What are 'Greats', 'Mods' & 'Greats'

What is 'greats' and 'mods and greats'??
i thought 'mods' were first year exams, but a friend is using it as a subject like history (?)
thanks

Reply 1

d750

8

peliot

What is 'greats' and 'mods and greats'??
i thought 'mods' were first year exams, but a friend is using it as a subject like history (?)
thanks

Yeah they are first year exams for most subjects. (Quite a few subjects have "prelims" instead). Your friend was probably using it to refer to the syllabus for those exams, just as a way of describing a year's work.

Reply 2

RxB

1

they're probably searching for the term "modern greats" rather than "mods and greats"
greats = classics
modern greats = ppe

Reply 3

$Avatar for sTe\/o$

sTe\/o

16

I had never heard of these terms before (I'm not at Oxford) but this is what I found on wikipedia...

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy,_Politics_and_Economics:

PPE was originally designed as a modern alternative to classics for those wanting to enter the public sphere as it was thought that a course in Philosophy and Ancient History was no longer sufficient for those entering the civil service. It was thus initially nicknamed "Modern Greats".

Reply 4

d750

8

RxB

they're probably searching for the term "modern greats" rather than "mods and greats"
greats = classics
modern greats = ppe

I don't think it's that complicated. Whatever the subject, you can use mods to mean first public exams and greats to mean final year exams. Whether technically correct or not, that's how everyone uses them in Oxford.

Reply 5

Focker

d750

I don't think it's that complicated. Whatever the subject, you can use mods to mean first public exams and greats to mean final year exams. Whether technically correct or not, that's how everyone uses them in Oxford.

Not everyone :rolleyes:

. when I was considering switching to PPE I got to know quite a lot of PPEers and they gave teh same explanation that RXB gave.

What are 'Greats', 'Mods' & 'Greats'

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