In days of yore, all cadets were subject to a grade in every class everyday and the grades were based on a 3.0 scale with 2.0 being passing. As long as one made a 2.0 or better, he was considered PRO or Proficient in the subject. Less than 2.0 was considered D or Deficient in the subject. In math type classes, the instructor would ask "Any questions?" If no questions were asked, he would then say "Take Boards" and assign problems to be worked within a specified period of time at the end of which he would say "Cease work" and the cadets would return to their seats. If time permitted, the instructor would direct one or more cadets to explain their work. The instructor would then grade each board and record the grades in his grade book. At the end of each week, grades were posted in the class sally ports (the arched entrances and exits to the barracks areas) and cadets could check their grades and know how they were doing in each class. Class size was normally fifteen cadets to a class or section as they were called and the sections were numbered with the lower numbered sections being those in the upper levels academically (hives) and the highest numbered sections were those having difficulty with a subject (goats). Assignments to sections were periodically adjusted based on cumulative grades. Other requirements in math type classes included underlining the numerical answer with a double underline and printing ANS to the right of the underline to indicate that this was the answer. If a proof of a theorem was required,the double underline was required but the letters QED (Quod Erat Demonstratum) were printed beside it to indicate what was asked has been proved. The Section Leader could also request a "stay back" (cadet slang for asking that no grade be issued today) from the instructor but these were rarely granted. During the mid-period breaks, civilian workers, nicknamed'Board Swipers' by the cadets, would come in and wash the boards so that cadets in later periods would not have an advantage of seeing what their classmates had written since merely erasing a blackboard did not completely obliterate what had previously been written on it.

EI meaning Extra Instruction. Cadets having difficulty with a subject could sign up for Extra Instruction in it and attend on their own time. The instructors were most gracious in providing it. Over the years, EI changed to AI meaning Additional Instruction but the purpose of it remains the same.

What with changes in the curriculum, computers, etc., many of the'traditions' described above are no longer in vogue and that is not all bad. Cadets are still expected to be prepared to be graded in each class and are graded more frequently than those in 'civilian' schools.

Terms for exams are also different at the Academy. Mid-term exams arecalled WPR's meaning Written Partial Reviews. Final exams used to be called WGR's meaning Written General Reviews but now are called TEE's meaning Term End Exams. Regardless of their names, they are very daunting for all.

Another term for exams unique to West Point is WOPR referring to Oral Partial Reviews conducted in Foreign Language classes to test conversational skills, pronunciations, and vocabulary.

There were and still are some academic superstitions in effect which you can find under the Topic below titled Statues and Superstitions.

One other very old humorous superstition, particularly among the goats,dealt with Juice (Electricity) Labs where wires could become crossed, etc. Many wore their cadet overshoes to these labs believing that they would be protected from any shocks that might ensue if mistakes were made.

More Academic Traditions

It used to be a big deal (and to most, a big joke) to put off doing your Sosh paper until the night before it was due, almost as a test of manhood. WKDT used to stay on all night long and monitor the situation live, taking reports called in from all over the corps, usually things like, "The time is now 0130 hours. Joe Tentpeg just called to say he was on his way over to the Library to start his research. He's going the long way, hoping the walk will inspire him to come up with a topic," or (and this is a true one,although I don't remember the P's name), "Captain Whatever, in the Sosh department, called to say he has a dozen topics for anyone who needs one. Call him at the following number . . . " Which was really pretty cool, as it pointed out that the P's had a sense of humor, too.

My roommate firstie year was the station manager for WKDT. When the bignight came around, even though he was not allowed to go there (limits had changed that year), he braved a slug to perform the traditional vigil. I was already polishing up my final draft, and called to get the ball rolling, but since Gary was alone in the studio, he had left the phone in the other room off the hook after taking my call, and did not know it. He was utterly dismayed that nobody was calling him with their status reports, after all he had risked in the line of duty. But the phone was just busy, and it never occurred to him to do a commo check of his own. So he just kept repeating my report, long after I was done and had gone to bed, until he finally gave up and closed the shop. Too bad; I'm sure the show would have been a classic.

Another story I heard, and this falls into the category of Urban Legends, is of two roommates who had bet each other fifty bucks that they would not be the first to start on their papers. So they sat up all night, smoking cigarettes and shooting the bull, staring each other down and trying to get the other one to start work. Finally, the sun came up and the minute callers started doing their thing. One roommate reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a completed Sosh paper that he had done the week before, handed a fifty-dollar bill to his roommate and congratulated him on winning the bet. Talk about a louse!

