Tompkins Table

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The Tompkins Table is an annual ranking that lists the colleges of the University of Cambridge in order of their students' performances in that year's examinations. It was created in 1981 by Peter Tompkins, an undergraduate mathematics student. Initially, it only included final year exams but since 1997 has covered all exams for which grades are allocated. The table allocates 5 points for a First Class degree, 3 points for an Upper Second (known also as a 2-1), 2 points for a Lower Second (a 2-2), 1 point for a Third and no points for someone only granted an allowance towards an Ordinary Degree. The scores in each subject are then weighted to a common average, to avoid the bias towards colleges with higher proportions of students entered for subjects which receive higher average grades. It should be noted that the differences between the highest places on the table is usually very slight. The rankings are not officially endorsed by the University.

Below is the table for 2006 (2005 place in brackets): Score (% Firsts)

1. (5) Emmanuel College 66.64% (29.4%)
2. (2) Gonville & Caius College 65.92% (27.0%)
3. (1) St Catharine's College 65.91% (24.7%)
4. (6) Pembroke College 65.71% (28.7%)
5. (3) Trinity College 65.45% (27.8%)
6. (4) Christ's College 65.06% (26.2%)
7. (19) Selwyn College 64.39% (22.8%)
8. (16) Corpus Christi College 63.68% (23.5%)
9. (14) Sidney Sussex College 63.63% (20.7%)
10. (7) Jesus College 63.36% (22.2%)
11. (15) Downing College 63.17% (20.5%)
12. (9) Clare College 63.16% (23.3%)
13. (18) Churchill College 62.90% (24.0%)
14. (8) Queens' College 62.76% (21.4%)
15. (12) St. John's College 62.36% (20.2%)
16. (17) Trinity Hall 62.22% (19.9%)
17. (10) King's College 62.20% (21.3%)
18. (11) Robinson College 61.32% (18.4%)
19. (13) Fitzwilliam College 61.22% (19.6%)
20. (20) Magdalene College 61.15% (16.5%)
21. (22) Peterhouse 60.87% (18.7%)
22. (24) Girton College 60.16% (16.4%)
23. (21) Newnham College 59.75% (14.5%)
24. (25) New Hall 58.07% (11.2%)
25. (26) Homerton College 57.06% (11.0%)
26. (27) Lucy Cavendish College 55.81% (7.9%)
27. (23) Wolfson College 54.35% (6.8%)
28. (28) St Edmund's College 53.35% (13.0%)
29. (29) Hughes Hall 50.02% (10.8%)

Although some colleges have recently been placed highly in the Tompkins Table, positions can and do fluctuate wildly from year to year. It may therefore be worth studying the Table rankings over the past few years, and discounting the result of any single year. There is also a self-fulfilling prophecy aspect of such tables; ambitious and talented applicants may gravitate toward what appear to be the higher-achieving colleges, thus consolidating for the future the skewed results revealed in the Table. A number of qualifications about the Table are, additionally, worth noting. The first is that different rankings would be obtained if different points (effectively, weightings) were given to different degree classes. The second is that the Table ranks final scores, but does not express any measure of 'value added' (that is, the improvement over three years of given students; it is worth noting that state school versus private school intake ratios vary as between colleges, and that the 'lower-ranked' colleges might actually be doing proportionately better than they would appear). Lastly, the Table only relates to undergraduate degree classes, and makes no measure of postgraduate degrees (the 'best' colleges for PG degrees might be quite different, for a variety of reasons).

The University also goes to some length to point out that people in the lower-placed colleges do often get firsts and people in the higher-placed college still get thirds.

[edit] Norrington Table

The corresponding rankings for the University of Oxford is the Norrington Table. Since Oxford adopted split second-class degrees in 1986, the Norrington Table has adopted the Tompkins Table method of scoring, but without the weighting attached to individual subject scores.

[edit] External links

• Tompkins Table 2000-2006