Tutoring Notes "Incorrect," Hanford Says, Confirming Reports of Students

An analysis of remarks on the tutoring school questionnaires during the CRIMSON poll and a memorandum recently issued by the Dean's Office have revealed the student body's opinions of the cram parlors.

Dean Hanford reports that the opinion of faculty members and students confirms all reports that tutoring notes are "incorrect and misleading."

"Prove Useless"

"Students themselves have expressed the opinion that some of the notes which they have purchased have been so full of errors as to prove useless; others have pointed out that so-called 'word lists' sold by certain bureaus do not contain the proper words and that many of the words are wrong," Dean Hanford says.

The Dean's Office also reports that instructors in professional schools have serious cause for complaint with those students who have come to these schools after tutoring in College.

Poor Educational Technique

"One of the most serious criticisms of tutoring school notes is that the student who relies upon them as a substitute for his own efforts loses a very valuable form of training in the analysis and organization of material--he is cheating himself by not sharpening his own tools," Hanford stated.

The general sentiment expressed by the students in their remarks on the CRIMSON questionnaire was that tutoring despite a few advantages in saving time is only of temporary value and that it has no educational value.

Typical remarks were: "Tutoring won't help English I. . . Tutoring schools are not dependable in their notes. . . . Tut notes did not help in Government the first half year. . . . Usefulness is only temporary."

Many students complain that the use of tutoring schools does not make the work any easier and that they usually spend the same amount of time studying tutoring notes after taking dictation for several days.

"From my experience with French E tutoring, the supposedly 'spot passages' infallibly seem to be wrong, and the notes on content are so general they are of little or no value for specific questions.

"Having taken one review in the early part of the year I can say that the tutoring school did raise my mark, however, I found that this was absolutely unnecessary. I was able with very little trouble, to do the work by myself if I studied," one student commented.