LATIN TEST FROM HARVARD IN 1869
Latin grammar: Give the principal parts of cado, cacdo, tono, reperio, curro, pasco, paciscor, marking the quantity of the penult.
Give all the Infinitives and participles of abeo, ulciscor; the Present Indicative of fio; the Future indicative Active and the Present Subjunctive Passive of munio, with the quantity of all penults
In 1869, the vast majority of Harvard students were legacies, who didn’t have to take the exam.
Interesting that the writer took the opportunity to mock republican President George Bush, who has a Master’s from Harvard.
Well I can do the history and math, but I never studied latin and therefore would not have passed.
Wow. I’m surprised they didn’t ask about a henway.
bump
Latin. The Ebonics of the 19th century.
Strange. No questions about Social Justice, GLBT rights, or the banning of firearms.
The math questions are actually easy, but I learned old-school math - the real deal. I never took latin, so I would be totally lost there. I’ve done a lot of reading of history, so I might be able to pass that part.
Once again, the “business insider” blog is about 5 years late with its breaking news. This has been going around a long, long, time.
And if true, proves only that many people could not pass the 1869 Harvard Entrance Exam. Yeah? I’m sure 99% of folks everywhere in 1869 couldn’t pass the 1869 Harvard Entrance exam.
Contrary to what folks want to believe, there was never, ever, ever a golden age where everyone walked around with brains the size of houses.
If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half how long would it take a rooster to lay three eggs?
My grandmother and her twin sister, born in Illinois in 1900, had to spend a year in cram school to pass the Greek exam to get into Wellesly. Her sister was a successful Wellesly graduate of the time, she married a Harvard man. Her sister had to settle for an MIT grad.
I worked with an old E.E. who had graduated from Harvard Physics around the same time. He had to spend a year in cram school to get into Harvard, to study physics, too.
I'd've aced it.
I know without looking I can’t.
I’m not too bright...anyone posts here regular knows that.
Such tests are always tailored to the prior curriculum.
Since the curriculum has changed greatly since then, it is no surprise many today would fail the test.
qed
In 1869 Harvard was an all male school. I’m a young buck still counting my lucky stars for missing the Civil War by just a few years. Why the heck would I throw that luck aside and pass up on going to a co-ed school? I’ll take a rain check on the Harvard exam thanks, now what school had the most women to men ratio in 1869? The important stuff.
Incredible.. 185 of 210 passed it despite not having trillions of dollars flowing into the pockets of worthless union teachers.
Well the chances in 1869 are that you had been exposed to smallpox, polio and TB.
People on the plains were getting butchered by godless savages.
I prefer to live now, as an idiot.