First published in 1998. This is Volume XV of twenty-eight in the Sociology of Education series. This is a study with special reference to university entrance written in 1949 which started as an enquiry into the performance of a group of university scholarship holders in their First-Year examinations. It developed into an examination of the transition from school to university and is concerned primarily with the problems of London and the provincial universities, though there is much that is relevant to the problems of universities elsewhere. The investigation originated in the concern which was felt amongst the staffs of universities about the general standard of student attainment.