Turn Your Papers Over
Andrew Watts has investigated the archives of the Cambridge examination syndicate to uncover the history of school exams.
As students digest their GCSE and A-Level results, they might be surprised to learn that the origins of the examination system date back 150 years to the ‘Locals’ set for the first time by Oxford University in June 1858, and by Cambridge University in December of the same year. Cambridge Assessment, as the University of Cambridge examinations syndicate is now called, still sets secondary examinations for students in the UK as well as more than 150 countries around the world.
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