1. Two examinations for each classified customs district and post office shall be held each year. In each customs district one commencing the first Tuesday of April and the second on the first Tuesday of October; in each post office one commencing on the first Tuesday of February and the second on the first Tuesday of August. The examinations continue from day to day until all applicants present upon regular notification have had an opportunity to be examined.

2. An applicant for a customs or a postal examination, cannot be examined at any other custom house or post-office than the one in which he is seeking to enter the classified service.

3. If an applicant fail to receive due notice of an examination, or if he shall give a reason satisfactory to the commission or the board of examiners for failure to attend an examination of which he may have received due notice, he shall be notified to attend the next examination for the same class or place.

4. Examiners in charge of any examination shall be diligent in securing fairness therein.

5. The examination sheets shall be numbered.

6. Each competitor shall be designated by a number, to be known as his examination number, which he must place in figures at the head of each examination sheet that he may use.

7. At the commencement of an examination, each competitor must fill the blanks in the “declaration sheet.” He must also write his examination number, and nothing else upon an envelope; into this envelope he must put the declaration sheet, and then seal the envelope. The envelope thus sealed, must be delivered by the competitor to one of the examiners in charge, and it must not be opened until after the competitor’s papers shall have been marked, and his general average ascertained.

8. As soon as the envelopes containing the declaration sheets shall have all been delivered, sheet 1 shall be given to the competitors, and, as soon as it shall have been completed, sheet 2; and so on, each of the examination sheets in its order, according to its number, no competitor being allowed to have two or more sheets at the same time. If, through no fault of the competitor, a sheet is spoiled, the examiners in charge may destroy the spoiled sheet and give the competitor another sheet of the same number. The time when a competitor receives a sheet, and the time when he finishes it, must be stated at the top of the sheet.

9. The examiners in charge shall require every competitor, upon completion of each sheet, to surrender the sheet itself and all scrap-paper or other paper upon which he may have done preliminary work before writing his answers on the sheet.

10. The answers on examination papers must be written with ink; but preliminary work, on tablets or scrap-paper, may be done with pencil.

11. In the dictation exercise, the passage to be dictated shall first be read aloud for information, and then be dictated in groups of words, at the rate of not less than fifteen nor more than twenty-five words per minute. The examiner who reads the dictation must not repeat any group of words, or any word, dictated by him; but he must be careful in giving the dictation to pronounce each word distinctly.

12. Examiners must make to the whole class all explanations deemed necessary, and must not explain any question to any individual competitor.

13. After an examination shall have been commenced, no conversation nor communication of any kind shall be permitted between competitors.

14. No examination shall begin earlier than 9 A. M. or continue later than 6 P. M.

15. Every examination must be held in the presence of more than one examiner, and in the room set apart either permanently or temporarily for such examination. But examinations in typewriting and other subjects which would annoy other persons being examined (or which must necessarily be confined to one person at a time), may be held in some room convenient to the general examination room, but where they may be under the supervision of more than one examiner. No secret or private examination must be permitted.

16. Each examination, except the examination in book-keeping, or other examination especially excepted from this regulation, by the commission, must be completed on the day on which it is commenced.

17. Twenty minutes shall be allowed at the commencement of each examination for the work of filling the blanks of the declaration sheet and enclosing it in an envelope, and ten minutes for explanations and instructions by the examiner in charge. No allowance will be made for time spent for lunch or other purposes, either in or out of the examination room, and no unnecessary delay in passing the examination papers may be permitted by the examiner in charge.

18. All examination sheets whether completed or not must be turned in at the expiration of the time to which the examination is limited.

19. No competitor shall leave the room without giving notice of intention to do so, and shall not be permitted on his return to finish any sheet upon which he may have been at work.

20. Any competitor suspected of copying from another, or otherwise improperly obtaining information, shall, if proven guilty, have his papers cancelled.

21. Applicants must supply themselves with pen, ink, lead pencils, erasers, and in technical examinations with the necessary instruments.

22. Except by special permission no persons except the commissioners, examiners and competitors shall be allowed in the examination room.

23. No books, notes, maps or diagrams shall be permitted in room for the use of competitors.

24. A record of all non-competitive examinations shall be kept by the commission, and each customs and postal board shall, after each examination, report to the commission all the facts in relation thereto.

25. No request for the examination of an applicant out of his order as determined by the number of his application paper shall be granted.

26. An applicant who has for any reason been denied examination in his due order may appeal to the commission.