Often known as Prelims: an examination set by a faculty board for the purpose of testing the progress of honours students, and their fitness for honours work. Failure to take or to pass a Preliminary Examination does not, however, debar a student from proceeding to the corresponding tripos examination. Preliminary Examinations were introduced in 1933 as one of the outcomes of the Report of the Syndicate on courses leading to the Ordinary BA (22 Feb. 1932) as a replacement of the Intercollegiate Examinations (‘Mays’); success in a Preliminary Examination was to exempt students for the Ordinary BA from part of the General or a Special Examination.
