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Current undergraduates

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

 

History and Modern Languages Tripos

This information is currently being updated for 2021-22, so is subject to change

The History and Modern Languages Tripos consists of three Parts:

Please note that from October 2022 the History Tripos will be undergoing a reform.

Although these changes will not affect your degree, if you are interested, you can find more information on the new structure here: History Tripos Reform 2022. As at present, not all the new papers will be available to students taking HML.


Part IA

Students will offer:

Two History papers, to be chosen from:

  • Paper 12 - European history, 776 BC - AD 69
  • Paper 13 - European history, 31 BC - AD 900
  • Paper 14 - European history, c. 900 - c. 1450
  • Paper 16 - European history, 1450 - 1760
  • Paper 17 - European history, 1715 - 1890
  • Paper 18 - European history, since 1890
  • Paper 19 - History of political thought to c. 1700
  • Paper 20 - History of political thought from c. 1700 to c. 1890
  • Paper 21 - Empires and world history from the fifteenth century to the First World War
  • Paper 23 - World History since 1914

For their language courses, students will take one of the following options:


Part IB

Part IB is the second year of the HML course. In order to be eligible to take Part IB, a candidate must have passed Part IA of the HML Tripos or Part IA of the MML Tripos, or obtained honours in another Honours Examination in the previous year and obtained prior approval from the Chair of the HML Management Committee. Optional papers taken for Part IB may not be repeated at Part II level, although they may provide the subject area for the Year Abroad Project.

In the second year, students will offer:

  • The core language papers in their chosen language
  • One paper from the specified Modern Languages range
  • One paper from the specified History range
  • One further specialist paper from either Modern Languages or History

The core language papers offered for the chosen language option will be:

The specified range of Modern Languages papers, from which the student will offer either one or two papers, is listed below. Students may only offer one of the "Introduction to the language and culture..." papers (those identified with an asterisk *). Papers with a dagger symbol (†) are available for examination by Long Essay. Papers with a hash symbol (#) at the end of the title have managed numbers.

The specified range of History papers, from which the student will offer either one or two papers, will be:

  • Paper 12 - European history, 776 BC - AD 69
  • Paper 13 - European history, 31 BC - AD 900
  • Paper 16 - European history, 1450 - 1760
  • Paper 17 - European history, 1715 - 1890
  • Paper 18 - European history, since 1890
  • Paper 19 - History of political thought to c. 1700
  • Paper 20 - History of political thought from c. 1700 to c. 1890
  • Paper 21 - Empires and world history from the fifteenth century to the First World War
  • Paper 23 - World History since 1914

Part II

During their Year Abroad, students prepare a Year Abroad Project which is assessed at Part II.

Students will also take an Oral exam at the beginning of the year; these are normally held on the Thursday and Friday before full Michaelmas Term (ie: 30 September and 1st October 2021). Read more about the Oral C exam.

In addition, in the fourth year, students will offer:

The two core language courses:

And choose three other papers, in one of the following combinations:

  • one History paper, and two MMLL papers;
  • two History papers and one MMLL paper;
  • one History paper, one MMLL paper and a dissertation.

List of MMLL papers you can choose (with the exception of Linguistics papers)

List of History papers you can choose 

You can choose from the whole range listed in Sections B, C, or D. But please note that if you choose a Special Subject:

  • it will count as one paper, and you will take the written (gobbets) exam (Paper 3), and not write a Long Essay (Paper 2);
  • you can only take one Special Subject paper. If you wish to do a second History paper, it must be selected from Sections C or D.

Students can also opt to offer a Dissertation instead of a scheduled paper; please see our Dissertation Guidance here on the Moodle page.

From 2021 the word count is 10,000 words.