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On a very raucous night at the Firstie Club a Gray Green night to be exact a young club manager wandered in and fell prey to the corruptive force of the B-2 Bulldogs of 1990 (a corruptive tie to this company would last for the next 3 years). First Class Cadet Jake O'Connell said to the club manager, whom the whole company befriended during beast (as they were the first cadets ever to get to use the Officers' Club bar freely and without having to buy a meal), "Johnny you can't be in here, it's for Officers and Firsties, hence the name Gray Green Night. Feeling dejected and out of place the naive club manager began to rise with every intention of leaving. A hand grasped his shoulder and Cadet O'Connell said, "Where are you going, it just means we have to make you an Officer." And so Capt. John T. Rock was born.

That June as the Class was about to graduate there was an extremely large party held in the Officers' Club Mule Bar. Capt. John T. Rock was about to be promoted by the class of '90 as it's going away present. A traditional military ritual was performed, and brass oak leafs (which I still have) were presented. After his rite of passage he was given the job of OIC (Officer In Charge) of the Soc Run.The Soc run sprung from a notorious paper due every semester by 1600 (not one second later) on a particular day near the end of the term and is the bane of every cow and yearling who have this section of Soc.

The Soc Run was up to that point an underground, unappreciated, often unnoticed event. Maj John T. Rock took matters in hand and made it a spectacle. The first year, hand engraved invitations were delivered to the Supe, the Com and the Dean and all attended. The band, the rabble rousers, the mule team, the Scottish Bag pipes, and a convertible carrying a hand picked Soc Run Queen (complete with Tiara and flowers). The plebes were not left out in the cold. Bulldog plebes were tasked with rounding up BP (Janitors were called the Barracks Police back then) carts painting a checkerboard pattern on them and shuttling the really late cadets in the BP cart taxis as fast as they could to the Soc Dept, at that time located in Thayer Hall. The Major's sister, a professional photographer arrived from Philadelphia to take pictures. The parade was replete with this most of the time civilian, now Major, riding in a decked out golf cart wearing BDU's with Rank leading a magnificently arranged spontaneous parade celebrating the rigors of having to write a Soc paper at the last minute. The parade was continued throughout the next 4 years, often to the chagrin of the Major's supervisors in the MWR.

The finest moment is when a cadet took the initiative to arrange to have the fire dept drive him to the new Soc building in the big red Rig. At the first founders day in some years, in Japan, 13 Mar 99, the Major, still a club manager, at Camp Zama Japan learned from a recent grad that the Soc run is bigger than ever. Even when the General staff wanted the Major to kill it in 1991 because it promoted procrastination, it lives on. The moral of this story is even a civilian can leave a legacy to West Point. That was mine.

I am Major John T. Rock. And if any Bulldog from 1990 or any other Mule Bar regular is reading this, would you be so kind, I've been a Major for almost 10 years and I could sure use a promotion.. I'm not getting any younger, and you are the only people who can do it.

John T. Rock, Maj, USMA
Alias, John F Gallagher, Club Manager 89 - 94

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Technology Changes Over Time

In keeping with advances in academia across the country, the Academy has always tried to be in the forefront. The following shows the progress in technology starting with the 1940's:

1940's - Cadets used slide rules. (Wonder how many today know what they are?)

1950's - Still only slide rules.

1960's - Still only slide rules. "If all the electricity should fail in the U.S. we could still compute stuff up to two significant figures."

1970's - Calculators introduced. In July 1973, the Academy issued cadets their first calculators.

1980's - Still calculators. The TI-55 and HP15C or other models.

1990's - Computers introduced. Class of 1990 was the first year group to be issued computers in 1987 - a Zenith 286 with two floppy disk drives and no hard drive. In the fall of 1997, the plebe class was issued a Pentium II with 253 MHz.

Horror and Humorous Technology Stories.

Remember that horrible sound, after we took boards, feverishly working away, and heard the glass from the center of a classmate's slide rule hitting the floor, and knew at least one person in that classroom was about to go "D?"

Bill Schwartz '59, True Trog

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My brief vignette on blackboard quizzes has to do with my roommate at the time working a problem in calculus (remember "Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus by Granville, Smith, and Longley)?. Dave Parrish had his BSME from Rice when he arrived at WP. I had 2.5 years of Aeronautical Engineering at NYU so we'd both been through Calculus one time. In fact I used the same text as a civilian college student which is why I remember the text. Dave was at the blackboard working a problem and got stuck. In his frustration he said -- sotto voce -- "Jesus Christ." Unfortunately he failed to notice that the "P" was standing right behind him and overheard the remark. Luckily for Dave that officer had a gentle sense of humor and said, "Mr. Parrish, you're going to have to call on someone closer than that."

