Test yourself with the ‘world’s hardest exam’ from Oxford University

TEST the power of your mind-grapes with some of the hardest exam questions in the world.

AN exam that you can’t actually revise for. Sounds like a dream, right?

Well, the entrance exam for Oxford University’s All Souls College is impossible to prepare for because it features abstract questions. And my goodness, they’re tough. In fact, it’s been dubbed “the world’s trickiest exam”.

The test is sat by prospective fellows every September. They have to sit two general papers and two papers specific to their subject.

And that is actually easier than it used to be — until 2010, candidates also took an essay, lasting three hours, in which they had to write about just one word, like “innocence” or “error”.

Let’s have a gander at the 2014 philosophy 1 test.

Candidates should answer THREE questions.

1. Is a person’s gender socially constructed? Is a person’s sex?

2. Does anger have a legitimate role to play in politics?

3. Does the status quo have any moral privilege?

4. What distinguishes actions which are intentional from those which are not? The answer that I shall suggest is that they are actions to which a certain sense of the question “why?” is given application; the sense is of course that in which the answer, if positive, gives a reason for acting’. [ELIZABETH ANSCOMBE]. Discuss

5. What can we learn about the mind by considering its disorders?

6. Can emotions be reasons for decisions?

7. Is higher-order evidence just more evidence?

8. How do apologies work?

9. Should epistemology be naturalised?

10. Can there be substantive disagreement in the absence of fact?

An examiner (who passed their own All Souls exam and now grades them) told The Independent: “All the best candidates demonstrate a strong command of their subjects, and make compelling arguments in clear prose.”

A sample of the English Literature exam. Picture: Oxford University

“The scripts that really stand out usually have something more that is striking: flashes of wit, sensitivity to detail, argumentative force.”

“A significant challenge is to strike a balance between playing to your strengths and stretching beyond your comfort zone.”

According to The Telegraph UK, 80 people sit the exam — but just two are chosen, and occasionally only one person makes the cut.

September 2011 Philosophy II exam. Picture: Oxford University.

Those who pass the exam are then asked to perform a speaking test — called a viva — where they orally present their answers.

And just to add a little more pressure, most of the college fellowship (around 80 people at a time), are there to watch.

People who pass the test then become Fellows for seven years, and if they are conducting academic work, get paid £15,000 ($31,900) a year. British prime minister Harold Wilson did not pass the exam.

More sample questions from the “hardest test in the world”:

1. Did the left or right win the twentieth century?

2. “Secure people dare”. Do they?

3. Should intellectuals tweet?

4. Should prisoners be allowed to watch television?

5. How can words be beautiful?

6. Can we be forced to be free?

7. Is the financial sector larger than it should be?

8. Can policy rely on human rationality?

9. Is there an economic case for limiting pay bonuses to twice an annual salary?

10. Should the state restrict what people should do with their pension savings?

11. Is homelessness a reflection of a badly functioning economy?

12. Would an inflation target of 4% be better than 2%?

13. Does the status quo have any moral privilege?

14. Can emotions be reasons for decisions?

15. Can there be substantive disagreement in the absence of fact?

16. What is the connection between knowing something and being certain of it?

17. Is meaning best understood via the concept of truth?

18. How can someone know what they will do tomorrow if they do not know that they will not have a heart attack before tomorrow arrives?

19. Who should pay for the costs of educating and bringing up children?

Originally published as Test yourself with the ‘world’s hardest exam’ from Oxford University