Would you pass the 1930s Oxford entrance exam /lit/?
>>25281387How were people expected to know stuff like this before attending college?Were you supposed to have a private tutor to school you in the classics before you graduated from highschool or could such knowledge be found in the local library?
>>25281391I forgot Classics used to be a subject unto themselves back when they were bundled with the Liberal arts
>>25281391Prestigious high-schools who taught Latin, ancient Greek, and classical literature.
>>25281395They still are aren't they? I recall Boris Johnson reciting an excerpt from the Iliad from memory on some daytime tv show interview. Classics and buggery make a Gentleman of a highborn son
>>25281400Yes there are but they don't really teach classics anymore. It's been replaced by economics, computer science and sciences.
>>25281400he did classics at ox4rd
>>25281387>7>10kek even back then colleges used the most retarded cliche application questions. At least the others were of substance>>25281400they don't actually teach classics anymore. the private schools that do are either christian ones where the teachers probably masturbate at the thought of thomas aquinas' withered prose and there are also the few public ones where they can't teach anything of substance due to the intellectual capacity of the urban biomass. either way the results are the same where students maybe can recall a bit of history or the story from the storybooks that pass as textbooks and none of them can read actual texts (much less recite them) because they havent even learned basic noun declension charts after 4 years.
>>25281387yeah; they said no less than four and then gave you four easy questions at the end. the first six are just to scare you off.
>>25281387In the 1600s it was standard for every English schoolboy to learn Greek, Latin and French. In some schools, Hebrew was also taught so as to better understand scripture.
>>25281391Vast majority went to a prep school, a boarding school or were taught by private tutors. But the questions are clearly designed to be not about being "right," they are meant to filter out those who are good at jumping through hoops and memorizing, you are only required to answer one question that is based on rote learning and even for those they are probably more interested in how you answer it than in the answer itself. >>25281395Preparatory school. High schools teach under the assumption that a fair number of their students will never get any further education, which has an effect on the overall curriculum. Prep schools assume their students are going to a top college and their teaching is focused on how to get into that college and once in, how to make the most of it.
>>25281387Soooooooo...which one would you give up /lit/? Latin or Greek? Also elab
>>25281428This is why I dropped out after 2 and a half semesters of supposedly 400-level Latin.
>>25281391>How were people expected to know stuff like this before attending college?Because schools used to teach them. Public schools for rich people and grammar schools for not-rich people, more or less. (Shakespeare went to a grammar school. That's why the contemporary nobility sneered at him. "Upstart crow" and all that.)Grammar schools were destroyed after WWII for a variety of reasons, but mostly a two-pronged attack:— Marxists (who instinctively hate anything of quality)— Rich public-school-educated people who didn't want poor bright kids competing with their own kids(Of course these two groups overlapped to a large extent.)OK, I'm ranting slightly, but only slightly. The other argument is that mathematics and science have become more important so children need to spend more time on that. (But mathematical teaching in most schools in England these days is pretty bad compared with the level in grammar schools a couple of generations ago. Just look at some exam papers if you don't believe me. So it's not much of an argument.)
>>25281597>Marxists (who instinctively hate anything of quality)Not true.
>>25281597would bet my life a yank wrote this.
>>25281597It's a shame to see a post that starts off interesting and well written descend into the nonsensical griping against Marxism. I really don't know who would be convinced by that other than someone that despises Marxism already. If your aim is to preach to the choir then so be it, but it would be far smarter to at least identify some ideological opposition to grammar schools beginning from principles that Marxists themselves would admit they hold.
>>25281387>1+2Huh?>3I think somebody is buried at the mausoleum. The pantheon is where some greek or roman gods were worshipped.>4Shakespeare wrote the play "Julius Caesar">5Huh?>6I don't know those ages.>7I learned the greek alphabet and a tiny bit of latin in high school. I suppose I'd give up greek because I remember the few latin classes I attended were pretty interesting. veni vidi vici>8Huh?>9The Library of Alexandria burned down a long time ago. Carnegie built a bunch of libraries in the United States.>10"A translator should try to copy the author's voice while trying to make it sound as pretty as he can." Yeah, sounds good to me. I read the English translation of Spring Snow and I remember the prose being especially flowery which according to the translation notes was also Mishima's style in Japanese, so mission accomplished I think.Did I pass?
7 is actually a really good question.
>>25281618you tripped on the first hurdle by not reading the n.b. which asks you to attempt no more than six questions
>>25281625Well, technically I only attempted 5 questions because the others I just picked my nose and went "idk"
>>25281604>>25281611bots active today
>>25281387Doesn't sound that hard if you studied the classics for an entire decade beforehand like you were expected to.
>>252813875 is the only one I maybe could write an essay on but it depends on the old timey vernacular and meaning of “jaws.” I excel at the playwrights
>>25281391You were expected to be a rich kid who's parents educated before
>>25281759in the 30s? it was probably 80% scholarship boys.