Arnold Winter, '49

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I can beat that!!! (He says with a knowing smirk...) True story, or as my first platoon sergeant (Doyle B. Alford) used to say: "This ain't no lie..." I was in Colonel Ramsden's 1st section chemistry class Yearling year busily working away at the board on some problem calculating bond angles or something. My text and HHC (that would be hand held calculator to you old people) were sitting on the little flip up stand while I worked. Now, there were also several buckets of water with sponges in them scattered around the perimeter of the room, to be used for mopping the boards between classes. I bet the sound of my HHC splashing into that bucket was more sickening than the sound of someone's slide rule glass breaking on the floor.

Ray Nelson, '83

USMA 'PUTER MEMORIES

Bob Ronne wrote:

I don't remember terminals being available in company areas prior to '74. Anyone know when that occurred. Also seems like there was a really cool "Star Trek" game available where we battled Klingons when not checking tenths. On second thought maybe that Star Trek game was in the Golden Eagle bar in Hohenfels, FRG. Oh well it was fun where ever it was. I also vaguely remember that it was a cadet written program. Anyone want to take credit?

John Greiman replied:

That "Star Trek" game was alive and well during my Plebe year (77-78). We were grateful that someone wrote/loaded that program (in Basic ???). We later found another version that we hand-typed into the mainframe. It had crude ASCII character representations of the spaceships and galaxy and worked best on a CRT terminal. When the Academy switched to a new mainframe, we saved the program onto punch cards (stored in two shoe boxes). We were able to re-load the entire program without re-typing (paper media backup).

John Greiman
'81, I-2

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Ah, yes. FORTRAN 4 code on punch cards. Spend hours filling out the coding sheet, hours punching in the code, and hours waiting for the results of your job. Only to get a printout of compile or syntax errors. Go back and correct those only to find out your logic was wrong or the program just flat didn't do what you thought it would. That was funnier than Beast.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when they put printing terminals in a common area in D Wing along about 73. You could find out real quick if you could take that "2.0 and go" weekend. Except for the line at the terminals from others trying to find out the same thing.

Those memories give one a pretty good appreciation of why Y2K might be a problem!

Steve Stone

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Favorite memory: You're working on a computer in one building, but the printer next to you is down for the count, so you tell it to print your work at another workstation in another building. You have ten minutes before taps to get into a complete uniform, dash across post to another academic building, wait in line for the printer to get to your job...only to watch the printer jam, right as the first few notes of taps start playing. (And as some sadistic G&CS P giggled from behind the one-way mirror, finger poised by the "jam" button -- I just knew it had to be some kind of conspiracy.)

But the memories get fuzzy from there on. Were we allowed out after taps to retrieve work that we had tried to print? I seem to recall signing out after taps to go to some computer station, but can't remember if it was to the computer room within the barracks or one of the academic buildings.

Take care and aloha,

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It's surprising that some of our classmates have become so proficient with computers, growing up like we all did with slide rules and taps at 2200. Our only exposure to computers at West Point was during the last month of our Firstie year. The Academic Department decided that we should at the least see a computer before being turned loose into an uncertain outside world. So they scheduled a four (4) hour set of classes (ungraded as I recall) by the Math Department to tell us what IBM stood for. I think the Academy had just acquired a computer for instructional use and incorporated it into the Plebe Math curriculum.

I don't remember anything about the classroom work. My only recollection of the class was the "viewing" of the actual computer. The computer was set up in the small auditorium in Thayer Hall (North Auditorium?). We were allowed to see it from some of the back rows. It was on the stage and took up about half of that area. The computer was everything you expected a computer to be, blinking lights, spinning wheels, cards sorting, nothing like these wimp "puters" we work on today.

I can remember while we were "viewing" the computer, plebes would solemnly enter the auditorium and reverently approach the stage with stacks of computer cards.

These cards seemed to be some sort of an offering to the computer. There a Math "P" (perhaps the "P" stood for priest in the presence of the computer) would accept the cards and offer them to the computer. If the cards were accepted, we would sense the release of a heavy burden from the plebe making the offering. Rejection of the cards resulted in an expression of great despair.

Therein above expresses my knowledge of the subject.

