Dear Jackie: I found a couple sites about "little-go". This excerpt is from a student in 1911.
Parts of the rest of it are quite amusing.

So I accepted the Cambridge offer and began to study for the Previous Examination commonly
called the`Little Go'. That exam was in three parts. Part I consisted of papers in Latin and Greek
- no matter what one subsequently took for one's degree - and I found myself reading Cicero's
Bellum Civile in Latin and, in Greek, Euripedes' Medea and the Gospel of St Mark. I knew the English
version of St Mark fairly well and decided that the best way to surmount Part I was to learn the
translations by heart. The rest I was excused, except a Paper on Paley's Christian Evidences.
I think that was the dullest book I have ever read. Anyhow I passed and in October 1911.
I found myself a Commoner of Queens' College, Cambridge.

The following Sunday I attended the Freshmens' Service at Great St Mary's, the University
Church. I discovered afterwards that the reason for the very large congregation was because
the Master of Trinity was the preacher. Like Dr Spooner of Oxford, the Master of Trinity
always said the wrong thing at the right time. He chose for his text the parable of the ten
virgins and proceeded to give a most helpful and straightforward warning of the pitfalls which
might beset an undergraduate fresh from the guardianship of school and home. It was an
excellent discourse until the peroration when the Master said, "And now my dear young
brethren I hope when the time comes you will be found watching with the five wise virgins
and not sleeping with the five foolish ones".

Little-Go. (from Bartleby)

The examination held in the Cambridge University in the second year of
residence. Called also "the previous examination," because it precedes by a year
the examination for a degree. In Oxford the corresponding examination is called
The Smalls. (See MODS.)