Oxford University is one of the world’s most prestigious universities, and admission as an undergraduate is a huge honor.
However, the university has a small, highly exclusive postgraduate school that’s even more rarefied: All Souls College. It’s so difficult to get in, in fact, that the entrance exam itself has become the stuff of legend.
All Souls examination is known as the “world’s hardest exam”
Admission to The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed is a juicy prize for some of the world’s most brilliant, academic-minded people. Those who meet the requirements aren’t simply accepted as students; every member of the college becomes a full fellow.
The seven-year fellowship offers competitive pay, exceptional perks, and incredible research opportunities, not to mention free room, board, and meals. It’s one of academia’s most lucrative and sought-after fellowships.
There’s just one problem: the college accepts only about two new fellows every year. The standards are so outrageously high that some years, only one—or even zero—are accepted.
It all starts with the entrance exam.
The All Souls exam is famously known as one of the most difficult tests in the world. Somewhere around 80-150 top Oxford graduates are selected to sit the exam each year—some of the brightest minds in the world—and fewer than 2% of them will be awarded fellowships.
For reference, the California Bar Exam—widely regarded as the toughest in the United States—has a pass rate of about 30-50%.
What makes the simple exam so hard
The All Souls exam is strange and unlike any other test in the world.
It doesn’t require intense study or a massive amount of memorized knowledge. It features little to no complex mathematics or even arithmetic. The exam is nearly impossible to study for, and that’s precisely what makes it an exceptional judge of intelligence and high-level thinking.
The All Souls exam features two parts.
The first and most famous part is the essay portion, or the written gauntlet. Participants sitting the exam face a large selection of prompt questions and, over two days, must answer several of them in long-form writing for three hours at a time.
The questions are completely unlike anything you’d find on the medical boards, the bar, or the LSAT. Here are a few examples:
- Would you rather be a vampire or a zombie?
- Should you be allowed internet access during this exam?
- Is cosmetic surgery wrong?
- Can rocks be conscious?
- Can a robot have a gender?
- Defend ghosting.
- Do we still need cash?
(Prior to 2010, the exam featured a one-word essay topic. Candidates would have to write for hours on a single concept like “regret.” In addition to writing papers on the broad, general topics above, current candidates must write two essays on specialist topics within fields like Economics, Law, History, Philosophy, and Politics.)
Sounds… easy, right? Vampire versus zombie has no objectively correct answer, so anyone with a strong opinion is well positioned to answer it.
But in the context of the examination process, test takers are competing against some of the smartest students in the world. If you’d prefer to be a vampire rather than a zombie, your reasoning and writing had better be razor-sharp, creative, and, most fascinatingly, completely defensible.
Because that’s phase two of the exam. After all of the essays have been graded, the top handful of candidates are invited to stand in front of about 50 voting fellows—clothed in robes—and defend their work in a grueling viva voce oral defense. Candidate essays are graded on incisiveness of the argument, originality, elegance of prose, and accuracy of information, among other criteria. During the oral exam, fellows evaluate the candidates’ intellectual presence, flexibility of thinking, wit, and poise.
Imagine some of the most brilliant people on the planet agonizing for hours over whether rocks can be conscious, handwriting it all in a little booklet, and then standing up in front of a board of prestigious fellows to defend their answer.
The All Souls exam is truly a monument to human intelligence and is one of the last remaining formal examinations that Artificial Intelligence can’t pass.
Two years ago, ChatGPT scored in the 90th percentile on the Bar Exam, and newer models can do even better. The AI model aced the U.S. medical licensing exam the same year.
However, the All Souls exam has no right answers, only sharp, creative, well-reasoned, and, most importantly, human ones. In a world where you can look up, memorize, or summon information instantly, one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions has decided that how you think matters far more than what you know.
So the next time you find your mind wandering—say, trying to invent a new punctuation mark—let it. You’re in good company.
