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Part IB

Part IA   |   Part IB   |   Part II

In your second year you will study four units:

Modern Languages papers

Option A: Core language papers for ab initio German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish

Paper No. Paper
B1 Use of the foreign language
B2  Translation of the foreign language
Oral B Oral examination B

Option B: Core language paper for post-A-level French, German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish

Paper No. Paper
B3 Translation into the foreign language, and test in the foreign language through audio-visual media

Students will take at least one of the following Modern Language papers:

It is possible to submit two long essays of 3,500-4,000 words instead of taking a written exam in some of the language papers from Schedule A.

History papers

Students will take one Topic paper in History. The Topics available each year may vary. The following Topic papers have previously been offered: 

Paper No.  Paper
T1 History of Political thought to c. 1700
T2 History of Political thought c.1700-c.1890
T3 Ancient Empires: Culture and Power in the Ancient Mediterranean
T4 Inequalities and Social Change in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds
T5 Warfare, Kingship and Society in Anglo-Saxon England
T6 Conflict, Identity and Social Change: State-Formation in Medieval Britain and Europe
T7 Crown and Parliaments under the Tudors and Stuarts
T8 Faith, Fire and Fury: The British Reformations and their Discontents
T9 Nature and Knowledge c. 1500-c.1800
T11 Becoming British? Union and Disunion in Eighteenth-Century Britain
T12 British Worlds, 1750-1914
T13 Empires in World History: Regions and Themes
T14 Europe’s Modern Age of Violence, 1914-1949
T15 The United States since World War I
T16 Caribbean History

Students taking only one scheduled paper from Modern Languages will also take a Research project in History. The following Research projects have previously been offered:

Paper No.  Paper
RP1 Fantastic medieval sources and where to find them
RP2 Doing Early Modern Microhistory
RP3 Gender in Early Modern Britain
RP4 Labouring Lives
RP5 American History
RP6 Contemporary History, Politics and Public Life
RP7 Music and Society, from Renaissance to Romantic
RP8 Themes in Modern British and Irish History
RP9 Women in Cambridge c.1900-1950
RP10 Nations and Nationalism
RP11 Rethinking Colonialism

For full details of the Topic papers and Research projects on offer see the list on the Faculty of History's website (scroll down to 'Explore Part IB').