During the first year, undergraduates take subjects to gain a general idea of the ancient world and to discover which area is most appealing to them.
Much of the work is language based; written texts are a major source of evidence for classical antiquity and so there is an emphasis in Part I on developing fluent, accurate reading skills in both Greek and Latin.
Although roughly three-quarters of the course is taken up with developing language skills, both centred on the set texts and in unseen translation, students are also expected to study literature, philosophy, history, linguistics and philology, and art and archaeology.
The classical tripos was created in 1822 for students who had high honours in mathematics or those who were the sons of peers.
In 1887, Agnata Butler (née Ramsay), a student at Girton College, was the only candidate to be placed in the top division of the first class in Classical Tripos examinations[2] – thereby being placed above all of the men in her year.