Harvard's 1899 Entrance Exam [pdf]

The stamp says 1899, but it says 1869 at the bottom of each page. Is it actually from 1869?

Makes the SAT look like a joke...

This doesn't look too bad. But, like any test, it would depend on the time limit and one's expectations going in.

Like all tests, it's not hard if you know the stuff that's asked. If you've studied ancient greek in school, that part of the test is probably as easy for you as the algebra part must seem to anyone who went to school in the past couple of decades (it looks about as hard as math homework from when I was 15 or so).

edit:

It's interesting. I do have a certain romantic attachment to this kind of classic humanist education, e.g. it irks me that the history and geography section has me floundered and I'm somewhat sorry that I didn't have the drive to do better in Latin in school.

But then I think, there's so much other interesting things to know and experience. At times when I wish I could read Cicero's Orationes In Catilinam in its original form, I need to remind myself that I can read and understand, say, this little piece of genius:

  fib = 1 : 1 : [ a+b | (a,b)