Problem solving and the scariest exam in the history of undergraduate education

Chun Wa Wong

UCLA

An anecdotal history is given of the old Cambridge athematical Tripos exam (1780-1909) that probably deserves the name in the title. The exam in 1881 had 18 3-hour papers and carried a full mark of 33,541, with the top student scoring at 16,368 and the last passing student at 247. In spite of the fierce competition it generated among the students, or perhaps because of it, the old Tripos succeeded in educating generations of superb Cambridge students. Its stellar roster of graduates includes the physicists William Thompson (Lord Kelvin), James Clerk Maxwell, John William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) and J.J. Thomson, and the mathematician Arthur Cayley. In the 19th century, Cambridge undergraduates prepared for this challenging exam by taking lessons from private tutors. One falling-chain problem from the famed tutor William Hopkins in 1850 was given a wrong solution that has persisted to the present day.