Exam Schools

For tourists, a grand piece of architecture — for students, both a useful lecture hall and a terrifying place of examination. Be sure to check the screen in the entrance hall to find out which room your lecture is in.

You can’t actually go in here unless you’re a student, but it’s good for looking at, and is definitely a must if you’re touring Oxford during exam season. It’s a grand old building where lectures take place during term time and where every Oxford student will take their exams at some point. It’s been the source of much fear since the nineteenth century when it was built by Thomas Jackson (it was the building that brought him to fame) If you go down the road by the side, the building looks much grander and you can see a nice patch of grass. This is used for conferences and things like the freshers’ fair, but is usually out of bounds even to students.
If you catch it at the right time, usually in late May and most of June, you can see Oxford students going to and from their exams, dressed in academic ‘sub-​fusc’ and wearing carnations: white for their first exam, red for their last, and pink in-​between. Last exams are always a cause for celebration, so watch out for confetti, balloons and champagne!