Can you pass the 8th grade?

[Mulu]

An oldy but a goody. Can you pass the 8th grade final exam of 1895?

EXAMINATION GRADUATION QUESTIONS
OF SALINE COUNTY, KANSAS
April 13, 1895
J.W. Armstrong, County Superintendent.

Examinations at Salina, New Cambria, Gypsum City, Assaria, Falun, Bavaria, and District No. 74 (in Glendale Twp.)

Reading and Penmanship. - The Examination will be oral, and the Penmanship of Applicants will be graded from the manuscripts

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 inch?
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, and 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 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 N.A.
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 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.

Health (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Where are the saliva, gastric juice, and bile secreted? What is the use of each in digestion?
2. How does nutrition reach the circulation?
3. What is the function of the liver? Of the kidneys?
4. How would you stop the flow of blood from an artery in the case of laceration?
5. Give some general directions that you think would be beneficial to preserve the human body in a state of health.

[Avaz]

Wow, the test lasted 5 hours 45 minutes? That's a hellava long test!

[Zelknolf]

A test with questions about application?

We barely get those in college these days, and people wonder why our nation is so dumb!

[darrenhfx]

Standards have changed in the last 100+ years... sheesh.

[Charlie]

Someone should hold whomever composed those test questions accountable for their poor usafe of ft, foot, and ' .

I answered most of the questions correctly in 10 minutes. I also passed my collage entrance exams, so yes, I could pass the 8th grade. This test also looks like it was meant for a 12 year old from Kansas. Kansas is not the rest of America. Kansas is a flat plane with nothing but blue sky, wheat, corn, soy, and mobsters.

[Mulu]

I answered most of the questions correctly in 10 minutes.

How do you know your answers are correct?

Submit them to me and I'll grade them.

[Rotku]

Well I've failed.

[fade]

I'd fail theirs, but if it is any comfort I am willing to bet they would fail mine. Describe US history from the years 1900-2000

[Rotku]

I'd fail theirs, but if it is any comfort I am willing to bet they would fail mine. Describe US history from the years 1900-2000

Arrived late in WW1. Arrived late in WW2. Blew up Japan. Fucked up the Vietnam War. Had some evil conspiracy political spying thingy go on. Had a few famous people shot; one president, and one black guy.

[paazin]

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

Might as well check this out, Mulu

[Mulu]

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

Might as well check this out, Mulu

Wow, Snopes FAILS! They admit the test is true, but then claim not knowing the answers is meaningless because kids of that day were taught to the test, a subjective analysis at best, and let's face it we do the same thing still today. Being taught to the test means knowing the answers, and therefore knowing the information necessary to give the answers. Not knowing the answers means not knowing the information necessary to answer the questions. And some of those questions are pretty basic knowledge.

I suppose to be totally fair you'd have to compare the exam with a modern 8th grade final exam. Oh that's right, there's no such thing anymore....

[paazin]

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

Might as well check this out, Mulu

Wow, Snopes FAILS! They admit the test is true, but then claim not knowing the answers is meaningless because kids of that day were taught to the test, a subjective analysis at best, and let's face it we do the same thing still today. Being taught to the test means knowing the answers, and therefore knowing the information necessary to give the answers. Not knowing the answers means not knowing the information necessary to answer the questions. And some of those questions are pretty basic knowledge.

I suppose to be totally fair you'd have to compare the exam with a modern 8th grade final exam. Oh that's right, there's no such thing anymore....

There are, Mulu, depending on the country/state/province in which you live.

NY, where I had gone to school, had early exams which you needed to pass. They were easy, true, but would probably be impossibly difficult for someone who lived in 1890.

[Voersaa]

I'd fail theirs, but if it is any comfort I am willing to bet they would fail mine. Describe US history from the years 1900-2000

Arrived late in WW1. Arrived late in WW2. Blew up Japan. f*cked up the Vietnam War. Had some evil conspiracy political spying thingy go on. Had a few famous people shot; one president, and one black guy.

LOL

I didn't even brother to read the whole test. Lets just say that there was no way I would be able to pass it

But then again I only have a Masters in Economics and work with budgets in the range of about 350 million dollars. Sort of makes me wonder if everyone that works in finance really are idiots (subprime.....).

[hollyfant]

Is it me, or are many of these questions complete BS?

The Examination will be oral, and the Penmanship of Applicants will be graded from the manuscripts

Oral penmanship?

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.

Don't Capitalise "Capital Letters" Or Random Other Words In The Middle Of A Sencence!

2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.

Parts of speech? Like tongue, lips and vocal chords?

3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.

You can't (re-)define those, they already have well-established definitions.

5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.

Case? Like a case of wine? Or a legal case?

7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words

It's an oral exam!

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.

That's a couple of hundred rules, right there.

2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

The size of the wagon isn't enough information to determine it's payload volume.

3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?

If you use lbs. and cts., then you must also use bu., with the full stop.

Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.

Find? Is it hidden then? I'd rather calculate it.

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

Per inch? Not square inch? Or per inch at 16ft width?

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

Dunno, what's the price of the farmhouse?

...and so on, and so forth.
Most schools here have a rule, that if you can show the question to be in error you get full marks for it. I'm gonna ace this exam!

[Mulu]

Is it me, or are many of these questions complete BS?

The Examination will be oral, and the Penmanship of Applicants will be graded from the manuscripts

Oral penmanship?

I think they mean the questions are oral, not the answers. It is vague.

The rest is pretty funny.