THE prospective return of the study of German in colleges and secondary schools to something approaching normal conditions holds in store splendid opportunities as well as a grave responsibility for both classes of institutions. The problem of the preparatory schools, serious as it is, seems to be the easier of the two. It consists mainly in a careful selection of new teachers, and since the supply is ample, the chief danger will probably lie in the rather natural tendency to provide for German instruction in a temporary, makeshift way. Wherever such a suicidal policy is avoided by the resolute appointment of the best teachers available, the question of method will easily take care of itself-provided that the colleges recognize the seriousness of their own responsibility and refrain from exerting a disastrous influence. Such a warning implies the heretical assertion that hitherto the influence of the colleges on modern language instruction has not been altogether beneficial. I am far from making that assertion a sweeping one. In my twenty years of experience as a college teacher I have met with instances of material improvement in high school instruction thru the aid and guidance of universities (notably so in the case of the University of Wisconsin), but, unfortunately, also with evidences of unpardonable hampering. Of the various types of contact between the two types of schools, such as inspection, admission requirements, bulletins, meetings, correspondence, and entrance examinations, I shall discuss only one, namely, the last-mentioned. There is more potential good and evil contained in examinations than in any of the other factors.