>>252814483 is very easy. It asks for any of the following which implies you are allowed to discuss one of them, and there’s a good few there, so you can just write everything you know about the pantheon for example. 4 isn’t especially difficult either, easy enough to compare the current understanding of the ancients with the portrayal by either of those writers
>>25281387I assume this is specifically for Classics candidates? When I applied for English Language & Literature I had to do something similar, first taking a weird essay exam that was proctored here in the US (I remember the prompt was on Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol) and then a shorter in-person essay alongside my interviews (this one was a passage from To the Lighthouse)
>>25281689Mentally fragile dysgenic jeetards out today
>>25281387Question 4 is pretty easy, so I’d choose that one.
>>25281771actually if 21st century oxford still did entrance exams i could probably write something about the elgin marbles that’d curry a lot of favour among the examiners there.
>>25281387Absolutely not, I'm borderline retarded
>>25281387I don't even know what any of these are. I hate it so much. I wish so badly to have been more then I am. I'm 30 and I hate how my life ended. I'm going to be retarded and a monolingual and totally uneducated for the rest of my life. I will never be able to do more than stock shelves. I'm intelligent I know I am but I just never had a shot. I wish I had better people in my life who could neve guided me.
>>25281810the only part of this that is actually worth being ashamed over is the last two sentences. >i’m above average i know! it’s my parents/upbringings fault! being dumb and monolingual is so minor compared to this outrageous lack of character. especially coming from a 30 yo.
>>25281818I don't see why this can't be true>parentsWish I had them. You forced it out of me: I've been struggling for basic survival for most of my life. I've only been surrounded by very ignorant violent people who told me all the wrong things
>>25281810You can look up any of the subjects on Wikipedia and you’ll suddenly know something. Elgin marbles and you can talk to that guy >>25281781 about books on the subject
>>25281821yep i really twisted your arm into that confession…a great english poet (who went to oxford if that counts for anything!) said you're responsible for your birth and for everything you've done in your life. you're wholly responsible. for choosing your parents, for choosing your genes, for everything. everything that has happened since. you shouldn't blame anybody (or praise anybody) for it.
>>25281824Let's agree to disagree.
Harvard circa 1767
>>25281810>blaming others for the state of your lifeMaybe others in your life didn't necessarily help you, but it is your responsibility to fix it (as it is everyone's to fix their own circumstances).Are you conciously brown or a woman, because that is how you're acting right now. You sound like a woman with daddy issues who still thinks it's their dad's responsibility to fix it.
>>25281826ok with me. if you ever happen to read a book or two you’ll find your personality represented poorly.
>>25281829Calling Cicero Tully always amuses me
>>25281833I read everyday sir>>25281831Ok.
>>25281836>sir tipped your hand! jk
>>25281777YWNBAW
>>25281689Gay retard
>>25281606It reads more like something posted from Tel Aviv
>>25281843but enough about every marxist
>>25281810>I'm 30 >hate how my life endedDo you have cancer or something?
>>25281901if you're stupid with no prospects at 30 then that's it. there's not a single good author or other accomplished man whose been stupid at 30
>>25281910le douanier was stupid until 40.
>>25281829reasonable>>25281387(7) is the only question of general scholarly interest that i would expect an answer from everyone to(9) is a college entrance interview question, asking the prospective scholar what he thinks about the institution he is applying to be part of(10) is of interest to raskolnikovs prospective employer(5) is for e/lit/e /lit/izens(1) (2) (8) are for poorfags who cant afford chatgpt
>>25281915>ugly paintings that only ever could have been famous in the stupid navel gazing novelty seekers of the dull rich of the turn of the century The same kind of people who would create warhol and ducamp and completely destroy painting as a skilled art and trade
>>25281387aristophanes is of interest for making fun of socrates as a contemporary and also for discussing the concept of women being peaceful and reasonable as government, sophocles and europedes are of interest for writing in greek which is really hard
>>25281391The library. Retard.
>>25281387Classical education with an elitist flair is/was peak comfy academia. Idc - it’s good it was so exclusionary. Fuck modernity in this (and many other) regard(s) desu senpai.
>>25281928 clearly a pedestrian perspective since to anyone in the know those two sides (douanier/picasso vs duchamp/warhol) famously stood in direct opposition.>destroyed painting as a skilled tradethe horror!
