<p>I’m a bit confused as to how these work.
Are they the only exams we’re given during the semester? Another thing, what time do they usually go till in the evening?</p>
<p>No, they aren’t the only exams given. And they are only for courses that have (I believe) 50 or more students, so you’ll have different sorts of exams and papers for your smaller classes.</p>
<p>momwait, do you get many course that have 50 or more students?</p>
<p>I don’t know, John Adams. But I’m talking total course enrollment, not individual classes. For example, a math course may have four different sections, each with, say, 30 students, for a total of 120. All students enrolled in that course get the same test, at the same time during 4 o’clocks, no matter which section they are registered for. </p>
<p>The introductory courses and the mandatory major requirements for popular majors have large course enrollments. You might get a large lecture once a week for all students in that course, and then two times a week within your assigned, smaller section. Or you might stay completely within your 35 student class, but use the same materials as the other sections. However, many sections of a course doesn’t guarantee eligibility for 4 o’clocks because each section may have different content. For example, there may be 35 sections of first-year English, yet each professor has a different syllabus and course materials. You can’t test everyone on the same material the way you can for physics.</p>
<p>A current student would be a better person to answer this question. My experience is that most 4 o’clocks are for the sciences, engineering, and math.</p>
<p>Here are the classes with 4 o’clocks:
[4</a> O’Clock Quiz Schedule – Office of the Registrar – Lehigh University](<a href=“http://www.lehigh.edu/~inrgs/4oclock.shtml]4”>http://www.lehigh.edu/~inrgs/4oclock.shtml)</p>
<p>And from that site: “Preregistration figures in the above courses must number 100 or more in order to remain on the schedule.”</p>
<p>Note that each course appears twice on the list, for a total of 16 courses.</p>
<p>so the 4:00 O’Clock thingy is just a standard time of the day that the larger classes are required to give the tests on?</p>
<p>My guess is that this is done so that tests are not given at earlier times for some of the classes in the same course that would then lead to “leakage” of the exams.</p>
<p>but I really don’t know, just a guess.</p>
<p>Actually, 4 o’clock exams have been held at 4:00 PM since the days when the Steel Mill was operating. During the day the mill was extremely noisy so professors would wait to give exams at 4 when the mill workers went home for the day. They’ve been held at 4 ever since.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>great tradition and story</p>