What is "responsions"

n. (plural of responsion English)

Responsions was the first of the three examinations once required for an academic degree at the University of Oxford.

It was nicknamed the Little Go and was generally taken by students prior to or shortly after matriculation, the idea being that without standardised qualifications from school examinations, the University had to verify for itself the quality of the students that colleges were accepting. The examination consisted of comparatively simple questions on Latin, Ancient Greek, and mathematics. It was abolished in 1960. John Henry Newman wrote to his father on 29 May 1818: "I go up for my Little tomorrow", and records in his journal for the following day that he had 'passed Responsions'.

The equivalent at Cambridge was the Previous Examination, so called because it was given a year previous to graduation, and often called the 'Little Go'. Says one writer of the Cambridge 'Little Go':

'The examination held in the Cambridge University in the second year of residence. Called also "the previous examination", because it precedes by a year the examination for a degree. In Oxford the corresponding examination is called The Smalls.'

Karl Pearson's obituary of Raphael Weldon (p.8) refers to Weldon "preparing (c. 1877) for Little-Go and the London Preliminary Scientific. For the classical part of the former he seems to have worked by himself." Pearson also refers to 'Little-Go' in Cambridge in 1842 in his biography of Francis Galton.

The Final Freshman examination at the University of Dublin was also termed ‘Little-go’, which all students whether Honours or Pass had to pass till 1959 if they were to rise to Sophister standing. The ordinary undergraduate course in Arts itself (along with the Little Go examination) was abolished in 1979.

Responsions derives from Anglo-French responsion from Latin responsio "a reply or an answer", from the Latin verb respondeo, to answer, or give a response.