional fortnight of private study and examination,) are mainly given to hard lecturing, whilst the third portion of two months is devoted to private study and to the examinations.

In accordance with this arrangement of the year, the four hardest subjects are thus distributed. Analysis and descriptive geometry, the staple work of the school--its Latin, as M. de Barante called it--come in the first four months; there is then a pause for private study and a general examination in these two subjects (_interrogations générales_ as distinct from the _interrogations particulières_ of the _répétiteurs_.) This brings us to the middle of March. Analysis and geometry are then laid aside for the rest of the year, and for the next portion of four months the pupils work at mechanics and geodesy, private study and a general examination completing this course also. Important lectures on physics and chemistry run on during both these periods, and are similarly closed by private study and a general examination. The less telling evening classes of French literature and German end at the beginning of June, and landscape and figure drawing only last half the year. It may be observed also, that, as a general rule, there is on each day one, and only one, really difficult lecture. This is immediately preceded and followed by private study, but then comes something lighter, as a relief, such as drawing or work in the laboratories.

The chief feature in the third portion of the year is the complete break in the lectures for general private study (_étude libre_,) a month or six weeks before the closing examination at the end of the year. The immediate prospect of this prevents any undue relaxing of the work; and it is curious to observe here how private efforts and enforced system are combined together, for even the private efforts are thus systematized and directed. The closing examination of the first year begins on the 1st and ends on the 25th of September.

The total number of lectures in each branch of study, with the dates when they respectively commence and finish, and the period when the general examinations (_interrogations générales_) take place, are exhibited in the following tables, and we should add that the interval between the close of each course and the commencement of the chief yearly examination is devoted to free study.

TABLE FOR THE SECOND OR LOWER DIVISION, FOLLOWING THE FIRST YEAR’S
COURSE OF STUDY.

[KEY]
L No. of Lectures
C Commenced.
F Finished.
GE General Examinations _Interrogations Générales._

------------------+---+---------------------+---------------------
| L | Course of Lectures. |General Examinations.
| | | _Interrogations
| | | Gènèrales._
| +----------+----------+----------+----------
Subject of Study. | | C | F | C | F
------------------+---+----------+----------+----------+----------
Analysis | 48| 3rd Nov. |25 Feb. |13th March|18th March
Mechanics | 40|21st March|29th June |24th July |2nd August
& Machines | 40|21st March|29th June |24th July |2nd August
Descriptive | 38| 3rd Nov. |3rd March |13th March|18th March
Geometry | 38| 3rd Nov. |3rd March |13th March|18th March
Physics | 34| 2nd “ |28th June |10th July |19th July
Chemistry | 38| 5th “ |17th “ |10th “ |19th “
Geodesy | 35|20th March|30th “ |24th “ |2nd August
French Literature | 30| 8th Nov. | 6th “ | |
German | 30| 2nd “ |15th “ | |
Figure and | 50| 4th “ |28th April| |
Landscape | | | | |
Drawing |---| | | |
Total |343| | | |
------------------+---+----------+----------+----------+----------

[Annual Examination begins on the 1st Sept., and ends on the 25th
Sept.]

The work of the second year is almost identical in its general plan with that of the first. A continuation of analysis with mechanics in place of descriptive geometry is the work of the first four months, then comes the private study and the _interrogations générales_, and then again, from the middle of March to the middle of July, work of a more professional character, stereotomy, the art of war and topography, forms the natural completion of the pupil’s studies. Chemistry and physics follow the same course as during the first year, and terminate with the private study and the general examination at the beginning of August. The evening lectures in French literature and German end about the middle of June, and those in figure and landscape drawing at the beginning of May. The last portion is again given to private study and the great Final Examination.

TABLE FOR THE FIRST OR UPPER DIVISION, FOLLOWING THE SECOND YEAR’S COURSE OF STUDY.

[KEY]
L No. of Lectures
C Commenced.
F Finished.

