To the Cambridge University Gazette, 2 December 1868

The Previous Examination

A time when the overcrowding of the Senate House by the Candidates for the Previous Examination is attracting attention is singularly appropriate for raising the question whether there is any one type of Examination which can satisfy the various requirements of all classes of men in the middle of their University career. Mr. Sidgwick has suggested (University Gazette, No. 3), that to the present Pass Examination there should be added an Examination for Honours in Elementary Mathematics. I want to go a little further.

I should like that beside the ‘Previous’ Pass Examination there should be a ‘Previous’ Honour Examination in Latin, and a ‘Previous’ Honour Examination in the applications of Elementary Mathematics to Physical Science: that for either or both of these, any one who chose might be a candidate: that it should not be required of Candidates for any Tripos, except the Classical, to have gone through the ‘Previous’ Pass Examination, provided they had taken Honours in the former of these two Examinations: and that the same exemption should be granted to Candidates for any Tripos except the Mathematical, provided they had taken honours in the latter of them. A man, who failed in one of these Honour Examinations, might either receive a ‘Certificate of satisfaction’ from his Examiners, or be compelled to go through the Pass Examination of the succeeding year.