Could you pass the 8th grade?

currupt4130

VT Hokie
Found this on Pirate today, and I have to admit, I fail horribly, good luck.






Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that they had only an 8th grade education? Well, check this out.

Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, 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, lay 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, 1.25 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 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry 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. 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 around 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)
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, dipthong, 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, 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..
7. 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.

Also notice that the exam took six hours to complete.

Gives the saying "she/he only had 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

For further information and to check the validity of all this, go to the following URL:

http://mwhodges.home.att.net/1895-test.htm
 

F, that, just fail me. too much to comprehend. LOL. Maybe our forefathers were smarter than I thought. Well, at least the ones that stayed or actually went to school in the first place.
 
Yeah, now compare that with the fact that 8th graders aren't even required to know how to spell. In the local school district, any spelling errors on homework (other than an actual spelling test, which isn't given anymore) are overlooked because "the students need to concentrate more on conveying thoughts and taking notes from the board and less on spelling which interferes with learning". That's from the Newton BOE President in a letter I received a few years back. They went on to say that in elementary school and junior high, students need to focus on facts and not spelling, as there would be time in high school and college to learn how to spell. Can you believe that crap?!? You have to have the basic fundamentals before you proceed if you ask me.......
 
I got shuttled through the Lamphere public school system, graduated with honors, diploma's sitting right here on the shelf next to my desk...

To this day, I have never been able to memorize the times tables... Nor can I long multiply or divide on paper, I simply have NEVER been able to grasp this concept... Guess you don't need THAT to get through middle school and high school math, the fact that I failed math every year of middle school, yet still moved on and graduated in good standing is kind of scary to me...
 

I bet they left behind a few children back then. Those that passed probably went on to further their education and became professionals like the engineers who built our country while those who did not became anything from farm hands to tradesmen - all being an integral part of their society.

Today, where "No child is left behind", we raise educated idiots who are inept at almost everything except navigating through a Windows program.

Gotta love progress.
 
KrazyJeeper said:
F, that, just fail me. too much to comprehend. LOL. Maybe our forefathers were smarter than I thought. Well, at least the ones that stayed or actually went to school in the first place.
smarter than you though? you don't think the bill of rights is one of the most amazing documents ever created? who do you think wrote that? just cause we have more technology today doesn't mean we're smarter. progression takes time.
 
bchcky said:
smarter than you though? you don't think the bill of rights is one of the most amazing documents ever created? who do you think wrote that? just cause we have more technology today doesn't mean we're smarter. progression takes time.

As a whole, I'd say Americans are dumber now than they were 200 years ago, and technology is to blame. Kids can use calculators for math, spell-checkers and grammars checkers when composing their essays on the computer, and have pretty much lost touch with actual hands-on writing. It's really pretty sad. We can do so much more with our technology, but imagine what we'd be like if all our technology were suddenly taken away.....the country would not survive intellectually.
 

i think it has made us lazy. we're not necessarily dumber. i absolutely see the points behind you saying calculators and spell checkers and that stuff, but at the same time, realisticly, we're not going to lose it. and if we all of a sudden lose technology because of a devastating event (human or natural), then i'd say we're going to have bigger problems than not having a calculator. like how do you bottle beer without a bottle capper?
 
Back
Top