-----------------+-----+-------------------+---------------------
| L |Course of Lectures.|General Examinations.
| | | _Interrogations
| | | Gènèrales._
| +---------+---------+----------+----------
Subject of Study.| | C | F | C | F
-----------------+-----+---------+---------+----------+----------
Analysis |32 |11th Nov.|3rd March|13th March|18th March
Mechanics and | | | | |
Machines |42 |10th “ |2nd “ |13th “ |18th “
Stereotomy |32 |20th Mar.|26th June|10th July.|19th July.
Physics |36 |12 Nov. |29th “ |24th “ |2nd Aug.
Chemistry |38 |14th “ |28th “ |24th “ |2nd “
Architecture and | | | | |
Construction |40 |10th “ |8th “ |..........|..........
Military Art and | | | | |
Fortification |20 |21st Mar.|21st “ |10th “ |19th July.
Topography |10 |3rd Jan. |21st “ | |
French literature|30 |11th Nov.|9th “ | |
German |30 |14th “ |19th “ | |
Figure and | | | | |
Landscape Drawing|48 |12th “ |2nd May. | |
+-----+---------+---------+----------+----------
Total |358 | | | |
-----------------+-----+---------+---------+----------+----------

[Annual Examination Begins on the 10th Sept. and ends on the 10th
Oct.]

V. THE EXAMINATIONS, PARTICULARLY THAT OF THE FIRST YEAR AND THE FINAL ONE.

We have now brought the pupil nearly to the end of his career, but must previously say a few words about his examinations, the chief epochs which mark his progress, and the last of which fixes his position almost for life. For this purpose it is necessary to recapitulate briefly what has been said in different places of the whole examinatorial system of the Polytechnic School.

1. All the professors require the students in their studying rooms, to answer questions in writing on the courses as they go through them: a different question is given to each student, and every third question is of such a nature as to involve a numerical example in the reply.

These questions are given in the proportion of one to about every four lectures, and the replies after being examined by the professor or _répétiteur_, are indorsed with a credit, varying from 0 to 20, and the paper is then given back to the student, to be produced at the close of the year.

2. Credits are assigned to the students for their ordinary manipulations in chemistry and physics, during the first year; and at the close of each year, for their manipulations, in chemistry alone, before the examiners.

3. The _répétiteurs_ examine, (in the _interrogations particulières_,) every ten or fourteen days, from six to eight students during a sitting of two hours, on the subject of study lectured on since the previous examination of the same kind. All these students must continue present, and at the close the _répétiteur_ assigns to each a previous examination of the same kind. All these students must continue present, and at the close the _répétiteur_ assigns to each a credit entirely dependent on the manner in which each has replied. The professors and captains inspectors are occasionally present at these examinations, which are discontinued at certain periods according to the instructions of the director of studies.

4. At different intervals of time, from a fortnight to a month, as may happen, after the close of the course in each branch of study, general examinations (_interrogations générales_) are made by the professors and _répétiteurs_. From four to six students are examined together for at least two hours, and at the conclusion the professor makes known to the director of studies the credit he has granted to each student for the manner in which he has passed his examination.

Such may be called the minor or ordinary examinations. But there is an annual closing examination at the end of each year, which we will now describe. The first year’s annual examination commences on the 1st and ends on the 25th September. It is carried on by special examiners, (a different set from those who conduct the entrance examinations,) and not by the professors. These give to every student a credit between 0 and 20 in each branch of study, according to the manner in which he replies.

The following table shows the co-efficients of influence allowed to the different studies of the first year, subdivided also among the particular classes of examination to which the student has been subjected. The component parts of the co-efficients as well as the co-efficients themselves, slightly vary from year to year, dependent on the number of examinations:--

TABLE I.--FIRST YEAR’S COURSE OF STUDIES: SECOND DIVISION.

[KEY]
TC Total Co-efficients. (_repeated_)
WA Written Answers to Professors’ Questions.
ER Examinations by _Répétiteurs_. (_Int. Part._)
GE General Examinations. (_Int. Gen._)
Man. Manipulations.
O Ordinary.
Ex At Examination.
SN Sheets of notes on descriptive Geometry.
GD Graphical Representations and Drawing.
1st First Annual Examination.

