"An exam should serve solely to amuse the examiners. Discuss."

Me: studies hard for exam The exam: Water. Me: Fuck

This exam actually seems to be pretty enjoyable to me. I do think that the grading of these are open to massive bias from the party evaluating them, so it makes them really impractical.

Q: How epic was Beowulf? A: I know, right?

I *truly* wish we would sit in groups sometimes and just discuss questions just like these.

Those are the questions that make me want to actually study and pursue knowledge, they are so interesting

Exams are fun to write if there were no pressure to ace it and make it to the top 1%. There is a huge role that anxiety and nervousness plays in how one performs in high stakes examinations.

I'm just glad I can sit here comfortably thinking about these questions knowing I'll never have to actually write this exam

I wish SpongeBob all the best in his journey to become a fellow at All Souls College.

Amogus. Discuss. Now that's something most academics won't find easy.

So it's essentially an admission application given in exam format? With no right or wrong answers, they would just select the 1 or 2 people they feel are the best fit for their program.

As a famous fictional scientist once said: "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should". This exam seems to check exactly that.

'Can a robot have a gender?' *STARTS TO QUESTION HUMANITY*

Basically, Oxbridge tests have always been about finding out if the candidate can think for themselves rather than regurgitate anything that's been spoon fed to them. Academic work isn't about just following process it's about being creative too. These types of questions were sometimes asked in a face-to-face interview and the counter position then taken by the interviewer to see how much the candidate had thought through their answers. If the candidate continued with a good argument then the interviewer knew that there was some potential.

Defend the indefensible. Why All Souls College is right in having and enforcing strict dress codes in examinations...

All answers call for a good logical thinking. Based on reasonable thoughts. No real right or wrong answer. Only that which is most relevant to the question.

In my opinion, every question in this exam can be turned into a debate. So It should be solvable if one has training in debating and critical thinking + a good collection of information.

i don't know whether it's the hardest exam but it's definitely the most fun i've seen

This seems like a very fun exam. I would love to take this. So many of these questions are the ones which I have thought about especially AI and robotics.

I think there was an Oxbridge exam with the question "What is courage?" The story goes that an answer "This is courage." got full marks. Discuss.

I love all this questions! Congrats to whoever wrote them! Almost all of them are so thought provoking I feel this urge to write right away!

There's no way she just dropped an InternetHistorian meme in here.

"Should there be a lingua franca in academia?" is the most English question I've ever seen.

I have never heard about this exam before. Thks for sharing.

These SpongeBob clips are on point, 10 / 10.

Some of those questions made me want to learn about the topics being asked. I just think they're useful in life.

This sounds like a really fun exam to me tbh. It wouldn't be marked perfectly but it would interesting to write about these questions.

"Music came to a full stop with Brahms." (At last, a music-relaged topic.) At the time of Brahms' death, many composers might have agreed, because the structural techniques used to generate long-form compositions were losing favour and no alternatives were immediately obvious. In his work as a music critic, George Bernard Shaw ridiculed the premiere performances of many of Brahms' works, but recanted and apologised by the time of his death in the 1940s. This is one of those questions whose answer depends not just on who you are, but on when you're writing.

This would be a fun exercise for a philosophy professor to give their students. And then have them compare answers. I actually really like these questions

Synchronicity. Five minutes before watching this fascinating video about the challenges of pursuing an advanced degree, I read an online news article about Manfred Steiner, a retired American hematologist, who just earned his PhD in physics at age 89. I thought about you while reading the article. My thought was something like: "Gosh! Toby has 65 more years to change her mind."

Damn I love your Chanel so much, your voice is soothing and attitude intellectual , and diversity in the subjects you handle! Great job

These are so intriguing , really nice video!

The history of brown aka dark orange is fascinating.

These are the questions my subconscious makes up when I'm having a nightmare about an exam I didn't study for ha

I would recommend checking out some Mathematics admissions test (MAT)/Physics Aptitude Test(PAT) from the University of Oxford or some Cambridge STEP Maths exams/past Mathematical tripos papers! They’re all considered quite hard and have some interesting questions!

These questions went over my daily thinking like air over water

Your videos does make one think deeply. 👍 Please keep producing these thought provoking videos.

