Don't worry, be HAPpy

Today, I want to talk about the silliest paper in the history tripos.

This blog post started off with me actually doing work (gasp), but quickly descended into a search for the weirdest question the history faculty has devised in the past five years.

For the uninitiated, HAP stands for Historical Argument and Practice. It's an exam taken in the third year of the Cambridge history degree that consists of one essay in three hours. There's a choice of about 30 questions, which, considering how ridiculous some of the questions are, is probably a good thing...

I have a sneaking suspicion that I don't understand many of the questions because I've been rowing rather than studying, but either way, these are my ten favourite:

This is the point where I start to wonder if I've paid enough attention over the last year, but maybe historical explanation is, um, historical?

And I am paranoid about the lack of 'discuss' or other useful instruction at the end of this question. What does it mean? What do you want of me?

This is a totally reasonable question, maybe for a 300 page book.

Again, there is no 'discuss' at the end of this question. I suspect it's just a statement to reassure failed novelists who happen to be sitting the exam.

In great depth? With reference to the numerous historiographical waves? I'm not actually sure, I'm just fishing around for answers here. 

Is this 'Big Question' a question?

Best answers get submitted to the government, and the fellows who wrote the exam paper get their funding back.

I'm not sure if I want to laugh, cry, or stare blankly into the distance. I just... I think I'm missing some vital piece of knowledge about the historiography of objectivity. Or possibly the examiners were drunk.

This is just the historian's version of 'I'd rather be at Oxford than St Johns'

This type of question is designed to confuse and upset.

STOP IT NOW PLEASE


I'm going to go cry, reconsider my work schedule, and make an effort to go to lectures this year.


PS If you looked at any one of these and understood/started to construct an answer in your mind:

• I hate you
• No I don't please enlighten me as to how you gained this knowledge oh wise one