Stephen Hawking Outsmarted Oxford Examiners

Stephen Hawking began studying at University College, Oxford, in 1959, when he was 17. He found the work “ridiculously easy,” and his physics tutor, Robert Berman, said Hawking only needed to know that something could be done before he solved it without checking how others approached it. His final result sat on the border between a first- and second-class degree, but after his oral exam, Berman said the examiners realized they were speaking to someone far cleverer than most of themselves.

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