I am a CS student into systems, and this encourages me to put more effort in reading philosophy at free time. I usually laze too much lmao

“does it matter if we are alone in the universe?” - I interpreted this as a question about self, and if relationships bring value to life or do they bring about a codependent absurdity

I’ve only started watching haven’t checked the description but even with the thumbnail pixilated can tell this is the _All Souls_ fellowship test… I have to wonder what Tibees would do in the very final examination, which traditionally whittles those successful, down to the last two actual fellowship recipients: _a cherry pie baked with the pips still in them…_ and what the applicant ends up doing with same during a formal Hall dinner. The prize - prosaically, not prestige - is basically having your doctorate totally paid for and one recipient usually remains in Oxford, to do their thesis, the other is free to research anywhere in the world… one example of the latter is T.E. Lawrence [of Arabia]. The most little know today is the major Eurosceptic MP, John Redwood (whose “Dr” is never mentioned). Anyone on any course which sits an examination at the university is eligible to try for this notorious test - so, actually, it’s phenomenally meritocratic; if you ignore the heavy Humanities bias of it all. Next week, the most impossibly arduous examination in the history of humanity, the final test for the ancient Chinese civil service. It had no time limit in which to write one’s answer and only one question: *”Tell me everything you know.”* 🤣

You can’t study for it. You just gotta be someone who is curious about everything and READS a lot.

11:29 it's actually informal for an Oxford exam because sub-fusc clothing, the formal 'academic wear', is not required.

The hardest exam: one that we can never prepare for. Discuss.

This exam is Oxford degree walled. Maybe they should discuss that.

in the singapore A levels, there is a similar exam also called General Paper, and the format is quite similar to this, 12 questions of varying topics. but you are only expected to write 1 essay in 1 and a half hours.

We have to do this in Singapore a levels -_- I didn't do well.

Alot of interesting Questions and topics in this exam, thx for showing!

So true, the hardest exam is which we don't prepare for 😂😂😂

"Is there something to be said for boredom?" Me: I have no binge to answer to.

Many thanks for producing this. Perhaps there should be an additional paper along the lines of "suggest 20 questions for next year's paper and provide a brief answer for each." Might save the college a bit of work?

One of your best videos , Really a lot to learn

This is an interesting exam and it seems to be pretty enjoyable for me. (I actually even know someone who teaches in Oxford.) This exam is about general knowledge and reasoning skills. And yes, the general knowledge needed for this exam would take years(!) of learning if you want to improve it significantly because it covers a very wide area of knowledge.

Honestly some of the questions are quite similar to GP essays I had to write for my Alevels. Singapore Alevels' GP paper 1 makes the candidate write an argumentative essay out of 12 possible questions. Some of those questions in the All souls college essays exams seems really similar to the more general and philosophical questions.

thank you, i very much enjoyed this! i am a comp.sci b.a. + phd in classics so i always enjoy scientists who can engage with humanities stuff well! (sean carroll is one i especially admire too). thank you!!

@Tibees I had an exam for you: the Miller Analogies Test. I thought that was the toughest in the world... but wow, this literally blew my mind. I enjoyed just thinking about the questions, the breadth and depth, wow!

Watching your videos makes me happy :)

Could actually write a ton about just “water”. The original giver of life and something no living thing on earth that we know of can live without.

These are the questions i'm thinking right after waking up, when i'm bored of studying or questioning my life. Btw it seems fun to me i'd like to take this exam even once in my life

These questions are so good, I think if you steal a question that you’re interested with money and knowledge you can develop a massive project

I’d spend the entire exam time trying to work out which question to answer.

Wonderful video. It almost sounds like anyone can take the test as long as they can write coherent and convincing essays - just wonder what the passing criterion the Fellows use?

I feel like a lot of these questions are geared towards the bias of the examiners. In order to pass it, you have to really engage their interests and intrigue them. You certainly can't go against anything they disagree with. Otherwise you won't score very high. It's a test that finds a person that they would really enjoy working with for at least the next 7 years and hopefully will become a member of staff

Most of these have very straightforward answers to me. I wonder if that is because I think about things differently or not different enough.

Wow, this is so interesting! I’m going to dwell on some of these questions.

I LOVE those questions!

Oh God these are such good questions. I could use half of those as conversation starters tbh

I come up with questions like that for a hobby and try solving the dilema the questions impose. I'm kinda used to that, not smart enough to be in oxford

As far as sheer volume of information, the hardest test in the world may be the All-London badge for the London taxis. You have to know literally everything about a very large, labrynthian city.

This was a very enjoyable video. I sat this exam in September: 2 General papers and 2 Philosophy papers- it was quite a unique experience!

