<p>I mean sure there's Latin and Greek but since there's no influency involved, only mechanics it's much easier than taking an exam for French or Chinese.</p>
<p>Probably explains why they had to shut out so many Jews back in the day. I would say Asians would have totally dominated Harvard in 1869 if not for anti-immigrant policies, but man if I were a Jew I would have been BORED! </p>
<p>When you figure that a lot of important men in American history got their positions of power because stupid exams like these, it probably explains why corruption and incompetence were so common. And why the Supreme Court was full of people who continued to uphold "Separate but Equal".</p>
<p>also they say that the Chinese Imperial Examination system had been old and outdated for centuries, but I really can’t see how Harvard did any better. In 1870, students to the Chinese Imperial Examination system would have to memorise a ridiculous amount of poetry and read all the four Classics (each book has 100+ chapters, and each chapter is a mininovel), in addition to writing analytical essays on law and good governance, in addition to a whole host of other tasks that would make a lot of AP students run away and cry. Here you don’t even have had to read the full entirety of ONE work of Homer.</p>