In the same year as these changes became effective the examination for the poll degree was separated from the tripos with different sets of papers and a different schedule of subjects[69]. It was, however, still nominally considered as forming part of the senate-house examination, and until 1858 those who obtained a poll degree were arranged in four classes, described as fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, as if in continuation of the junior optimes or third class of the tripos. In the course henceforth ordained for the poll or ordinary degree, the examination, later known as "the General," represents that part of the old senate-house examination which was intended for the poll-men, but gradually it was moved to an earlier period in the normal course taken by the men. In 1851 admission to the classical tripos[70] was allowed to others than those who passed the mathematical tripos, and this provided another avenue to a degree entirely independent of the old senate-house examination. In 1852 another set of examinations, at first called "the Professor's Examinations," and now somewhat modified and known as "the Specials," was instituted for all poll-men to take before they could qualify for a degree. In 1858 the fiction that the poll examinations were part of the senate-house examination was abandoned, and subsequently they have been treated as providing an independent method of obtaining the degree: thus now the mathematical tripos is the sole representative of the old senate-house examination. Since 1858 numerous other ways of obtaining a degree in arts have been established, and it is now possible to graduate by showing proficiency in very special, or even technical subjects. Further changes in the mathematical tripos were introduced in 1833[71]. The duration of the examination, before the issue of the brackets, was extended to five days, and the number of hours of examination on each day was fixed at five and a half: seven and a half hours were assigned to problems. The examination on the first day was confined to subjects that did not require the differential calculus, and only the simplest applications of the calculus were permitted on the second and third days. During the first four days of the examination the same papers were set to all the candidates alike, but on the fifth day the examination was conducted according to classes. No reference was made to _vivâ voce_ questions, though permission was reserved to re-examine candidates if it were found necessary: this right remained in force till 1848, but in fact was never used. In December 1834, a few unimportant details were amended. Mr Earnshaw, the senior moderator in 1836, informed me that he believed that the tripos of that year was the earliest one in which all the papers were marked, and that in previous years the examiners had partly relied on their impression of the answers given.