Word: grader
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...right, of course, about the third alternative, and a very sensible one it is--working out some system of fooling the grader; although I think I should prefer the word "impressing." We admit to being impressionable, but not to being hypercredulous simps. His first two tactics for system beating, his Vague Generalities and Artful Equivocations, seem to presume the latter, and are only going to convince Crimson-reading graders (there are a few and we tell our friends) that the time has come to tighten the screws just a bit more...
Think, Mr. Carswell (wherever you are), think, all of you: imagine the situation of your grader. (Unless, of course he is of the Wheatstone Bridge-double differential CH3C6H2 (NO2)3 set. These people are mere cogs; automata; they simply feel to make sure you have punched the right holes. As they cannot think, they cannot be impressed; they are clods. The only way to beat their system is to cheat.) In the humanities and social sciences, it is well to remember there is a man (occasionally a woman), a human type filling out your picture postcard. What does he want...
Carswell's further discussion of the O.A. is quite to the point--he himself realizes its superiority to any E., however A. His illustration includes one of the key. "Wake Up The Grader" phrases--"It is absurd." What force! What gall! What fun! "Ridiculous," "hopeless," "nonsense," on the one hand; "doubtless," "obvious," "unquestionable," on the other, will have the same effect. A hint of nostalgic, antiacademic languor at this stage as well may match the grader's own mood: "It seems more than obvious to one entangled in the petty quibbles of contemporary Medievalists--at times, indeed, approaching the ludicrous...
...decades. On June 12, 1950, Donald Carswell '50 published his blueprint for success "Beating the System," for which he received the Dana Reed Prize in 1951 for excellence in undergraduate writing. The Crimson has reprinted it as a service to readers ever since. In 1962, the infamous, anonymous "Grader's Reply" first appeared...
...Harvard examination system is designed, according to its promulgators, to test two specific things, knowledge of trends and knowledge of detail. Men approaching the examination problem have three choices: 1. flunking out, 2. doing work, or 3. working out some system of fooling the grader. The first choice of solution is too permanent and the second takes too long...