Posted on 05/27/2013 10:30:46 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Thanks Rick;I had to share this one;
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.
8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS – 1895
Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of ‘lie, ”play,’ and ‘run.’
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 – 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt
U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
Orthography (Time, one hour)
[Do we even know what this is??]
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u.’ (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e.’ Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
Geography (Time, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each..
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.
This is 1895!!
You mean they did this without a “Department of Education”?
Could our “taught to the test” 8th graders pass this today?
VooDoo called his homeschooling “unschooled”……Randy
And, no, I couldn't pass it. Gave up half-way through. :-(
Mucho respect for those old-timers.
Geography (Time, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
There are a lot of scientists today who would fail these two questions.
I grew up in India, where I had to pass tests like this 20 years ago. It’s not as hard as it seems because:
1. You actually learn the things they’re asking about. e.g. If the question is “What are the fundamental rules of arithmetic”, you can bet there’s a textbook chapter called “The fundamental rules of arithmetic.”
2. You don’t have to get 90% right. A 60-70% will put you at the top of the class.
3. Tests like these encourage rote behavior. The students memorize entire textbooks (I did), and the teachers resort to the same questions on every test.
I’ll take a modern American education over this anytime. Steve Jobs may or may not have known the capital of Albania, but he could Think For Himself. And that’s what counts in the 21st century.
“Geography (Time, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
There are a lot of scientists today who would fail these two questions.”
Those are easy for WBC.
“1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?”
God’s Judgment. God’s wrath.
“2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?”
Gay Marriage.
Kindly delete this thread. It’s a phony. I was snookered. And I’m actually kind of relieved that I’m not THAT much dumber than my ancestors! Thanks E. Pluribus Unum.
/johnny
Yeah, OK, but none of these 8th grade Kansas smart alecs knew how to put a condom on a banana. So there.
For comparison, here is an 8th grade math exam for the state of Texas in 2006.
Those that trust snopes have soft, incurious minds.
Snopes lies and deceives in every way they can. In this case, they do not deny that the exam was given, but do try to give that impression. Then they attempt to dismiss its difficulty and importance.
F A I L !
Snopes doesn’t say its false, it just says “hey that test indicates how backwards we were back then, theres no culture
learning indicated, no worldhistory or the arts or algebra or advanced math etc”. Typical liberal drivel.
The Truth TruthOrFiction.com has listed this eRumor as unproven, even though there is a source for it and we have obtained an actual copy of the exam. There has not been sufficient proof given, in our view, that the exam is what is claimed.
Rather than being for eighth graders, there are several aspects of the exam that raise the question as to whether it was intended for adults, perhaps newly graduated teachers or teacher applicants.
The eRumor says the exam is from the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society in Salina, Kansas, and was published in the Salina Journal newspaper. That is true. Shirley Tower, the volunteer librarian for the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society, found the exam and posted it on their website in 1996 and the Salina Journal's article appeared the same year. The exam started circulating on the Internet and became the subject of numerous newspaper articles including in the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.
There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the exam, but there are questions about for whom it was intended (If the graphics are difficult to read, place your pointing device arrow over the graphic for details).
First, the original exam doesn't mention the eighth grade.Second, the document describes itself as being administered orally and for "applicants." Unless eight graders were described as "applicants," it makes one wonder if the exam was actually for newly graduated teachers:
Read more at:http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/a/1895exam.htm#.UaOaaNjN6kw
Thanks. I agree. Actually, I had a professor who gave impossibly difficult exams when I was in grad school. I got an ‘A’ in the class and I don’t think I ever scored more than 35% correct on any of his exams. Talk about discouraging students! It was totally uncalled for.
LOL!
um...er...um... can I have multiple choice please??
No the test is genuine; its snopes that is the phony.
They lie subtly on their site.
They do not deny that the exam was real.
>> “Every so often this exam pops up. So far it’s been proven to be an urban legend.” <<
.
No, that is not true. Snopes is the legend; and empty one.
I don’t understand why people return to snopes when they’ve been proven to be flat out liars.
This should be distributed around the school.
Oh, no, I AM as dumb as this test made me feel! :-(
“There are a lot of scientists today who would fail these two questions.”
There are a lt of climatologists that would fail this test today, the majority working for the IPCC.
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