The History and Modern Languages Tripos consists of three Parts:

• Part IA
• Part IB
• Part II

Part IA

Students will offer:

One History Outline paper, to be chosen from:

• Outline 1 - Ancient and Medieval States and Societies over the First Millennium
• Outline 2 - The British Isles in the Middle Ages, c. 800 to c. 1500
• Outline 3 - Later Medieval Europe
• Outline 4 - Early Modern Britain
• Outline 5 - Europe in the World, ca 1450-1780
• Outline 6 - Global Eighteenth Century
• Outline 7 - Modern Britain and Ireland, 1750-Present
• Outline 8 - Modern Europe, 1789-1914
• Outline 9 - North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, 1775-Present
• Outline 10 - The Global South From 1750 to the Present Day
• Outline 11 - The Twentieth-Century World

Introduction to Historical Thinking. You can find more information about IHT on the Faculty of History page (scroll down to 'Explore Part IA'). 

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

• Option A (ab initio) - available in German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish:
  • Paper A1 - Introduction to the foreign language 1: Use of the foreign language (GEA1, ITA1, PGA1, SLA1, SPA1)
  • Paper A2 - Introduction to the foreign language 2: Translation from the foreign language (GEA2, ITA2, PGA2,SLA2, SPA2)
  • Paper A3 - Introduction to the foreign language 3: Introduction to culture/literature of the foreign language (GEA3, ITA3, PGA3, SLA3, SPA3)
  • Oral examination A

• Option B (post A Level or equivalent) languages - available in French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish:
  • Paper B1 - Use of the foreign language (FRB1, GEB1, ITB1, SLB1, SPB1)
  • Paper B2 - Translation from the foreign language (FRB2, GEB2, ITB2, SLB2, SPB2)
  • Oral examination B
  • Introductory Scheduled Paper relating to the language concerned (Fr.1, Ge.1, It.1, Sl.1, Sp.1).

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 Topic Paper in History. 
• One further specified paper from Modern Languages or one History Research Project. 

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

• Option A (ab initio) - available in German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish:
  • Paper B1 - Introduction to the foreign language 1: Use of the foreign language (GEB1, ITB1, PGB1, SLB1, SPB1)
  • Paper B2 - Introduction to the foreign language 2: Translation from the foreign language (GEB2, ITB2, PGB2, SLB2, SPB2)
  • Oral examination B
• Option B (post A Level or equivalent) languages - available in French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish:
  • Paper B3 - Translation into the foreign language, and test in the foreign language through audio-visual media (FRB3; GEB3; SLB3; SPB3)

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.

• Comparative Studies
  • CS 1 - The Romance languages
  • CS 6 - European Film
• French
  • FR 2 - Structures and varieties of French
  • FR 3† - Love, violence, and power in France, 1100–1500
  • FR 4† - Rethinking the human: French literature, thought, and culture, 1500–1700
  • FR 5† - Revolutions in writing, 1700–1900
  • FR 6† - Innovation and upheaval: deformation and reformulation in the 20th and 21st centuries
• German
  • GE 2† - German history and thought since 1750
  • GE 4† - The making of German culture
  • GE 5† - Modern German culture (1): 1750-1914
  • GE 6† - Modern German culture (2): 1890 to the present day
  • GE 7† - German: a linguistic introduction
• Italian
  • IT 2: Structure and varieties of Italian
  • IT 3† - Italian cinema
  • IT 4† - Autobiography and self-representation in Italian culture
  • IT 5 - Italian identities: place, language, and culture
• Portuguese
  • PG 1 - Introduction to the language, literatures, and cultures of Portuguese-speaking countries (available to ex-ab initio students only)
  • PG 4† - Lusophone Culture, History and Politics
  • SP 11 - The Hispanic languages
• Slavonic Studies
  • SL 2 - The history and culture of Early Rus
  • SL 3 - The Making of Ukraine: History and Culture of Early Modernity
  • SL 4† - Russian culture from the Golden Age to the Silver Age
  • SL 6† - Russian culture after 1953
  • SL 7 - Soviet and Russian Cinema
  • SL 8 –The history of the Russian language 
  • SL 9* - Introduction to the language, literature and culture of Ukraine
  • SL10 - Studies in Twentieth-Century Ukrainian Literature and Film
  • SL 11 - Topics in Nineteenth-Century Slavonic Literature and Culture: Tolstoy
  • SL 13* - Introduction to the language, literature and culture of Poland
  • SL14† - Russian Culture from 1895 to the Death of Stalin
  • SL15 - Cultural Histories of the present
• Spanish
  • SP 3† - Medieval Iberia, Early Modern Spain, and Latin America
  • SP 4† - Modern Spanish culture and history
  • SP 5† - Latin-American culture and history
  • SP 11 - The Hispanic languages
• General (introductory language papers)
  • GR 3* - Introduction to Modern Greek language and culture
  • PG 3* - Introduction to the language, literatures, and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking World #
  • SL 9* - Introduction to the language, literature, and culture of Ukraine
  • SL 13* - Introduction to the language, literature, and culture of Poland
  • SP 6* - Introduction to Catalan language and culture

All HML students must choose one History Topic Paper. Those wishing to do a second History paper must take a Research Project. For full details of the Topic Papers and Research Projects on offer see the list on the Faculty of History's website (scroll down to 'Explore Part IB'). 

Part II

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

Students will also take an Oral exam at the beginning of the fourth year; these are normally held on the Thursday and Friday before full Michaelmas Term. Read more about the Oral C exam.

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

The two core language courses:

• Paper C1: Translation from and into the foreign language (FRC1, GEC1, ITC1, PGC1, SLC1, SPC1)
• Paper C2: Text and Culture (FRC2, GEC2, ITC2, PGC2, SLC2, SPC2)

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 an HML Dissertation.

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

List of History papers you can choose (scroll down to 'Explore Part II'). 

You can choose from the whole range listed as Advanced Topics and Special Subjects. But please note that if you choose a Special Subject:

• it will count as one paper, and you can take either the written (gobbets) exam (Paper 3) or 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 the Advanced Topics. 

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

The word count for the Dissertation is 10,000 words.