This precaution is not superfluous, for many plans have been invented to enable mediocre people to pass.

Sometimes a thin book, printed on very small type from copperplates, is slipped into a hole in the sole of the shoe.

But persons detected in such practices are ruined for life.
In a list of one hundred and forty-four successful candidates, in 1851, thirteen were over forty years of age, and one under fourteen years; seven were under twenty; and all, to succeed, must have known by heart the whole of the Sacred Books, besides being well read in history.
Three sets of themes are given, each occupying two days and a night, and until that time is expired no one is allowed to leave his apartment, which is scarcely large enough to sleep in.

The essays must not contain more than seven hundred characters, and no erasure or correction is allowed.

On the first days the themes are taken from the Four Books; on the next, from the older classics; on the last, miscellaneous questions are given.