| THEORETICAL | Speculative quote recalled in the exam |
| TALLEST | Most difficult of everything in the exam (7) |
| PASSED | Was successful in the exam, working with spades (6) |
| TESTAMENT | Meant to plough in the exam and will (9) |
| FAILINGS | Faults responsible for one's being ploughed in the exam? |
| INVIGILATOR | The one to watch in the exams |
| CORRECTS | Does a job in the exam office for college rector's boss (8) |
| THEPICKWICKPAPERS | Classic book? Choose Hamlet in the exams |
| EXOTICA | A quote recalled about old times in curious collection (7) |
| APATHETIC | A quote recalled by the way, passionless (9) |
| EVE | Literary word for nightfall; the day or night before a notable occasion or festival, such as Christmas Day; or, the biblical first woman recalled in the name of an apple pudding (3) |
| LEAPING | Bounding, cavorting, jumping, pronking, springing or vaulting, like the 10 lords recalled in The Twelve Days of Christmas said to represent the Ten Commandments (7) |
| PARSLEY | Said by botanist John Gerard to be "agreeable to the stomache", one of the four herbs recalled in the English ballad Scarborough Fair (7) |
| EXOTIC | Colourful, neat, cutting quote recalled |
| TIC | Pointless quote recalled by little jerk (3) |
| BATHETIC | “Suddenly ordinary city” — quote recalled |
| HERETIC | Unorthodox thinker's quote recalled by that woman |
| HAWTHORN | Hedgerow shrub with white blossoms or "knots of may" recalled in the old rhyme Nuts in May (8) |
| SALT | Crystalline substance used to season food and recalled in the Latin phrase "cum grano salis"; or, an experienced sailor of the brine (4) |
| ATALANTA | Mythological Greek huntress whose name is recalled in the scientific name for the red admiral (8) |
