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Could You Pass Harvard's Entrance Exam From 1869?

Posted by samzenpus on from the learning-for-learning's-sake dept.

erfnet writes "The New York Times remembers back to when 'college was a buyer's bazaar' and digs up 19th-century classified ads from Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and others. In competitive efforts to attract students from the limited pool of qualified candidates, applications were taken as late as September for an October freshman class. Vassar offered lush room accommodations. The expectations were high: Latin, Greek, Virgil, Caesar's Commentaries; Harvard's entrance exam from 1869 is posted (PDF). Could any of us pass the exam today?"

6 of 741 comments (clear)

  1. hmm... by ShiftyOne · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if they were allowed to use calculators?

    1. Re:hmm... by Convector · · Score: 5, Funny

      I feel certain there was no rule forbidding the use of calculators.

  2. lol@Exam [hint:joke] by buchner.johannes · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man, if the examiner had been smart he'd written page 3-4 in LaTeX and saved himself a lot of handwriting!!!!

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  3. PDF Files? by LazloHollyfeld · · Score: 5, Funny

    I find it hard to believe they had PDF files in 1869.

  4. Re:Nope by zill · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've never even heard of Greek being taught in high school...

    I heard Greek is mandatory in Greek high schools.

  5. Re:Middle English by avgjoe62 · · Score: 3, Funny

    So when I was a kid, and that old guy from Sussex was always yelling, "áwiergedon cild! tengest min ediscum!", he really was making sense and not just yelling gibberish?

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