-----------------+----+------------------------------------+---
| |Co-efficient of Influence awarded to|
| +----+----+----+-------+---+----+----+
Nature | | | | | Man. | | | |
| | | | +---+---+ | | |
of Study. | TC | WA | ER | GE | O | Ex| SN| GD |1st | TC
-----------------+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----
Analysis, | 56 | 9 | 10 | 9 |.. |.. |.. | .. | 28 | 56
Mechanics, | 60 | 7 | 9 | 8 |.. |.. |.. | 14 | 22 | 60
Descriptive | .. | .. | .. | .. |.. |.. |.. | .. | .. | ..
Geometry, | 48 | .. | 7 | 7 |.. |.. | 4 | 12 | 18 | 48
Geodesy, | 39 | 6 | 5 | 7 |.. |.. |.. | 3 | 18 | 39
Physics, | 45 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 2 |.. |.. | .. | 21 | 45
Chemistry, | 45 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 2 |.. | .. | 18 | 45
French | .. | .. | .. | .. |.. |.. |.. | .. | .. | ..
Literature, | 12 | 12 | .. | .. |.. |.. |.. | .. | .. | 12
German Language, | 10 | 2 | 3 | .. |.. |.. |.. | .. | 5 | 10
Drawing, | 10 | .. | .. | .. |.. |.. |.. | 10 | .. | 10
Shading & | .. | .. | .. | .. |.. |.. |.. | .. | .. | ..
Tinting Plans, | 3 | .. | .. | .. |.. |.. |.. | 3 | .. | 3
-----------------+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----

At the conclusion of this examination the director of studies prepares a statement for each student, exhibiting the credits he has obtained at each of the preceding examinations in each subject, multiplied by the co-efficient of influence, and the sum of the products represents the numerical account of the student’s credit in each branch of study.

As the process is somewhat intricate, we append the following example, to show the nature of the calculation performed, in order to ascertain the amount of credits due to each student:--

REPORT OF THE CREDITS GAINED IN THE FIRST YEAR’S COURSE OF STUDY BY M. N., STUDENT AT THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL.

[Outer Rows:]
Subject of Examination,
Co-efficient of Influence;
Sum of Products,
Mean Credit in each Subject of the Course
[Inner Rows:]
Nature of Examination or Proof;
Credit obtained by the Student,
Co-efficient of Influence,
Product

