Christ's tops Cambridge exam table

JUDITH JUDD

Education Editor

Christ's College heads this year's Tompkins league table for final results at Cambridge University, ending King's run of five successive years at the top.

St Catherine's and Emmanuel also did well, both rising by 16 places to come respectively second and third. Selwyn drops from 12th to 23rd and Robinson comes bottom.

King's and Queens', which were first and second last year are down to sixth and fifth. Clare, which was seventh last year, drops to 17th.

Colleges' position in the table, which is compiled for the Independent by Peter Tompkins, a London actuary, are calculated by giving each college a score of five points for a first-class degree, three for an upper second, two for a lower second and one for a third.

Results are tabulated as a percentage of the maximum points that a college might have scored if everyone had a first.

Because of the introduction of a growing number of four-year courses, the third-year results become less important. Mr Tompkins also compiles a table based on the results of all exams in all years. Christ's also tops this table, followed by Queens' and Trinity.

A higher proportion of students at Christ's got firsts than at any other college - 31.2 per cent, followed by Trinity, the largest college, (28.3 per cent). At the other end of the table, Robinson has 11.6 per cent and New Hall 8.7 per cent. Of the two remaining women's-only colleges, New Hall comes third from the bottom in the final results table while Newnham climbs from 15th to 11th.