
Harvard's 1899 Entrance Exam [pdf] - benjaminfox
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/education/harvardexam.pdf
======
schrototo
Like all tests, it's not hard if you know the stuff that's asked. If you've
studied ancient greek in school, that part of the test is probably as easy for
you as the algebra part must seem to anyone who went to school in the past
couple of decades (it looks about as hard as math homework from when I was 15
or so).

edit:

It's interesting. I do have a certain romantic attachment to this kind of
classic humanist education, e.g. it irks me that the history and geography
section has me floundered and I'm somewhat sorry that I didn't have the drive
to do better in Latin in school.

But then I think, there's so much other interesting things to know and
experience. At times when I wish I could read Cicero's _Orationes In
Catilinam_ in its original form, I need to remind myself that I can read and
understand, say, this little piece of genius:

    
    
      fib = 1 : 1 : [ a+b | (a,b) <- zip fib (tail fib) ]

~~~
fhars
But to become a fully erudite member of modern society, you might want to also
study

    
    
      zipWith :: (a-> b -> c) -> [a] -> [b] -> [c]
    

:-)

~~~
aristidb
Allowing one to simplify to:

    
    
      fibs = 1 : 1 : zipWith (+) fibs (tail fibs)
    

Involving zip`ap`tail, the Aztec god of consecutive numbers:

    
    
      fibs = 1 : 1 : (zipWith (+) `ap` tail) fibs
    

Or, pointlessly:

    
    
      fix $ (1:) . (1:) . (zipWith (+) `ap` tail)

~~~
ahh
Your second example does not typecheck.

~~~
aristidb
It does.

let fibs = 1 : 1 : (zipWith (+) `ap` tail) fibs in fibs :: (Num a) => [a]

according to ghci 6.12.1

~~~
ahh
I get No instance for (Monad ((->) [a])) -am I missing some module include?

------
yequalsx
What is truly amazing is how easy it is to find those answers today. With
Google, Wolframalpha, etc. retrieving information is cheap both time wise and
money wise.

Perhaps a test could be made today that would test a person's ability to
search for obscure knowledge and comprehend it. A person would have to
determine which sources are trustworthy and what conclusion could be made from
the information received. Is this what is really meant when we say someone is
intelligent?

~~~
tybris
I think we're moving from single answer knowledge to multi-answer
understanding of the matter. This involves being able to absorb large amounts
of information, rather than being able to find obscure information. We
probably need more knowledge than ever before, but it has more breadth and
less specificity.

A historian might be asked to discuss why Spain and Portugal were the first of
the European countries to build a colonial empire. You wouldn't directly find
that on wikipedia and there is not one single answer that will suffice. To be
able to answer it, you need to be aware of the Reconquista, abundant military
resources, conquered wealth, etc. and be able to support any claim you make
about them. You can search for the details, but you need to have a broad
enough knowledge to know what to search for.

A mathematician might be asked about the importance of prime numbers in
mathematics. Again, not something on wikipedia, Google, or wolfram alpha, or
with a single answer.

~~~
yequalsx
This is the essence of what I was getting at. You've elaborated on what I was
getting at.

It's somewhat pointless to ask on a test when the U.S. Civil War ended. A much
better indication of intelligence and knowledge is to ask why it didn't end
sooner.

Not too long ago people would spend hundreds of dollars (thousands in today's
money) for a set of encyclopedias. Now, with Google, Wolframalpha etc. such a
product has no use. The cost to find knowledge has dramatically decreased the
past 15 years. Education has not caught up with this reality.

------
mjs
I found some Cambridge exam papers from 1899 a while back. I don't have scans,
but there's a few of the more interesting/mysterious questions at:

<http://beebo.org/lately/2001-07-10_cambridge.html>

I quite like the 2.5 hour "English Essay" for bizarreness:

Write an English Essay on one of the following subjects:

1\. English country life in the 18th century. 2\. The battle of Blenheim. 3\.
The character of Rachel Lady Castlewood. 4\. Duelling.