Analysis, | 56 || 845.81| 15.00 |
Written answers to Professors’ questions | 17.16 | 9 | 154.44 |
Examinations by _répétiteurs_ | | | |
(_interrogations particulières_) | 15.47 | 10 | 154.70 |
General Examination | | | |
(_interrogations générales_) | 13.71 | 9 | 123.39 |
Annual Examination | 14.75 | 28 | 413.28 |
|
Mechanics, | 60 || 664.13| 11.07 |
Written answers to Professors’ questions | 13.45 | 7 | 94.15 |
Examinations by _répétiteurs_ | 12.72 | 9 | 114.48 |
General Examination | 11.37 | 8 | 90.96 |
Graphical representations and drawing | 5.61 | 14 | 78.54 |
Annual Examination | 13.00 | 22 | 286.00 |
|
Descriptive Geometry, | 48 || 633.15| 13.19 |
Examinations by _répétiteurs_ | 17.15 | 7 | 120.05 |
General Examination | 11.72 | 7 | 82.04 |
Sheets of notes | 12.45 | 4 | 49.80 |
Graphical representation and drawing | 11.88 | 12 | 142.76 |
Annual Examination | 13.25 | 18 | 238.50 |
|
Geodesy, | 39 || 229.01| 5.87 |
Written answers to Professors’ questions | 9.16 | 6 | 54.96 |
Examinations by _répétiteurs_ | 7.85 | 5 | 39.25 |
General Examination | 5.74 | 7 | 40.18 |
Graphical representation and drawing | 4.36 | 3 | 13.08 |
Annual Examination | 4.53 | 1 | 81.54 |
|
Physics, | 45 || 112.21| 2.49 |
Written answers to Professors’ questions | 2.76 | 6 | 13.56 |
Examinations by _répétiteurs_ | 3.54 | 9 | 31.86 |
General Examination | 5.74 | 7 | 40.18 |
Ordinary manipulation | 1.55 | 2 | 3.10 |
Annual Examination | 1.84 | 21 | 38.84 |
|
Chemistry, | 45 || 131.16| 2.91 |
Written answers to Professors’ questions | 2.46 | 5 | 12.30 |
Examinations by _répétiteurs_ | 3.25 | 9 | 29.95 |
General Examination | 2.47 | 7 | 17.29 |
Ordinary manipulation | 2.26 | 4 | 9.04 |
Manipulation at Exam | 1.58 | 2 | 3.16 |
Annual Examination | 3.34 | 18 | 60.12 |
|
French Literature, | 12 || 67.68 | 5.64 |
Written answers to Professors’ questions | 5.46 | 12 | 67.68 |
|
German Language, | 10 || 55.92 | 5.59 |
Written answers to Professors’ questions | 6.57 | 2 | 13.14 |
Examinations by _répétiteurs_ | 4.86 | 3 | 14.58 |
Annual Examination | 5.64 | 5 | 28.20 |
|
Drawing, | 10 || 43.60 | 4.36 |
Graphical representation and drawing | 4.36 | 10 | 43.60 |
|
Shading and Tinting |
Plans, | 3 || 11.58 | 3.86 |
Graphical representation and drawing | 3.86 | 3 | 11.58 |

Sum 10)70.07
--------
General Mean Credit, = (7.00)

It is important to remark that any student whose _mean credit_, given in the eighth column of the preceding table, in any branch of study does not exceed _three_, or whose _general mean credit_ for the whole of the studies being the arithmetical mean of all the values recorded in the eighth column, and given at the bottom in the example, does not exceed six, is _considered to possess an insufficient amount of instruction to warrant his being permitted to pass into the first division for the second year’s course_. He is accordingly excluded from the school, unless he has been prevented from pursuing his studies by illness, in which case, when the facts are thoroughly established, he will be allowed a second year’s study in the second division, comprising the first year’s course of study.

We now pass to the second annual or great final examination for admission to the public services, remarking only that in the _interrogations générales_ of the second year the principal subjects of both years are included.

The final examinations for admission into the public service commence about the 10th September, and last about one month. They are conducted by the same examiners who examined at the close of the first year. These are five in number, and appointed by the minister of war. One of these takes analysis; a second, mechanics; a third, descriptive geometry and geodesy; the fourth, physics; and the fifth, chemistry.

The examination in military art and topography is conducted by a captain of engineers specially appointed for the purpose; and in the same manner the examination in German is carried on by a professor, usually a civilian, specially but not permanently appointed.

The questions are oral, and extend over the whole course of study pursued during the two years. Each student is taken separately for one hour and a quarter on different days by each of the five examiners; each examiner examines about eight students daily.

A table, very similar to that already given, is prepared under the superintendence of the Director of studies for every student, to ascertain the numerical amount of his credits in each branch of study, the co-efficients of influences for the particular subject of study and nature of examination being extracted from a table similar to that in page 80, and when these tables have all been completed, a general list of all the students is made out, arranged in the order of their merits.

Formerly, conduct was permitted to exercise some slight influence on their position, but that is no longer the case.

The same regulations exist, as regards the minimum amount of credit that will entitle the students to enter into the public service, as have already been stated above in reference to the passage from the first to the second year’s course of study.

TABLE II. SECOND YEAR’S COURSE OF STUDY: FIRST DIVISION.

[KEY]
RP Result of previous Year’s Examination.
WA Written answers to Professors’ Questions.
ER Examinations by _Répétiteurs_. (_Int. Part._)
GE General Examinations. (_Int. Gen._)
Man. Manipulations.
O Ordinary.
Ex At Examination.
SN Sketches and Notes in Architecture
GD Graphical Representations and Drawing
EA Examination in Architecture
2d 2d Annual or Final Examination.
TC Total Co-efficients.

