chickenfeet

A propos nothing in particular I was thinking of the process by which university exam results were communicated in my distant youth. I assume there is now some magic electronic process but back i the day it was done with typed notices on notice boards. In Durham they would be posted outside the library on Palace Green. The language was splendidly formal and not a little arcane. As far as I recall, the first year ones read something very close to "The following candidates having satisfied the examiners in the Preliminary Honours examination for Mathematics are permitted to proceed to Final Honours", followed by list of successful candidates. Failures weren't listed which could cause a certain degree of anxiety if, say, a name had ben omitted by mistake.

Finals were similar except that they were listed by class of degree so everyone got to see who had unexpectedly got (or missed) a First and so on. For some reason I have a much less clear recollection of the language used.