James Elwick, "Making a Grade: Victorian Examinations and the Rise of Standardized Testing" (U Toronto Press, 2025)

Nov 2, 2025

James Elwick, Associate Professor in Science, Technology and Society, dives into the intriguing world of Victorian examinations and the emergence of standardized testing. He discusses how these tests became institutionalized, enabling over two million people to demonstrate their knowledge on a massive scale by the late 19th century. Elwick highlights both the opportunities and challenges of this system, including its impact on women's educational rights and the politics of exam administration, as well as revealing fascinating stories of cheating and ethical dilemmas in education.

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INSIGHT

Exams As Infrastructure

Standardized testing became infrastructural through tools, routines, and administrative choices rather than appearing fully formed.
Exams function as simplified credentials that enable large-scale trust and coordination across institutions.

ANECDOTE

H.G. Wells' Exam Hustle

H.G. Wells taught students to reproduce textbook sequences to pass Department of Science and Art exams and profited as a tutor and correspondent writer.
He both mocked and endorsed exams, calling them fake nutrition while acknowledging their practical value.

ANECDOTE

The Goffin Technique Revealed

Robert Goffin ran a lucrative tutoring business by intercepting exams and drilling exact answers with students before tests.
His exposure sparked inquiries but the technique reappeared in later scandals, showing recurrent gaming of exams.

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Making a Grade: Victorian Examinations and the Rise of Standardized Testing (U Toronto Press, 2025) takes historiographic and sociological perspectives developed to understand large-scale scientific and technical systems and uses them to highlight the standardization that went into "standardized testing."

Starting in the 1850s achievement tests became standardized in the British Isles, and were administered on an industrial scale. By the end of the century more than two million people had written mass exams, particularly in science, technology, and mathematics. Some candidates responded to this standardization by cramming or cheating; others embraced the hope that such tests rewarded not only knowledge but also merit.

Written with humour, Making a Grade looks at how standardized testing practices quietly appeared, and then spread worldwide. This book situates mass exams, marks, and credentials in an emerging paper-based meritocracy, arguing that such exams often first appeared as "cameras" to neutrally record achievement, and then became "engines" to change education as people tailored their behaviour to fit these tests. Taking the perspectives of both examiners and examinees, Making a Grade claims that our own culture’s desire for accountability through objective testing has a long history.

James Elwick is Associate Professor at the Department of Science, Technology and Society, for which he is also Chair. He has written on the history of the life sciences and scientists including John Tyndall, Herbert Spencer, and T.H. Huxley, and is currently writing a history of academic integrity, viewed through the lens of students who cheat on their tests and other school assessments.

Jacob Ward is a historian at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. He has written in the history of science and technology, environmental history, business and financial history, and political history. He recently published Visions of a Digital Nation: Market and Monopoly in British Telecommunications (MIT Press, 2024) and he’s currently working on a history of futurology in the United Kingdom and Europe from 1945 to the present day.

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