--------------+-----------------------------------------------+----
| Co-efficient of Influence awarded to |
+----+----+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+----+
| | | | | Man. | | | | |
| | | | +---+---+ | | | |
| RP | WA | ER | GE | O | Ex| SN | GD | EA | 2d | TC
--------------+----+----+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+----+----
Analysis, | 28 | 8 | 10 | 9 | | | | | | 26 | 81
Mechanics, | 25 | 8 | 12 | 9 | | | | 10 | | 28 | 92
Descriptive | | | | | | | | | | |
Geometry, | 36 | | | | | | | | | | 36
Geodesy, | | 6 | 5 | 7 | | | | 1 | | 18 | 37
Physics, | 23 | 5 | 10 | 8 | | | | | | 22 | 68
Chemistry, | 20 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 2 | | | | 19 | 68
Architecture, | | | | | | | 12 | 14 | 10 | | 36
Military | | | | | | | | | | |
Art and | | | 3 | 5 | | | | 9 | | 8 | 25
Tophography, | | | | | | | | | | |
French | | | | | | | | | | |
Literature, | 6 | 12| | | | | | | | | 18
German, | 5 | 2| 3 | | | | | | | | 15
Drawing, | 5 | | | | | | | 10 | | | 15
Shading and | | | | | | | | | | |
Tinting, | 2 | | | | | | | 3 | | | 5
--------------+----+----+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+----+----

From the preceding tables and explanations, it will be apparent that, as the whole of the students for each year are compelled to follow precisely the same course of study, the system of professorial instruction, combined with the constant tutelage and supervision exercised by the _répétiteurs_, and the examinations (_interrogations particulières_) of the _répétiteurs_, at short intervals of time, have for their principal object the keeping alive in the minds of the students the information which has been communicated to them. As a stimulus to continuous and unceasing exertion, it will be seen by an inspection of the tables of the co-efficients of influence, that the manner in which the students acquit themselves from day to day, and from week to week, is made an element, and a very important one, in determining their final position in the list arranged according to merit, exceeding as it does in most instances the influence exerted on their classification by their final examination at the close of each year. This principle thus recognizes not only their knowledge at the end of each year, but also the manner in which they have proved it to the professors and _répétiteurs_ in the course of the year; and with reference to the second year’s study, the final result of the first year’s classification exercises an influence amounting to about one-third of the whole, in the final classification at the end of the second year.

It follows also, that as the examinations at the end of each year are made by examiners, otherwise unconnected with the school, and not by the professors belonging to it, the positions of the students in the classified list is partly dependent on the judgment of the professors with whom they are constantly in communication, and partly on the public examiners, whom they meet only in the examination rooms.[10]

[Footnote 10: The influence exercised in the various branches of
study, and consequently in the position of the students in the
list classified according to merit, by the professors and
_répétiteurs_ on the one hand, and by the examiners on the other,
as in the table above.]

The examiners of the students are not frequently changed, and practically the same may be said of the examiners for admission.

[KEY]
PR By Professors and _Répétiteurs_.
Ex By Examiners.
Y1 By the results of the first Year’s Examination.

