Repeat School Exam.  Contin.  Both
  Total No. the Final or Regents’ Discon. or No Repeat
  Failures Subject Spec.  Exam’s.  Substitution Repet. and
          
                                                  or Exam.  Exam.
  8348 B. 3695 821 1333 2471 259 231
  9612 G. 5001 1025 1752 1929 249 344
  Per Cent
  of Total 48.4 10.3 17.2 24.5 2.8 3.2

It is obvious from these percentages that school practice puts an inclusive faith in the repetition of the subject, as 48.4 per cent of all the failures are referred to this one remedy for the purpose of being rectified, although one school made practically no use of this means (see section 5 of this chapter).  We shall proceed to find how effectively it operates and how much this faith is warranted by the results.  The cases above designated as both repeating and taking examination (3.2 per cent) have been counted twice, and their percentage must be subtracted from the sum of the percentages in order to give 100 per cent.

1.  REPETITION AS A REMEDY FOR FAILURES

We already know how many of the failing pupils repeat the subject of failure, but the success attending such repetition is entitled to further attention.  Accordingly, the grades received in the 8,696 repetitions are presented here.

GRADES SECURED IN THE SUBJECTS REPEATED

GRADES
Total Repetitions A B C D INC.
3695 Boys 63 547 1863 1003 219
5001 Girls 83 724 2510 1337 347
-----------------
Per Cent of Total 1.7 14.7 50.3 33.3

Less than 2 per cent of the repeaters secure A’s, while only about 1 in 6 ever secures either an A or a B. The first three are passing grades, with values as explained in Chapter I, and D represents failure.  Of the repeated subjects 33.3 per cent result in either a D or an unfinished status.  It is a fair assumption that the unfinished grade usually bore pretty certain prospects of being a failing grade if completed, and it is so treated here.  There is a difference of less than 1 per cent in the failures assigned to boys and girls for the repeated subjects.

The hope was entertained in the original plan of this study to secure several other sorts of information about the repeaters, but these later proved to be unobtainable.  The influence of repeating with the same teacher as contrasted with a change of teachers in the same subject, the comparative facts for the repetition with men or with women teachers, the varying results for the different sizes of classes, and the apparent effect of supervised study of some sort before or after failing, were all sought for in the records available; but the schools were not able to provide any definite and complete information of the sorts here specified.