8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS - 1895

[NuroSlam]

http://people.morehead-st.edu/fs/w.willis/eighthgrade.html
 
Could You Have Passed the 8th Grade in 1895?
...Take a Look:

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, KS. USA.
It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky 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 do, 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 50 cts. per bu., 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. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per m?
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 are, 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 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 sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane,fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced andindicate 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 theocean?
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.
 

[BonerJoe]

Sigh, not this again.

[TimeLady Victorious]

clearly, nothing has changed in over a century

NOTHING

NO TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES, NOTHING

[Coconut]

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

[Harry Tuttle]

clearly, nothing has changed in over a century

NOTHING

NO TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES, NOTHING

Good point. Try giving an 8th grade test of today to a child of 1895. They would not know how to turn on the calculator and would probably not know how to catch the bus to get to school.

Humans have not degraded in their ability to acquire skills they find useful or necessary. A better comparison would be to look at the progression of ethics. I would say in that case we have a mixed bag. Racial segregation has diminished, but liberty.

[davann]

Ha, I've seen this before. Fake.

Although, I recently ran across an old school book from about the same time. It clearly stated the age group it was written for as being 8 to 11 year olds but used today's college level vocabulary.

Fact is, people are less educated on average today then they were in 1895. The military has been tracking this decrease for generations and have to lower their education level requirements for officers every ten years or so. Add in the fact the illiteracy is on the rise and it is clear the public schools are succeeding in their core mission.

[One two three]

I really don't give a fuck.  Most of that info isn't useful anymore, anyway.

[Dylboz]

Absolutely FAKE. Snopes.com, dude.

[NuroSlam]

Absolutely FAKE. Snopes.com, dude.

In fact snopes doesnt say its fake it says the claim that kids in 19th century America were smarter. At no point did snopes say the original document did not exist only information found on the net.

While I will agree with the assumptions of unfamiliar material would lead to a failure of the test, I would still say that kids then in schools were in fact smarter given the basic math and VERY basic history understanding of the 10 plus "kids" that work in my store. All under 25.

[rabidfurby]

Absolutely FAKE. Snopes.com, dude.

In fact snopes doesnt say its fake it says the claim that kids in 19th century America were smarter. At no point did snopes say the original document did not exist only information found on the net.

While I will agree with the assumptions of unfamiliar material would lead to a failure of the test, I would still say that kids then in schools were in fact smarter given the basic math and VERY basic history understanding of the 10 plus "kids" that work in my store. All under 25.

Yeah, the "false" on that Snopes page is pretty misleading. Not only do they not say it's a fake test, but one of the newspaper articles they reference at the bottom mentions that it is a real test:

http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/schooltest12508

http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/1895-Eighth-grade-test-SE1-0123082008-02-22T16-03-32

The 2nd article includes a PDF of the test:

http://www.salina.com/www/1895test/test_1895.pdf

[TimeLady Victorious]

Absolutely FAKE. Snopes.com, dude.

In fact snopes doesnt say its fake it says the claim that kids in 19th century America were smarter. At no point did snopes say the original document did not exist only information found on the net.

While I will agree with the assumptions of unfamiliar material would lead to a failure of the test, I would still say that kids then in schools were in fact smarter given the basic math and VERY basic history understanding of the 10 plus "kids" that work in my store. All under 25.

This is actually right.

I have a McGuffey's Reader from the 1850s intended for second graders, and the material in it makes it surprising (looking at kids now) that it would be used for middle schoolers today, if not high school freshmen.

I also have a bunch of textbooks from the 20s, intended for middle schoolers, that seem like they're intended for college students. - For example, an English Literature textbook says that it wants students to read Alexander Pope, Chaucer (in the original Middle English!), Washington Irving, etc.

Something's happened to the intelligence of people in this country, if not the world, and it's not for the better.

[BobRobertson]

Although, I recently ran across an old school book from about the same time. It clearly stated the age group it was written for as being 8 to 11 year olds but used today's college level vocabulary.

I've been teaching my daughter to read using the McGuffey Readers from the 1800s, from Project Gutenberg.

She's 6, we're in reader #5, and yes the vocabulary and construction are well beyond what today's colleges require. Not the _subjects_, mind you, just the language used.

Fact is, people are less educated on average today then they were in 1895. The military has been tracking this decrease for generations and have to lower their education level requirements for officers every ten years or so. Add in the fact the illiteracy is on the rise and it is clear the public schools are succeeding in their core mission.

Somewhere in LewRockwell.com is an article (or maybe Mises.org, not sure which) about the problems the military had when they instituted the draft for WW2. They were getting a HUGE number of 4-F recruits because of illiteracy. They thought it was systematic shirking, but they found sure enough that it was the result of the near total "success" of public schooling between WW1 and WW2.

Do yourselves a favor: Do NOT send your kids to public school. Homeschooling is both affordable and successful, but you have to take the time to do it. Most people do not want to discipline themselves or their kids to the extent needed.

...which is some 2-3 hours a day. Really. That's it. Once the student can read, and read well, they teach themselves. But you still have to be the one to say "get to it", so the job changes over time but never really goes away.

[rookie]

7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per m?

that's an expensive fucking board

also...the same question in that PDF link rabid fury posted doesn't read "m" as the last measurement.  per in.