-------------------+---------------------------------------------
Subjects of Study. | Per-centage of influence exercised on the
| position of the Students.
+-----------++-----------------++-------------
|During the || During the ||In the Classified
| 1st Year. || 2nd Year. ||List at the end
| || ||of 2nd year.
+-----------++-----------------++-------------
| PR | Ex || Y1 | PR | Ex || PR | Ex
-------------------+-----+-----++-----+-----+-----++-----+-------
Analysis, | 50.0| 50.0|| 34.5| 32.5| 33.0|| 49.7| 50.25
Mechanics, | 63.2| 36.7|| 27.2| 42.4| 30.4|| 59.6| 40.40
Descriptive | | || | | || |
Geometry, | 62.5| 37.5||100.0| 0.0| 0.0|| 62.5| 37.5
Geodesy, | 53.8| 46.2|| 0.0| 51.4| 48.6||*51.4| 48.6
Physics, | 53.3| 46.7|| 33.8| 33.8| 32.4|| 51.8| 48.2
Chemistry, | 60.0| 40.0|| 29.4| 43.2| 27.4|| 60.8| 39.2
Architecture, | .. | .. || 0.0|100.0| 0.0||100.0|100.0
Military Art and | | || | | || |
Topography, | .. | .. || 0.0| 68.0| 32.0|| 68.0| 32.0
French Literature, |100.0| 0.0|| 33.3| 66.7| 0.0||100.0| 0.0
German Language, |100.0| 0.0|| 33.3| 33.3| 33.4|| 66.7| 33.3
Drawing, |100.0| 0.0|| 33.3| 66.7| 0.0||100.0| 0.0
Shading and | | || | | || |
Tinting Plans, |100.0| 0.0|| 40.0| 60.0| 0.0||100.0| 0.0
| | || | | * || |
-------------------+-----+-----++-----+-----+-----++-----+-------

[* When taught in the 2nd year]

The students at the head of the list have generally since the wars of the first Empire entered into the civil rather than into the military services, the former being much better remunerated.

The services are usually selected by preference, nearly in the following order:--

The Roads and Bridges (_Ponts et chaussées_)} very nearly on an
and Mines (_Mines_,) } equality.
Powder and Saltpetre (_Poudres et Salpêtres._)
Naval Architects (_Génie maritime._)
Engineers (_Génie militaire._)
The Artillery (_Artillerie de terre._) }
and the Staff Corps (_Etat Major_,) } very nearly on an equality.
The Hydographical Corps (_Ingénieurs Hydrographes._)
Tobacco Department (_Administration des Tabacs._)
Telegraph Department (_Lignes Télégraphiques._)
Navy (_Marine._)
Marine Artillery (_Artillerie de mer._)

Such, at least, is the result of a comparison of the selections made by the students during eight different years.

This preference of the civil to the military services has been the subject of frequent complaints on the part of the military authorities to the minister of war.

No steps have, however, been taken by the French government to prevent the _free_ choice of a profession being granted to the most successful students.

We have now followed the student at the Polytechnic to the end of his school career. He is then to pass to his particular School of Application, in which (as the name implies) he is taught to apply his science to practice. It is difficult to state precisely the amount of such science which the highest pupils may be thought to possess on leaving; the best idea of it will be gained by reference to the programmes of the most important of the lectures. It is also needless to dwell again on the main features of the school--the emulation called forth, the minute method, the great prizes offered for sustained labor. We must, however, make some remarks on these points before concluding our account, so far as they bear on the subject of military education.

VI. GENERAL REMARKS.

1. Keeping out of sight for the moment some defects both in the principles and details of the education of this school, the method of teaching adopted seems to us excellent, and worthy of careful study. In this remark we allude principally to the skillful combination of two methods which have been generally thought incompatible; for it unites the well-prepared lecture of a German professor, with the close personal questioning of a first-rate English school or college lecture. But besides this, its whole system is admirably adapted for the class of pupils it educates.

These pupils are generally not of the wealthy classes; they are able, and struggling for a position in life. On all these grounds their own assistance in the work may be calculated upon. Yet they are not left to themselves to make the most of their professors’ lectures. The aid of _répétiteurs_, even more valuable in its constant “prudent interrogations,” than in the explanations afforded, is joined to the stimulus given by marking every step of proficiency, and by making all tell on the last general account. But though the routine and method of the school are so elaborate, play is given to the individual freedom of the pupils in their private work, and this is managed so skillfully that the private work is made immediately to precede the final examination, on which mainly depends the pupil’s place for life. Thus from first to last they are carried on by their system without being cramped by it; every circumstance favorable to study is made the most of; rigorous habit, mental readiness, the power of working with others, and the power of working for themselves, the ambition for immediate and permanent success, all the objects and all the methods which students ever have in view, support and stimulate those of the Polytechnic in their two years’ career.