~~~
nanijoe
I'm not sure what you find bizarre, having to write an essay or the choice of
topics? This type of question is pretty much standard on (high school) English
exams in many commonwealth countries, even today.

~~~
mjs
The choice of topics, really. This was for (I think) an entrance exam, and so
the only topic I think even vaguely suitable to write about without
forewarning is "English country life in the 18th century." The Battle of
Blenheim and the character of Rachel Lady Castlewood can only be attempted if
you already know about those (very specific) things, and duelling is broad,
and odd.

~~~
Goladus
I don't know whether this is an entrance exam and that would definitely change
things.

But either way, according to Wikipedia, dueling was a part of British culture
though the early 1800s, the last fatal duel was in 1856. Meaning a typical
candidate from an elite family in 1899 will have a living relative who has
probably at least read public discourse about dueling, and there's a good
chance the subject has come up at least once during primary education.

~~~
sambeau
Scotland's last-ever duel with swords was fought in the same year: 1899.

 _"Swords were drawn and blood was spilled over the election battle of the
University Rector."_

It was in a semi-public place (the Glasgow University Union building) and may
have been reported at the time. Thus, duelling may have been in the news at
the time.

<http://www.theguu.com/about/history/>

~~~
sambeau
In a bold attempt to prove myself wrong I offer this other link that suggests
that the story (well-known to alumni of Glasgow University, such as myself)
may have been a fictional, satirical sketch written for the student magazine.

 _"It found no other mention of the event in contemporary university records,
newspapers or court summaries."_

[http://news.scotsman.com/education/Hit-and-myth-Was-
Scotland...](http://news.scotsman.com/education/Hit-and-myth-Was-
Scotlands.2505438.jp)

------
andjones
This test shows what was valued - at least at Harvard - in the late 1800's.
Greek and Latin were more important, as well as knowledge of geography of the
known world and algebra and geometry.

Algebra and geometry, I feel, are still important today (see SAT). Greek and
Latin are less important, although they are still in the background. The
humanities have changed and we now learn about more modern authors / topics
and the humanities classes in general have cooler names (i.e. Microcomputer
Application in Kinesiology or Topics in African Society and Culture).

There's probably some bigger point I'm missing here like "those who don't
learn from history are doomed to repeat it" or something similar.

Teaching kids about how to conjugate Latin verbs or some other rote activity
always seemed pointless to me. Perhaps I'm preaching to the choir, but
learning about entrepreneurship or practicing selling things would have been
much more useful to me than many of the things I learned in high school or
undergrad.

~~~
gaius
The point of Latin was that it is the root of many European languages, so by
studying it early on in education, you would later more easily be able to pick
up one of its descendents.

~~~
tokenadult
However it is much more efficient to take a course in etymology (word roots)
focused on the subset of Greek and Latin used in word formation in the major
European languages (Romance or not) than it is to learn a lot of Latin and
Greek just for that side benefit. I by no means disparage learning languages--
I majored in Chinese and studied two forms of Greek in university, among
several other languages--but if the goal is learning etymology, today there
are royal roads for that purpose that can be traveled by people who never
practice reading Latin or Greek texts.

The general observation is that learning ANY language eases learning the third
and the fourth language, because the earliest experience in learning a non-
native language reminds the speaker that each language has arbitrary features
that must be distinguished from those of the learner's native language(s).
Within the ambit of that general principle, learning cognate languages (for
example, German for an English speaker) is easier that learning non-cognate
languages (for example, Malay for a Chinese speaker).

~~~
gaius
That's probably true if you're an adult, but how do you motivate kids to learn
etmology? At least with Latin there is stuff you can read.

------
bobwebb
I've just applied to university, and it's interesting to see how the maths
questions have changed. For example, there are a lot of questions on
calculating fractions. Nowadays this would no time at all to work out (put it
in a calculator), but back then you would be expected to be able to calculate
it mentally, with written notes.

It's strange how as the technology used to solve mathematical problems
changes, the ways in which mathematical ability is measured changes too.

------
eagleal
The Latin part (1st one) is very simple. The Latin high-school final exam here
in Italy is way more difficult (you translate, analyze and discuss Latin
authors from their original texts, eg. Cicero is tricky).

As schrototo said the greek part should be as easy.

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jclaassen
Am I just being an engineer, or is the math way easier than the rest of this
test?

