At the University of Cambridge in England, a 'Wrangler' is a student who gains first-class honours in the third year of the University's undergraduate degree in mathematics. The highest-scoring student is the Senior Wrangler, the second highest is the Second Wrangler, and so on. At the other end of the scale, the person who achieves the lowest exam marks, but still earns a third-class degree, is known as the wooden spoon.
Until 1909, the University made the rankings public. Since 1910 it has publicly revealed only the class of degree gained by each student. An examiner reveals the identity of the Senior Wrangler 'unofficially' by tipping his hat when reading out the person's name, but other rankings are communicated to each student privately. Therefore the names of only some 20th-century Senior Wranglers (such as Crispin Nash-Williams, Christopher Budd, Frank P. Ramsey, Donald Coxeter, Kevin Buzzard, Jayant Narlikar, Jacob Bronowski and Ben J. Green) have become publicly known.
Another notable was Philippa Fawcett. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge which had been co-founded by her mother. In 1890, Fawcett became the first woman to obtain the top score in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos exams. Her score was 13 per cent higher than the second highest score. When the women's list was announced, Fawcett was described as "above the senior wrangler", but she did not receive the title of senior wrangler, as only men were then ranked, with women being listed separately. The results were always highly publicised, with the top scorers receiving great acclaim. Women had been allowed to take the Tripos since 1881, after Charlotte Angas Scott was unofficially ranked as eighth wrangler.
Obtaining the position of a highly ranked Wrangler created many opportunities for the individual's subsequent profession. They would often become Fellows initially, before moving on to other professions, such as law, the Church, or medicine.[1] Throughout the United Kingdom and the British Empire, university mathematics professors were often among the top three Wranglers.[1]
The order of Wranglers was widely publicised and shaped the public perception of mathematics as being the most intellectually challenging of all subjects. According to Andrew Warwick, author of Masters of Theory, the term 'Senior Wrangler' became "synonymous with academic supremacy".
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Top marks in the Cambridge mathematics exam did not always guarantee the Senior Wrangler success in life; the exams were largely a test of speed in applying familiar rules, and some of the most inventive and original students of Mathematics at Cambridge did not come top of their class. Bragg was third, Hardy was fourth, Sedgwick fifth, Malthus was ninth, Bertrand Russell was seventh, Keynes was 12th, and some fared even worse: Klaus Roth was not even a wrangler. The present Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, a wrangler, would go on to become one of the world's leading scientists, while also holding the posts of Master of Trinity College (Cambridge) and President of the Royal Society.
The first woman to top the mathematics list was Philippa Fawcett in 1890. At the time, women were not officially ranked, although they were told how they had done compared to the male candidates, so she was ranked "above the Senior Wrangler".
Students who achieve second-class and third-class mathematics degrees are known as Senior Optimes (second-class) and Junior Optimes (third-class). Cambridge did not divide its examination classification in mathematics into 2:1s and 2:2s until 1985 but now there are Senior Optimes Division 1 and Senior Optimes Division 2.
Information on the wranglers in the period 1860-1940 can be extracted from the BritMath database:
Many of the wranglers who made careers in mathematics can be identified by searching on "wrangler" in:
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