No Tests? College's Students Must Relearn How to Learn

"I feel like we do try to quantify thoughts," one of the 15 students said. "Like standardized tests -- IQ tests."

"But intangibility is part of what makes a thought a thought," another freshman said.

"So we should ask -- is it possible to quantify and qualify everything?" the tutor asked.

After class, Renaut said, "Miss Fleming asked, 'Why do we measure?'

"It's one of the big questions. It's good. Because -- who thought about that yesterday? . . . Why do we measure? Why are these things important?"

The question went unanswered.

Judgment Day

As the term went along, freshmen got more and more worried about the evaluations that were coming, called don rags perhaps because of an Oxford tradition, in which the tutors sit down with each student and talk about his or her progress.

"It's judgment day," Renaut said. "It's an incredible pressure, evaluation -- you really do feel like you're going to be going in there naked."

Fleming had heard that a lot of people burst into tears. "It's frightening," she said. The five tutors sat at a table, staring at her as she sat down, then talking about her in the third person. "I kept giving myself little pinches, thinking, 'This is so nerve-wracking!'"

Some freshmen were asked why they were at college since they never went to class. Honour walked out knowing he had to catch up on Greek, fast. Fleming's tutors said nice things, she said, and talked about ways she could challenge herself even more; much more useful than a letter grade, she said. Looking back on high school, it seemed like she had spent so much time honing a skill -- test-taking -- that she no longer needed or valued.

"It's odd that these standards get imposed, what everyone should know," she said. "I feel like that's what we're trying to figure out -- what is it that's worth knowing?"