EVEN among the brightest minds at Oxford University, it has long been viewed as the one examination most likely to stir fear and self-doubt.

The one-word essay set by All Souls College every year has been the stuff of Oxford legend since 1914, when candidates first faced the challenge of writing for three hours on a single word.

Those who have faced the ordeal know that they were in fierce competition for one of the greatest academic prizes that Oxford has to offer.

But the graduate-only college has decided the time has come to draw a line under its historic test. In a word, it has decided that the exam has become outdated, and candidates will be spared the challenge this year.

In 1914 the word was “culture”. Since then candidates have been faced with “originality,” “ water”, “miracles” and “bias” as the essay’s mystique continued to grow. Last year’s candidates were invited to write on “reproduction.”

The warden of All Souls, Sir John Vickers, said the college had decided that the one word exam had served its useful purpose but was no longer viewed as the most suitable way to measure candidates.

He said: “We learn more about people’s abilities and potential from the other general and specialist subject papers.”

The great Oxford historian Hugh Trevor Roper, later Lord Dacre, was among those who unsuccessfully bid for an All Souls fellowship, while the philosopher Isaiah Berlin and the Judge Richard Wilberforce, were among those who secured the prize, which propels successful candidates to academic stardom.

When the war hero TE Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia – died, the only one of his achievements his mother wanted emblazoned on his headstone was “Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.”

Historian Robin Briggs, who passed the exam in 1964 when faced with the word “innocence”, said it was “too esoteric, even for Oxford”.