Jay Bennett, '64

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All I remember is that there were lots of 1's and 0;s and cards and that it was not for grade and that we could work together and that I had no idea what it was all about and actually didn't care since we were graduating in a few weeks.

Richard Davis, '64

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Okay, there were a few of us that actually "played" with the computer. If you all recall, we had electives (one each semester) our senior year. A small group of us took some Math stuff--linear programming. We actually learned how to use the punchcards to solve a Math problem-the classic transportation problem for those of you who doubt. The computer was actually a GE-225, which was still functional in the Math Department when we taught there in 1971-74. The language we used was "CADETRAN", a derivative of FORTRAN. Believe it or not, I have still have my little "gold" card, authorizing me to go to Thayer Hall and "play". Boy, to think that the overnight "chunking" of that infernal machine can now be done in seconds on a laptop. For those of you who keep saying it, yes, we're getting old. Makes me enjoy the reunions all the more.

Steve Bettner, '64

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Satirical Term End Exam Questions
found in the 1983 Howitzer

So, as a bit of a counterpoint to all of this, I wanted to put up some "good" Cadet Humor. Life at the academies has enough built-in ironies and conflicts that a little hyperbole can go a long way. While looking up my Physics P's, I came across this in the '83 Howitzer (which also means THIS was probably blessed by the Pope to be able to appear there, but.....), and perhaps one of you out there actually wrote it. For trogs, at least you can see the Corps hasn't in every place. You won't fall out of your chair, but you'll get a chuckle, I think. Maybe some of you even put questions like these on the TEE's YOU gave to Cadets ;-)

Typical USMA Term End Exam Questions

Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.

Time Limit - 4 hours. Begin Immediately.

HI300 Describe the history of warfare from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially but not exclusively on its social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. Be brief, concise, and specific.

CH383 Create Life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English parliamentary system. Prove your thesis.

PL300 Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Ramses II, Gregory of Nicea, Hammurabi. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man's work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate.

ER383 Define Management. Define Science. How do they relate? Why? Create a generalized algorithm to optimize all managerial decisions. Assuming an 1130 CPU supporting 50 terminals, each able to activate your algorithm, design the communications interface and all necessary control programs.

AM402 The disassembled parts of a high-powered rifle have been placed in a box on your desk. You will also find and instruction manual, printed in Swahili. In ten minutes, a hungry Bengal tiger will be admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel appropriate. Be prepared to justify your decision.

SS201 Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist controversy, the wave theory of light. Outline a method for preventing these effects. Criticize this method from all possible points of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question.

SS202 There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects, if any.

PY201 Part 1: Take a position for or against Truth. Prove the validity of your position. Part 2: Sketch the development of human thought; estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought.

PH201 Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of mathematics on science.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: Describe in detail. Be objective and specific.

EXTRA CREDIT: Define the Universe. Give three examples.

Karson Snyder

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At the two civilian institutions where I earned my master's degree and doctorate, the professors conformed to a well-known stereotype. In it, the professor (usually) shows up to teach his or her lessons --routinely in huge lecture courses--and (often) shows up for scheduled office hours. The student has no other contact with the professor, and the professor has better things to do than advance the students' intellectual, moral, or physical development outside the classroom.

At Columbia, for example, my faculty advisor was openly resentful when a student showed up for an office appointment, and though things were a little better at Virginia--the professors and advisors actually managed something like welcoming smiles--they tended to book, say, twenty students into an hour, so each of us got a lot of quality time.

To be fair, I should mention the Wednesday afternoon teas at Columbia. Now and then some poor, visibly lost teaching assistant would stumble into the crowd of students. And at Virginia I was invited to one party at a professor's house, where my wife, who was then enduring some bad temporary bridge work, lost her plastic front tooth to a particularly doughy hors d'oeuvre.

In contrast, the members of the academic faculty at West Point, both officers and civilians, work with cadets in non-academic ways in astonishing numbers and a wide variety of activities. Here are the stats for this current year. 89 academic faculty members took part in cadet military summer training. 156 taught Military Science courses during Intersession. 45 are members of Company Honor Education Teams, and 43 belong to Respect for Others Education Teams. 160 participate in the official Academy mentor program, and probably twice that number are "unofficial" mentors. 140 faculty members serve as OICs or AOICs of DCA teams and clubs, while another 89 are Officer Representatives for Corps-Squad teams.

West Point tells its incoming faculty that it expects them to serve as role models both in and out of the classroom. It tells them furthermore to get involved.

John Calabro, '68