Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- First Impressions of Cambridge
- Some Particulars, rather Egotistical, but very Necessary
- Introduction to College Life
- The Cantab Language
- An American Student's First Impressions at Cambridge and on Cambridge
- Freshman Temptations and Experiences—Toryism of the Young Men, and Ideas Suggested by it
- The Boat Race
- A Trinity Supper Party
- The May Examination
- The First Long Vacation
- The Second Year
- Third Year
- Private Tuition
- Long Vacation Amusements
- A Second Edition of Third Year
- The Scholarship Examination
- The Reading Party
- Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce
- 'Ev Ξvpoũ 'Akμή
- How I came to Take a Degree
- The πoλλoí and the Civil Law Classes
- The Classical Tripos
- A Visit to Eton
- Being Extinguished
- Reading for a Trinity Fellowship
- The Study of Theology at Cambridge
- Recent Changes at Cambridge
The May Examination
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- First Impressions of Cambridge
- Some Particulars, rather Egotistical, but very Necessary
- Introduction to College Life
- The Cantab Language
- An American Student's First Impressions at Cambridge and on Cambridge
- Freshman Temptations and Experiences—Toryism of the Young Men, and Ideas Suggested by it
- The Boat Race
- A Trinity Supper Party
- The May Examination
- The First Long Vacation
- The Second Year
- Third Year
- Private Tuition
- Long Vacation Amusements
- A Second Edition of Third Year
- The Scholarship Examination
- The Reading Party
- Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce
- 'Ev Ξvpoũ 'Akμή
- How I came to Take a Degree
- The πoλλoí and the Civil Law Classes
- The Classical Tripos
- A Visit to Eton
- Being Extinguished
- Reading for a Trinity Fellowship
- The Study of Theology at Cambridge
- Recent Changes at Cambridge
Summary
“Paper, paper everywhere,
And all our hearts did shrink,
Paper, paper everywhere,
Paper, and pens, and ink.”
Rhyme of the Oxford Bachelere.It may have been observed from some allusions in the preceding chapter that, although still occasionally attendant at a jollification, I had partly shaken off my habits of idleness and set to work, and that this beneficial change was brought about by pressure of an approaching examination. In Cantab phrase I was suffering examination funk. This was my first chance of distinction. True, we had undergone occasional examinations in Euclid and Greek, but these were entirely at the option of our individual College tutors, and without any public result. Knowing but little as yet of the complicated system, I had paid but little attention to its workings in Triposes and University Scholarship examinations, though some knowledge of them was forced upon me by conversations in hall. When the great degree examination for mathematical honors came off in January and a “Small-College” man was Senior Wrangler, the announcement of this unusual occurrence did not particularly interest me; nor, just returned as I was from a winter expedition into Dorsetshire, did I even go to see the ceremony of degree-taking and behold the lion of the day. The Classical Tripos next month I knew and cared something more about, partly because it was a subject that more concerned me, and partly from the very uncommon circumstance of there being no Chancellor's Medals adjudged that year.
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- Five Years in an English University , pp. 83 - 104Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1852