~~~
yequalsx
I teach mathematics at a community college and I can tell you that for most
people the mathematics on the test is hard. Our course with the largest number
of students is on arithmetic and the students just don't comprehend fractions.
They can't even comprehend how to convert a decimal to a percent. Especially
when given a problem like:

Conver 0.25% to a decimal. That really throws them off.

~~~
watchandwait
I've heard from folks in retail finance that large segments of American
society do not understand the concept of an interest rate. Everything is just
"what is my monthly payment?"

~~~
mattdeboard
I talked to a fellow CS major Thursday evening and he said he hated all the
math involved with the CS program, and that he' failed Pre-Calculus &
Trigonometry I _three times_. This came out after he was complaining about his
discrete computational structures class being "nothing but proofs".

If you don't like the math, why get a CS degree? Get a physical science degree
and learn how to code on your own time.

~~~
rflrob
Physical science probably won't be much better if you don't like math.
Remember, "The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics".
Heck, be a humanities major and learn to code, it's not like computers only
work for people with technical degrees (though I suspect the training in
rigorous thinking helps).

------
azazo
The stamp says 1899, but it says 1869 at the bottom of each page. Is it
actually from 1869?

~~~
jbermudes
The test is from 1869, but the stamp indicates that it was placed in the
archive in 1899.

~~~
ddol
It's fascinating to think that in 1869 there were Transatlantic telegraph
links. One could have sat this entrance exam in London while it was being sat
in MA simultaneously, with Questions/Answers transmitted digitally.

~~~
noonespecial
First contact was made in 1858, but the cable failed in mere days. The first
reliable link happened in 1866. It ran about half "telegraph speed", which was
pretty darn slow. I'd hate to connect to _that_ bbs.

It's a fascinating read.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable>

~~~
robflynn
Slow, but amazing at the same time. I love thinking about things like this.

I remember someone calling my old BBS, back in the early 90s, with a TDD to
see what would happen. That explained why I had been seeing 300bps callers
when I was used to seeing 1200bps-2400bps.

I recall one holiday starting the download of a picture of a bear. I then went
and had Thanksgiving dinner with my family for about two hours. I arrived home
just in time for the picture to finish downloading. :P

~~~
noonespecial
I completely remember those gifs coming in one agonizing line after the other,
except mine were... uuh.. Also bears.

------
Typhon
They give almost all the words. I've had harder Latin tests.

The history stuff is weirdly worded. Probably the hardest part of the test.

------
Gatsky
Hurray for algebra! Still as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago.

Are programming languages going to be equally durable?

~~~
oskarkv
That's the goal of Arc. :)

~~~
jules
It would have to become relevant first though. I conjecture that no
programming language alive now is going to be relevant in 100 years. If you
look at the history of programming languages, this is not at all a bold
conjecture.

------
jules
The font reminds me of TeX.

~~~
koenigdavidmj
Knuth's fonts were meant to model
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_metal_typesetting> .

------
bialecki
This is really interesting especially given that Harvard now offers "Counting
People" and "Magic of Numbers" as classes that satisfy the math (quantitative
reasoning) requirement. That's not to say the requirements are better or worse
than 100 years ago, it's just interesting how much broader the course
offerings are now. You could avoid math, and I know people who did, if you
didn't want to take it. And of course, almost no one knows Latin or Greek.

------
uberalex
Why does it say "July, 1869" at the bottom?

Were they using the same set of questions for 30 years, or was it put in the
library 30 years after it was used?

