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February 26, 2013

Are You Smarter Than An Eighth Grader - In 1895?



In order to graduate, 8th grade students in Kansas had to pass the following exam. They were given five hours to complete it and no lifelines.

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,' 'play,' 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 hour 15 minutes)

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 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 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 the cost of 6,720 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 of 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)

[Do we even know what this is??]
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, 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. 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.

9 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

I suspect the average high school teacher would do poorly on that test these days.

Doom said...

While I couldn't do more than, 70% on that, I could have and probably had to at one time, do much better. Maintaining that, though, through school, pretty much ended when they stopped giving final exams, and then beyond to now? (final exams ended before my time, if school was still... rather exacting (back when))

Two of the questions, however, can't be answered (or correctly, for sure). What causes the weather? Unless you go with "God.", they are arguing the science aspects of that today. And about the interest? It depends on what time basis interest is calculated (and whether you borrowed from the bank or are 'loaning' the bank money. :P ) At least two problem questions, and some things have changed. My guess is modern history has even changed so that what was fact is now... whatever they say it is.

WoFat said...

Back to the future.

LL said...

Then again we could give a test today that somebody in 1895 might not be able to pass.

Let me offer a few trivial suggestions:

Yolanda gots uh baby daddy. She don' know who it iz otay buh-weet, cuz she been wit Cleotis, Tyrone and Malik. Who you think the baby daddy is?

Yo, Jamal overdosed an' we's need ta git him ta da hospital. What iz da shortest route ta avoid Crips turf?

Yo Miguel jacked uh Porsche an' we's need ta take it ta uh chop shop. Which chop shop will give us da most money fo' it? and git Sheniquah's ass back ova' heeah, motherfucker.

We can blame the decline of civilization on climate change.

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

Yeah, What LL said.

jay son said...

goes hand in hand with what i posted about the kansas governor wanting to hold kids back who can not read at grade level. how many people even know that tare, agriculturally, means cheat?

Fredd said...

All o' that thar book larnin never put up even one acre o' sileage.

'And though my lack of education
hasn't hurt me none' (Paul Simon) I doubt even today's Ivy League college graduates could even muster a "C" on that Kansas test these days.

sig94 said...

All youse guys ... LMAO!

Still, our gettow gradgieates can finger out how to rip the EBT system off pretty gud, noh?

Kid said...

Geeez Sig,I didn't even graduate 8th grade !

I'll bet 8th grader's in China could do that test though.