1895 8th Grade Exam - How'd You Do?

[annyokie]

1895 8th Grade Exam - How'd You Do? This is the 8th Grade Final Exam of 1895..... Imagine a college student trying to pass this test, even if the few outdated questions were modernized. This gives the saying "she/he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning!

Could You Have Passed the 8th Grade in 1895? .........Take a Look:

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, Kansas. USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas 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 do, lie, lay and run.

5. Define Case. Illustrate each Case.

6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.

7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)

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 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. per bushel, deducting 1050 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 cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.

6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

7. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.

8. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?

9. 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 theRebellion.

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)

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'.

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, super.

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 sentence:

cite, site, sight,

fane, fain, feign,

vane, vain, vein,

raze, raise, rays.

10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use 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 Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.

6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.

7. Name all the republics of Europe and give 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 inclination of the earth.

[annyokie]

Well, I'll be the first to admit it, I flunked!

[ThreePuttinDude]

Well, I'll just add that the Chicago Public school system,
and the University of Missouri didn't prepare me well enough for this test.

Although, according to the norms set for the grading system
of todays students, I may have just squeaked by....LOL

[baltodog]

Let's pretend that I live in Miami for a moment....

I aced it!!!!
36%!!!

[skr]

Well, I think I can pronounce most of the words, but that's about it. It makes the thought of college finals even more terrifying.

One of my favorite book series is the Anne of Green Gables books. Just reading what those students were expected to do in the early 1900s told me that I wasn't getting a very good education in the 60s-80s.

[skr]

LOL!

[restornu]

Do you have the link?

[restornu]

LINK

http://www.learn-usa.com/1895exam.htm

[Graybeard58]

Try this link:

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm

[Graybeard58]

Snopes says some form of this has been around since 1999.

[restornu]

Thank you!

[Agnes Heep]

All this in a time before high schools became detention centers and colleges trade schools.

[annyokie]

I know I learned most of the items included on the test, including the argricultural ones, but I sure can't answer them now!

You are correct about having an eighth grade education being considered "well-educated" at the time. My paternal grandmother used to lord it over my maternal grandmother since she made it through the eighth grade and the later only went to sixth.

[donmeaker]

On the other hand, I think a few questions such as "what is a "Do Loop", what is a computer program, What voltage is common household electricity, and how does a flush toilet work would be needed to update the test today. Throw in some rules about driving, aircraft, internal combustion engines, electronic cash registers, measurement using metric units, and 100 years of modern historical experience.

I am amazed that anyone cares about use of Capital Letters, or rules for analysis of poetry. Epochs of history are arbitrary. All history is one, or all history is infinite, any division other than those two are arbitrary, and subject to change according to the styles of the day.

Lincoln said in 3 years he picked up all the mathmatics that he ever posessed, "Ciphering, fractions, and the rule of 3" which was what they called proportions.

Imagine, he would be completely at sea given a simple linear differential equation.