'Defend the indefensible' What an amazing question, let's see some more 'Defend Tweeting' Hey I've seen this before!

Tibees exploring each and every corner of exam of today's world bring us the light of knowledge that the progress of mankind . Very good video all the exams are of difficult level from Indian jee, to Neet, China's gokao, US Putnam . Please review and unbox the Finland , Norwegian or any other Scandinavian countries exam it will be grateful too . Thanks for the information and video .

I just love your voice Thank you 😊💓

"It's about Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace's father" I just love that this is the place where it's defined that way round.

To be honest, the philosophy paper was more straightforward compared to other papers. There’s a plethora of philosophical literature on the given questions.

I find this exam extremely fascinating, so I would pay to someone examine the answers , hopefully I will take on

After long time , Today's video was 🔥🔥🔥.

Innocence is undiluted potential, and I think that's why we are instinctually drawn to it. It can be lost or sacrificed, but never regained. When we say someone or something is "innocent," what we mean is that the subject is a natural existence, unburdened by metacognition.

Philosophy undergrad here. Yeah, a lot of these questions are really important in the field! And you have no idea how sophisticated that they can get. A lot of your answers are definitely not going to be intuitive. It's possible that sophisticated answers will correspond to intuition but a simple "ofcourse!" will never cut it! I encourage everyone who enjoys these questions to read some philosophy though! :) People spent entire careers on answering these questions. The only downside is that philosophy is very difficult to read sometimes. You'll know what I mean when you crack open some Wittgenstein on that private language question. God speed!

These exam videos keep getting better

Exam Question: "Water." My Answer: "Yes."

A fascinating video! I’d love to ask these questions at a dinner party lol. By the way, have you ever read the book “the housekeeper and the professor?“ I feel like you’d appreciate it at a deeper level than most.

While watching this video, I was wondering if this was really made by you. Damn, this was such an amazing 14 minutes video

These questions seems like something interesting to discuss with your friends

These read like the sort of exam questions you’d get in a stress dream.

Defend the indefensible. Well, most epistemologists agree that knowledge is "justified true belief". For knowledge to be justified it has to be part of a chain of justifications. My belief that the the Atlantic ocean is mostly water is justified by my sense perceptions (including books I've read, experiments I could do etc.), but I can doubt my senses (cartesian doubt). All knowledge of the physical world is a "leap of faith" in this sense. I could be a brain in a vat, or a character in an alien computer game. I can't defend the claim that the world as I perceive it exists independent of me, but it is practical to act as if it does.

Ma'am, any update on *joy of mathematics* ? 😭😭😭

I would genuinely love to take this test and study for it even though im not in school nor planning to be atm. I love these questions and think about similar things already. Mostly the robot thing and others cause star trek and just ethics and morals. Philosophy. Love your videos and love this video

So many interesting topics that I want to write about, but only a few that I could confidently construct coherent essays about without the use of outside research.

All questions are subjective and open to different interpretations, if the answers are in line with what the examiners think, the person will get good grades otherwise not.

this isnt an exam it's a "how much do we want to work with you" questionnaire.

Getting to grips with this exam is the key to innovation Thank you Toby

Tbh these questions are really interesting to think about and except some question other don't really have any CORRECT answer.

European Countries: Make tough exams for giving students a good future USA: Makes tough exams cuz why not? India: Makes tough exams for NOT giving students a good future China: Makes tough exams to live up to the Asian Parents memes (or else moreover the same as India) Edit: India-Makes tough exams so their students can leave India

Fun fact: rage and love can both be expressed by red.

Thank you, even though one never asked themselves these questions or didn't thought it through, the very fact of being exposed to it is good and makes the person think. Thank you for having make me think about topics I've never yet thought.

these would all be so interesting to discuss with friends or something but i know if i saw any of these in an exam i would just give up

I wonder if any and how much of the exam is which questions one chooses to answer?

So basically it's a clever way for the University to divert funds to their friends.

I think the difficulty of this exam would not be explaining your own thoughts about the prompt, but your ability to contextualize your answer within the broader history of the study relating to the question. You would have to cite information in your answer from a wide range of sources, all off the top of your head. They included cited information and accuracy as some of the grading criteria. It wouldn't just be about your opinions and thoughts but also your knowledge. As much fun as the questions would be to casually discuss, I know I couldn't even begin to make a good showing on this exam, or really any Oxford exam for that matter.

You should review the Isreali Math and Physics Bagrut exams. They're actually quite nice to solve. Not too difficult, not too easy.