All Souls: The toughest test you’ll ever take | Hacker News Reader

All Souls: The toughest test you’ll ever take

mssv.net

15 pointsfrisco16 comments

"Now, if you look closely, inside this ivory tower you can make out an even smaller tower made of far choicer ivory."

I spent six years at another Oxford college. All Souls is an odd institution, very closed to the outside, and I was never blown away by any of its fellows. From people I know who've taken the test, apparently the dinner at the end is the most crucial part, where they basically decide whether they want to socialise with you for the next six years.

If the like you personally or not is the crucial factor?

<sarcasm>I am shocked, shocked I tell you!</sarcasm>

I'm not surprised, the test seemed very subjective.

Or, for scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers, the toughest test you won't ever take -- since the subject matter of the prize examination is limited to Law, History, English, Greats, and PPE.

i'm probably in the minority here, but i think constructing a test that rewards a broad but intensive base of knowledge and the ability to create a cohesive argument in a short amount of time should be applauded.

at the very least, hackers should appreciate the fact that it is quite contrarian.

Yeah. Makes the world a better place.

I still think that the Putnam is tougher. The average score for test takers has been 1/120 in some years. And in the seventy years the test has been going on, there has only been three perfect scores.

What is this Putnam test?

The Putnam competition is a 6 hour, 12 question proof-based math test. Math majors, engineers, computer scientists, and physics majors are the ones who usually take it. The person with the highest score gets a scholarship to Harvard for graduate study in mathematics that covers tuition plus 12k. Archives:http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnamindex....

Sample question: A1. Basketball star Shanille O'Keal's team statistician keeps track of the number, S(N), of successful free throws she has made in her first N attempts of the season. Early in the season, S(N) was less than 80% of N, but by the end of the season, S(N) was more than 80% of N. Was there necessarily a moment in between when S(N) was exactly 80% of N? (with proof) 168 out of the 196 top scorers got at least an 8/10 on this, so it was a relatively easy question for that year.

Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but did anyone else think that all this test will find is who is the best bullshit artist?

Which means you could hack it like the Social Text fiasco.

What's the Social Text fiasco?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

I recall somewhere seeing very similar types of very general questions on an exam to enter the chinese civil service.

My answers:

Can terrorism be justified?

Sure, it's worked many times in history. Just the first example i can think of: Beirut barracks bombing.

It targeted military personnel, I believe the victims were overwhelmingly professional soldiers, and it worked. The international force pulled out of Lebanon.

Would you have burned Franz Kafka’s manuscripts, as he requested in his will?

Yes, we have legal precedent that authors have an automatic copyright to their works, and they can choose to not publish.

If the Greeks invented democracy, what is it?

Working on the premise that they invented it, then it is easily and accurately described as representative democracy.

Is Amazon.com good for literature?

Yes, the ability to quickly and easily search a HUGE library like Amazon can not be matched by a brick and mortar.

Is China overrated?

It depends on your rating. In the short therm you can make an excellent case for overvalued stocks.

In the long term, it easy to argue that for most of history China was the most powerful and advanced nation on Earth.

It declined compared to the rest of the world only when it cuts itself off from the rest of the world.

Or put more succinctly, humans are the cause of innovation and wealth. A region which has the most humans with the most freedoms will out compete regions with significantly less of either people or freedoms.

It is a very reasonable assumption that the future will look much like the past and China will be global super power.

What can we learn from Las Vegas?

Gambling is profitable and popular and does not in and of itself destroy civilization.

Is Dark Energy more interesting than Dark Matter?

Dark matter is theorized to be non electromagnetic matter. Dark energy is supposedly accelerating the expansion of the universe. Interesting is an ill defined term. Dark Energy is more interesting to me personally, by my own definition of "interesting."

Whither social democracy after Tony Blair?

No.

Can animals think?

Yes.

Why was resistance to the Mongols so seldom successful?

Nomads like the Mongols and the Huns live on land that can not support crops humans can survive on.

But it can support animals which can then support humans. This leads to lower population density but a lot more horses per human.

Following pasture also necessities a nomadic lifestyle, thus making every member of society an excellent rider.

Populations on better land can achieve higher population densities with fewer animals. Thus animals become a luxury.

Cavalry is militarily superior to armed peasants. Because the Eurasian steppe is HUGE, the lower population density of nomads still leads to very large numbers of nomads.

When these nomads move, like the Huns or the Mongols, they essentially practice asymmetrical warfare against non nomad populations.

Calvary vs peasants, much like US military hardware vs Iraqi military hardware, with similar results.

Write on any one of the following: games, food, body parts

I like food.

Water

wet.

I have a funny, mind I can literally feel ill when I am forced to answer stupid questions like Water? Clearly I am not made for the All Souls club.

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