>>25281975i’ll take your word for it!matisse also lacked the strict technical ability, he had some academic paintings early but still hired a different painter for his mothers obit. there’s actually a decent passage:>Does a bird need to theorize about building its nest, or boast of it when built? All good work is essentially done that way—without hesitation, without difficulty, without boasting; and in the doers of the best, there is an inner and involuntary power which approximates literally to the instinct of an animal—nay, I am certain that in the most perfect human artists, reason does not supersede instinct, but is added to an instinct as much more divine than that of the lower animals as the human body is more beautiful than theirs; that a great singer sings not with less instinct than the nightingale, but with more—only more various, applicable, and governable; that a great architect does not build with less instinct than the beaver or the bee, but with more—with an innate cunning of proportion that embraces all beauty, and a divine ingenuity of skill that improvises all construction. But be that as it may—be the instinct less or more than that of inferior animals—like or unlike theirs, still the human art is dependent on that first, and then upon an amount of practice, of science,—and of imagination disciplined by thought, which the true possessor of it knows to be incommunicable, and the true critic of it, inexplicable, except through long process of laborious’ years. That journey of life’s conquest, in which hills over hills, and Alps on Alps arose, and sank,—do you think you can make another trace it painlessly, by talking? Why, you cannot even carry us up an Alp, by talking. You can guide us up it, step by step, no otherwise—even so, best silently. You girls, who have been among the hills, know how the bad guide chatters and gesticulates, and it is “Put your foot here;” and “Mind how you balance yourself there;” but the good guide walks on quietly, without a word, only with his eyes on you when need is, and his arm like an iron bar, if need be.
>>25281810I'm younger but I'm also like this (uncultured functionally illiterate retarded hylic philistine) but I blame only and exclusively myself for this. Nobody is forcing you to spend all that time staring at garbage online instead of educating yourself especially when accessing information has never been easier in the history of humankind, the fact that deep down I was perfectly aware of the fact that reading books and learning things is a better investment into my growth as an individual yet I half-assed it my entire life just to barely get by is an undeniable sign of low intelligence, you reap what you sow. You can blame the education system/your parents/friends/society/jews//the entire world but ultimately this is just a coping defensive mechanism to shift responsibility and avoid action.The bad news is that you are not getting that time back and as you get older it's harder to pick up new things. The good news is that it's never too late to start doing something and there are people double your age going through far bigger changes in life.Yes you might have to put 3x the effort and dedication required but going from an uneducated swine to someone that resembles an actual human is something your future self will thank you for.
>>25281992I'm not that type of person and those aren't my complaints nor the reason for how I am.
>>25281391High school used to be the difficulty of college now. Everything has been purposely dumbed down.
>>25282000Yeah I know I just resonated with some bits but not the whole post obviously.
>>25282010As it may I hope you achieve your goals
>difficult question will always have a genius level answerok silly
>>25281387Aren’t these questions from the famous All Souls College exam, one of the hardest exams in the world, where usually only one person is accepted per year?
>>25281387>in case candidates didn't know how pages worked
>>25281387Let's be honest. Nobody on /lit/, he'll nobody in the world except for a few dozen 90yo dusty academics and that one self taught rurbo-autist would be able to pass the test.
>>25283265Not too difficult with the rules desu. 4 can be pretty straightforward. It’s definitely the one of the mandatory grammar Qs that’ll mess people.
>>25281387The fuck are you going to college for if you know all this shit?
What were your exams like to get into a uni?Mine was:1) math+geometry, not a test, open-ended answers - difficulty was about regional math competition roughly.2) a composition on one of three literary themes, around 1-1.5k words 3) history-philosophy-socilology-economics test, mix of open and pick-one questions with the latter specifically designed to catch you on most common mistakes and misreadings.
>>25283461they don’t have them in UK. you do your a-levels then write a personal statement. i stole a joke from a /lit/ post on mine, this one: https://warosu.org/lit/thread/5085480#p5087356 (cut out the braziers bit).
It's so over for me at 33
>>25281387Feels so good to not have a horse in this race. No, I would absolutely not have been able to pass the 1930s Oxford entrance exam.
>>25281391Because it was intended for those that were educated at public schools (independent fee paying schools) who taught this rubbish. Even grammar school students who made it were only reluctantly being taken in starting in the post-war era. Also in those days they didn’t have the system of A-Levels and GCSEs like now where there’s an obvious pathway, then you pretty much sat the entrance examination and had references from teachers. You also have to understand that even to this day Oxford and Cambridge aren’t like other universities in the country. They’re basically just finishing schools for the upper classes and establishment.>>25281597The grammar school system that you worship didn’t even come into existence until the 40s you fucking imbecile. Shakespeare was also over 300 years before the OP, the education system then wasn’t comparable. Now fuck off.>mathematics and science have become more important Not at oxbridge they haven’t.
>>25281910You're just coping. Also basically noone will be a famous writer anyway, even with the best education.You don't actually sound like you want to do those things, you sound like someone who likes the image and the recognition associated with those things.If you don't want to be monolingual, choose a language, install ANKI and practice 1 hour per day for 2 years and you will get there. There's nothing glamorous about that, but that's how you do it.
