<p>just curious</p>
<p>i'm deffinetly not looking forward to that. I can't swim :(.</p>
<p>The swim test is, I believe, the first or second day of school. If you can't swim, just say so, and...they work it out, somehow.</p>
<p>i can swim, but i as just curious what is was in for. laps and stuff? or treading for 30 sec.?</p>
<p>I've never heard of Exeter's swim test before. Is it to join an athletic team, or just to prove that you have the ability to swim if the need arises?</p>
<p>do other schools have a swim test?</p>
<p>i know andover has a swim test.</p>
<p>Exeter's swim test is mandatory of all preps - not just aspiring athletes. However, it's REALLY simple. You jump into the pool (YIKES, cold!), swim to the other end, and are out, if freezing...</p>
<p>When I took the test, it was to swim a lap. No strokes required, you can doggypaddle. teehee :)</p>
<p>it was most likely instituted around wwii, when many americans -- soldiers or not -- began acquiring survival skills.</p>
<p>hahaha this is such a funny thread.</p>
<p>hahhaa, yeah.. it is.</p>
<p>This sounds fun. :) I hope Choate does it, though I don't think so.</p>
<p>Notre Dame has a PE requirement that can be satisfied any number of ways. Playing a varsity sport is one way. But before you can opt out of anything, you have to pass a rigorous swim test. So everyone, even star athletes, had to take it. Otherwise they had to take swimming lessons for P.E. You would start at one corner of the pool, swim freestyle, then swim underwater, do a backstroke and, well, my memory fails me as to the rest except that there were several stations with people watching for you to fail. For reasons I'll explain in a second, it was far more stressful than my driver's test.</p>
<p>You couldn't believe how many scholarship football and basketball players could not swim. One friend of mine failed, and to this day he is so scarred by that failure that he can't talk about it without his face taking on a ghostly pall.</p>
<p>The worst part of the experience is that you had to go into this big shower room in this dreary old building, scrub down, and then stand naked in front of this guy behind a counter who would check out your size and give you a pair of official ND swim trunks and a towel. When you were done, you reverse the process. It was straight out of a prison flick where the new inmates get processed and deloused, etc.</p>
<p>I was soooo glad to pass that swim test. I never went swimming again at ND after that. There was something about the guy who had to figure out your swim suit size and then wearing swim trunks that were issued like bowling shoes that was humiliating and, yes, even disgusting.</p>
<p>Good luck Exonians!</p>
<p>Let's hope Andover's swim test is less tramatic than Notre Dame's.</p>
<p>Typo, J. ;) </p>
<p>I haven't read anything regarding Choate's swim test.</p>
<p>My mom and I got into a fight (won't go into the details) regarding whether or not she'll give me permission to go into NYC or Boston on weekends for the day. She said no to that unless she gives specific permission, and I got mad about it. But it's basically other stuff that's happened...not necessarily that.</p>
<p>Ugh. But I guess I can call her up and be like "Can you call the Dean's Office to give me permission?", right?</p>
<p>What a weenie swim test. For middle school crew my daughter had to swim 18laps and tread water for 12 minutes.</p>
<p>Some colleges still require proof of swimming proficiency for graduation -- part of a total education, and it a basic life skill.. I think Harvard is one of them.</p>
<p>Well, that's for crew. It's different. This is just basic survival skills. Not everyone needs to be able to tread water for twelve minutes.</p>
<p>They don't? ANYONE who goes in or on the water, lives near a river, lake or ocean, near a flood plain, in a hurricane path, or has children should absolutely have better swimming skills than being able to doggie paddle 25 meters in the HS pool. </p>
<p>In fact, in this country, in this day and age, its a sin that there are still a lot of adults who can't swim.</p>
<p>Those Notre Dame football players who couldn't swim...used to be a funny thing to me. Even for people for whom athletic endeavors come easily, there's no way you can learn to swim when you need to learn to swim.</p>