The History Department administered a voluntary, non-credit test to its graduating senior majors last semester to help the department evaluate the effectiveness of its curriculum."We thought we would try and assess the effectiveness of the history major to see if it's doing what we would like it to do," said Prof. Paul Jankowski, the department's chair.

Prof. Govind Sreenivasan (HIST), last year's undergraduate advising head for the department and designer of the test, said "the questionnaire will be effective in helping the history department with self-assessment," but an analysis of the results is still in progress.

The test is part of a broader effort by the University to assess its academic programs, highlighted in a recent self-study report issued as part of the University's reaccredidation process, which occurs every 10 years.

The report said the test aims to "assess whether seniors have developed the intellectual skills and habits that the study of history should foster: the ability to use a primary source, to explore a historical problem, to develop a balanced argument and, in general, to think about a past society that differs from one's own."

Jankowski added: "The questions weren't so much knowledge-based because everybody takes different courses. It was about how [history majors] think historically and how they solve historical problems."

Of the 68 students who graduated with majors in history last spring, 19, or 28 percent, completed the assessment, Sreenivasan said.

Jankowski said the non-credit test was given informally to students at a dinner for graduating seniors.