~~~
cydonian_monk
Good question. I would hazard a guess that they revised the test every year,
but didn't want to put the more recent copies of it in the library as they'd
be similar, and could poison the results. And therefore they held back old
versions as "secret" for, say, 30 years. (Thus your later case, that the test
was placed in the library 30 years after it was used.)

Or perhaps this was lost under someone's desk for 30 years in the admissions
department, and when they moved into new offices they said "we should put this
in the library for posterity's sake."

------
Lost_BiomedE
This doesn't look too bad. But, like any test, it would depend on the time
limit and one's expectations going in.

------
ricefield
Makes the SAT look like a joke...

~~~
zackattack
And it is, to many Harvard grads.

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arctangent
Maybe I'm out of line but none of that looks too difficult. I studied a
(spoken) language at school and was tested on that. Learning Latin isn't too
different. The mathematical elements of the test looked straightforward.

------
wicknicks
Interesting. The Math section with today's GRE exam makes the latter seem like
a kindergarten exam.

~~~
tokenadult
Graduate students from China (in such humanities subjects as philosophy)
derided the GRE main test mathematics section (used as one element of
admission decisions for graduate schools in the United States) as a test of
"junior high math," which it literally is in terms of the standard curriculum
of urban schools in China. The GRE subject test in mathematics, used largely
but not exclusively for admission into graduate programs in mathematics,
actually has some undergraduate mathematics content, but the mathematics
section of the general GRE includes only mathematics that any well educated
person who completed secondary schooling ought to know.

~~~
aeroevan
FYI, most graduate students I know here in the US also consider the math
section in the GRE to be a joke. But as a grad student in an engineering
school I guess that's to be expected.

When I took the GRE, the hardest thing about the math test was having to
remember long division, since we couldn't use calculators.

------
mberning
Tuition was probably also around $100 back then. My how we've 'progressed'.

~~~
Dn_Ab
According to [1] tuition was $150 in 1900. According to [2] average annual
wage was $450. Assuming women in the work place was a lot less common I will
bump it to $500. So about 30% of household income? Harvard costs $34,976 in
2010. According to [3] median household income in 2009? is $49,777. So 70% of
median income.

Prices as a percentage of average income has certainly gotten steeper but you
cannot argue that things now are less open than they used to be. There are
more women and minorities and scholarship opportunities for different groups.
Certainly things could be a lot better but progress has surely been made. You
can't throw a number like $100 without context.

[1] [http://kwharbaugh.blogspot.com/2005/02/educational-
costs.htm...](http://kwharbaugh.blogspot.com/2005/02/educational-
costs.html#harvard-tuition-history)

[2] <http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/his/e_prices1.htm>

[3] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income>

~~~
rayiner
It is under-appreciated how open Harvard, Yale, etc, have gotten in modern
times. While tuition at Harvard might be 70% of the median annual income
today, someone whose family makes $50k/year pays nothing in tuition. At Yale
between $60k-$120k, tuition is held at about 10% of family income. Full
tuition doesn't phase in until well over $200k.

My brother is at Yale, and his classmates are by and large the children of
upper middle class professionals. Certainly kids who've gotten a good shake in
life, but mostly people who got in because of good SAT scores and
extracurriculars, not donations or political connections.

------
pitdesi
Original article here is worth reading:
[http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/remembering-
wh...](http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/remembering-when-college-
was-a-buyers-bazaar/)

Notes that... "of the 210 candidates who took its 1870 test the June before,
185 were admitted."

Also, according to the NYT, this is the 1869 exam, not the 1899 exam (maybe it
was added to the library in 1899, hence the stamp?)

~~~
VMG
It also says 1969 on the bottom of the last page

~~~
stevenae
Erm - 1869 :)

------
tkahn6
Anyone know what the time limit on the test is?

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gorgoroth666
The maths is so easy I want a vintage 1900 Harvard diploma.