2. The mainspring, however, of the school’s energy is the competition amongst the pupils themselves, and this could hardly exist without the great prizes offered to the successful. This advantage, added to the general impulse of the early days of the Empire, has no doubt powerfully contributed to the great position of the school. It has made it a kind of university of the _élite_ mathematicians, and as in England young men look to the prizes of the universities, and the professions to which they lead, as their best opening in life, so in France, ever since the first revolution, the corresponding class has inclined to the active and chiefly military career which is offered by the great competitive school of the country.

3. A preparatory school of this remarkable character can not but exercise a very powerful influence over those three-fourths of its pupils who leave it to enter the army. The obvious question is whether the attempt is not made to teach more than is either necessary or desirable for military purposes, and to this suspicion may be added the fact that the civil prizes being more in request than the military, many of those who enter the army do so in the first instance reluctantly, and that the pupils at the bottom of the list appear to be often such marked failures as to imply either great superficiality or premature exhaustion.

4. In studying the Polytechnic School we have had these points constantly brought before us, and feeling the difficulty of discussing them fully, we beg to invite attention to the evidence sent us in reply to some questions which we addressed on the subject to some distinguished scientific officers and civilians connected with the school. We will give briefly the result of our own inquiries.

5. The complaint of General Paixhans has been quoted. He urges that a considerable proportion of the army pupils are mere _queues de promotion_, and quite insufficient to form _le corps et surtout la tête_ of troops _d’élite_.

Other not inconsistent complaints we heard ourselves, of the mental exhaustion and the excessively abstract tendencies of many of the military pupils of the school.

6. Such are the complaints. There is certainly reason to think that, with regard to the twenty or thirty lowest pupils on the list, those of General Paixhans are well founded. These are the _breaks down_, and we are at first surprised that, entering as they must do,[11] with high attainments, they should fall so low as the marks in the tables (with which we are most liberally supplied) prove to be the case.

[Footnote 11: The students are selected, by a competitive
examination, out of a very large number of candidates, as will be
seen from the following table, extracted from the yearly
calendars:--

-----+------------+------------+-------------
| Candidates | |
| who | | Candidates
Year.| inscribed | Candidates | admitted
| their | examined. | to the
| Names. | | Polytechnic.
-----+------------+------------+-------------
1832 | 567 | 468 | 183
1833 | 367 | 304 | 110
1834 | 627 | 541 | 150
1835 | 729 | 633 | 154
.....|............|............|............
1837 | 629 | 508 | 137
1838 | 533 | 410 | 131
1839 | 530 | 531 | 135
.....|............|............|............
1842 | 709 | 559 | 137
1843 | 802 | 559 | 166
1844 | 746 | 531 | 143
1845 | 780 | 559 | 136
-----+------------+------------+-------------

Giving an average of one student for four candidates _examined_,
so that it is impossible to imagine that there is any lack of
ability in those selected.

A similar result appears to follow from some other more recent
statistics.

-----+---------------+-----------------+----------
Year.| Number of | Number declared | Number
| Candidates | admissible | admitted.
| who inscribed | to the Second |
| their Names. | Examination. |
-----+---------------+-----------------+----------
1852 | 510 | 216 | 202
1853 | 494 | 222 | 217
1854 | 519 | 238 | 170
1855 | 544 | 232 | 170
-----+---------------+-----------------+----------

In judging, however, of these numbers, it should be borne in mind
that, a very large number of the candidates who succeed have tried
more than once; the successful of this year have been among the
unsuccessful of last year, so that the proportion of individuals
who succeed to individuals who fail, is, of course, considerably
larger than one to four. Of the 170 candidates admitted in
November, 1855, 117 had put down their names for the examination
of 1854, and 53 only had not been previously inscribed. Of the 117
who put down their names, 19 had withdrawn without being examined
at all, 71 had been rejected on the preliminary examination, 27
had been unsuccessful at that of the second degree; 98 of the 170
came up for the second time to the examination.]