Latinum is a common short form for examen Latinum, Latin for "Latin test". The passing of such a test was (and still is) a prerequisite for many university courses (language studies, history, music, medicine and law) at Germany's universities and a source of great frustration for many people who discover that they can't study their favorit subject without it. There used to be a clear division between a "big Latinum" and a "small Latinum", but nowadays the tests and requirements vary considerably between states and even individual universities. The Latinum tests are traditionally focussed on a small number of classic latin texts, mostly Caesar and Cicero.