Part III of the Mathematical Tripos

Roughly one third of the students take the course as a continuation at Cambridge after finishing the Parts IA, IB, and II of the Mathematical Tripos resulting in an integrated Master's (M.Math), whilst the remaining two thirds are external students who take the course as a one-year Master's (M.A.St).

T. W. Körner notes Only a small handful of students took the Smith's prize examination in the nineteenth century.

[7][8] The programme previously resulted in a Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics instead of a master's degree.

The third term is primarily for examinations (and revision for said examinations) which, together with the option of writing a part III essay (introduced in the 1970s, a miniature thesis, often in the form of a literature review), determine one's final grade entirely.

[10][11] The level of achievement required for a distinction is yet higher than a typical First Class degree.

Several notable astronomers and astrophysicists have been awarded the Tyson Medal in the history of Part III maths, including Jayant Narlikar, Ray Lyttleton and Edmund Whittaker.

In addition, the Thomas Bond Sprague Prize is awarded by the Rollo Davidson Trust for distinguished performance in actuarial science, finance, insurance, mathematics of operational research, probability, risk and statistics.