Christ’s long-standing dominance as the highest-achieving Cambridge college has ended with Trinity taking the top spot, according to the 2024 Tompkins Table.

The table, established in 1981 by then-mathematics student Peter Tompkins, ranks each college according to the exam performance of its undergraduates.

With a reputation for attracting hard-workers, Christ’s has sat atop the rankings in every year the table has been published since 2018. This year, however, Trinity has taken the top spot by a margin of just 0.02 percentage points.

A Christ’s second-year student told Varsity: “To be honest, for me it’s a bit of a relief. I didn’t apply to the College based on the Tompkins; it was only when I got to Cambridge that I discovered Christ’s reputation for library hermitage. On the whole, I think the table is of little concern for most Christ’s students.”

Before Christ’s period of dominance, Trinity had topped the table consistently between 2011 and 2017. Trinity has the highest endowment of any Oxbridge college, which exceeded £2 billion as of 2023.

One Trinity student told Varsity: “I see a lot of very hardworking people around Trinity - the bar is often more like a second library,” jokingly adding that he’s “happy” to see St John’s’ ranking drop, and considers Christ’s a “more fitting rival” than the College’s traditional adversary.

St John’s has fallen from among the highest-attaining colleges, dropping eight places to 14th.

Corpus Christi, Pembroke, and Selwyn make up the rest of the top five, two of which have made huge gains since the last Tompkins Table, published in 2022. Corpus has climbed six places from 9th, while Selwyn has risen nine places from 14th. The College’s X account hailed its progress, congratulating “an excellent performance by Selwyn students in the recent exams”.

Jesus College faced the biggest drop in performance from 2022, falling to 18th from 4th. The College had outperformed expectations in that year, having risen by nine places since the previous table.

One  student from Jesus told Varsity: “I’m surprised that we’ve dropped so low but Jesus is about a lot more than grades: the College cares more about welfare and is a proud sporting College.”

“I think an environment where we’re less pressured to perform is better mentally. The Tompkins Table is slowly becoming less relevant as people realise there’s more to this University than grades,” she said.

The bottom of the table is largely unchanged, with Homerton, Murray Edwards, Newnham, Girton, and Hughes Hall registering the five worst undergraduate results.

The Tompkins Table is not wholly popular in Cambridge, and is not published officially by the University. In 2018, the Students’ Union denounced the table’s methodology, which it said reflects “the worst of the academic culture here in Cambridge”.

This year’s Tompkins Table was published in the Sunday Times 2025 Good University Guide, which ranked Cambridge as the UK’s fourth-best university, one place lower than the previous year. Commenting on its position, a university spokesperson told Varsity: “We are pleased to be top in 19 subjects, more than any other university.”