读Timoshenko的History of Strength of Materials (Stephen P. Timoshenko History of Strength of Materials McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY,INC 1953) 在261页看到一个开尔文勋爵的小故事。开尔文勋爵(Lord Kelvin 1824-1907) 是英国著名物理学家、发明家，原名W.汤姆孙。开尔文勋爵年轻时在剑桥大学圣彼得学院攻读数学，他的数学知识和研究品味远远超过同班的其他同学，他被认为一定能够获得1845年的第一等奖学金。但令他和他父亲失望的是在最后考试结束后他只获得了二等。

在开尔文勋爵的传记（S.P.Thompson’s biography of Lord Kelvin, p.17）中，开尔文勋爵自己谈了他的感受。他认为： “That devotion to scientific activity of the highest order……acted as a hindrance rather than a help to University honours…… To secure a leading place in the senate-house (final examination) the candidate must have at his finger-tips the solutions of known problems, polishing up his methods of writing out the solutions, so as to be able to get through an immense quantity of bookwork in a short time. Drilled for months by his coach or his tutor in this species of gymnastic, as if he were being trained for a race, the candidate indeed acquired facility in dealing with particular classes of problems in the particular mode then in vogue. But such a training was not adapted either to cultivate originality or to advance mathematical science. It set up a false ideal of attainment, and not infrequently caused the coveted position of Senior Wrangle to be awarded, not to the best mathematician of his year, but to the one who had been best groomed for the race.”

这段话令我深有同感。我总是跟学生讲，我只希望你考80分就可以了，用多点时间做点研究生更该做的事情吧。但他们都觉得研究生学习阶段最重要的就是考试，课程考试取得好成绩是最有成就感的事情。至于实验什么的放在后面吧，会不会做研究、善不善于发现科学问题不重要，考试最重要。当然现在国内研究生的奖励制度也是比较看重学生的考试成绩的，成绩不好很难拿到奖学金。而研究生时期拿不到奖学金那可是一件大事情。所以我有时候觉得what can I do? Let them be maybe a best choice.