155-Year-Old MIT Entrance Exam Paper Goes Viral, Social Media Calls It 'Easy'

Have you ever wondered if you could pass the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entrance exam? It's not just another institute. With an admission rate of only four percent, admission is a major challenge. Since its founding in 1861, MIT has had over 101 Nobel Prize winners among its faculty and alumni.

MIT is recognized worldwide for its exceptional standards in engineering, mathematics and science. However, if you had taken the test in 1869, you might have found it surprisingly easy – at least according to some social media users.

A 155-year-old MIT entrance exam questionnaire shared on Reddit went viral, receiving over 37,000 upvotes.

It's not the first time it's appeared on the platform; The same article was originally published 14 years ago and is now archived. However, it is only now attracting widespread attention and sparking a flood of comments and debates on various platforms.

The exam paper for MIT deals primarily with algebra problems. Some Reddit users noted that they could have easily passed the exam if they had been 1869 applicants.

One user quipped: “Good to know I could have joined MIT in 1870.” Another added: “This is probably just the algebra section and not the entire entrance exam.” Maybe there are other sections too.”

The fact that the work was missing more complex mathematical concepts such as calculus led to further speculation.

Several commenters said today's high school students would find the exam “surprisingly easy” since the content is typically taught to 15- to 16-year-olds around the world.

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A LOOK INTO THE PAST

This viral question paper offers an interesting insight into the evolution of academic standards. According to MIT archives, the first group of students were exempt from any entrance exams in 1865.

However, from 1869 onwards, aptitude tests in subjects such as English, geometry, algebra and arithmetic became a requirement.

While many commentators considered the 1869 work to be simpler, others pointed out that given the times, the problems were designed to be solved without a calculator.

One user put it this way: “Perhaps it's a little easy for today's high school students, but the exam was trivially designed to be solved with almost no calculations, since calculators obviously wouldn't be a thing for another century.” “

So could you have made it to MIT in 1869?