155-year-old MIT entrance exam question paper goes viral, Redditors solve its ‘easy’ algebra questions

The Reddit post has garnered more than 37,000 upvotes on the platform.

One user responded to the paper saying, “Good to know that i could have joined MIT in 1870,” to which another user replied, “It says “algebra” at the top, so this is probably just the algebra section rather than the entire entrance exam. Maybe there is a calculus and other sections too.”

Another Redditor pointed out, “Might be a bit easy for today senior high schoolers, but what I like to note is that the exam is, trivially, designed to be solved with almost no calculations, as obviously calculator were not to be a thing for another century.” A third user asked, “Anyone care to explain each answer like we’re 5?” to which another Redditor replied with a quick summary of the steps to solve them.

The first class of students to enroll at MIT in 1865, according to an alumni website, was exempt from traditional entrance examinations. They only had to show that they were “properly prepared.” However, by 1869, the MIT Corporation established qualifying exams in areas including English, Geometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic as part of the admissions procedure.