An 8th Grade Education

[Elf Mommy]

Take this test and pass it on to your more literate friends.

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Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had 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 , Kansas , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal. [/align]
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, 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.' (HUH?)
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.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.

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

 

[pinksalamander]

I could answer a few of the grammar ones, none of the arithmetic ones, well the History ones are US but if they were UK I reckon I could answer a few.... still difficult though!

 

[LadyBug]

i didn't undstand half of the words, LOL!

 

[pinksalamander]

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

Some of these questions are rather impossible given that the size of a bushel of wheat is not something currently on our school curriculum... and I'm not sure it ever will be...

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

I would hate to do the arithmetic questions without a calculator. I hope they at least had an abacus, or they would have to do it all long hand. I bet very few 8th graders could do it long hand, even if they were given the size of a bushel of wheat and knew the material.

A 5 hour test is freakishly long. I hope they got breaks. Even when I did my diploma exams, it was maximum 2 tests per day, and those were at least 1 hour, but more if you needed. That was stressful enough.

I think I would have failed the 8th grade in 1895.

 

[Pet_Bunny]

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

Surprising theyused imperial and metric systems in math. Let me pull out my calculator.

 

[4cm]

Is there an answer key? I wonder if the questions I guessed at are right or not. =)

9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.

I like the emphasis on homonyms. Your, you're, and there, their, and they're are always mixed up these days. :nope:

 

[kherrmann3]

4cm wrote:

Is there an answer key? I wonder if the questions I guessed at are right or not. =)

9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.

I like the emphasis on homonyms. Your, you're, and there, their, and they're are always mixed up these days.

To, too, and two are other ones that get mixed up. Homonyms are my pet peeve!

 

[Hazel-Mom]

It's a hard test, but I'm pretty sure that when I was in 8th grade, I could do most of those (if they'd been in Flemish, and about Belgian history, LOL).

But other than that, I'd probably do ok. We always had long tests, usually we had one subject per day, in the morning. Tests lasted 4 hours each, and if you were done early, you could study for next subject, or read.

We got afternoons off to study. So our test periods lasted about a week and a half. That was twice a year.

Then in high school it went up to sometimes one subject morning, one afternoon. And in 12th grade, we also had oral exams! Who does those nowadays?I always say my kids have it very easy in school

 

[pinksalamander]

Hazel-Mom wrote:

It's a hard test, but I'm pretty sure that when I was in 8th grade, I could do most of those (if they'd been in Flemish, and about Belgian history, LOL).

But other than that, I'd probably do ok. We always had long tests, usually we had one subject per day, in the morning. Tests lasted 4 hours each, and if you were done early, you could study for next subject, or read.

We got afternoons off to study. So our test periods lasted about a week and a half. That was twice a year.

Then in high school it went up to sometimes one subject morning, one afternoon. And in 12th grade, we also had oral exams! Who does those nowadays?I always say my kids have it very easy in school

We have oral exams at our school. I've done loads of oral exams in English, R.E, Drama, French and Spanish.

 

[pamnock]

In the United States quest to "leave no child behind", we "dumbed down" our education system.

I'm amazed at how many of the college students I see at school that have to take remedial math and English classes.

Pam

 

[hartleybun]

im like Hazel-Mom - i tell my kids that school is easier than in my day:rollseyes daughter has just done two maths exams - one of them was testing her ability to use a calculator. they were all checked to make surethat they had the required calculator:?

what ever happened to using their brains:rollseyes

 

[BethM]

Even my high school algebra and geometry classes didn't allow calculators, everything was long hand!

 

[hartleybun]

when they start a new school year, each september, we are told what brand of calculator to buy:rollseyes

if i really want to annoy them i say that when i started school i learned how to use an abacus:nasty:

 

[pinksalamander]

But bear in mind that children nowadays have to take in a lot more information in daily lives and are exposed to much more.

Also, you don't have to have a brilliant understanding of maths and english to go to university. I'm awful at maths, doesn't mean it will affect my art degree (I hope!)

I actually made my Mum take the 11+ exam and she couldn't do it. Her and her 'highly intelligent' friend completely failed it, and when my Mum flicks through my A Level folders the majority of the time she has no idea what it is about, which shows that it may not be just an easy ride. In fact (in the UK) I believe we are the most tested generation, what with the SATs from the age of 4, GCSEs, A Levels, mocks and all.

I hate it when my grandparents complain and say everything is 'easy' now because we have computers that do 'everything' for us. They don't have to learn how to create websites using HTML and understand the concept of macros and binary code to pass an exam.

/rant

 

[pamnock]

Although a highly tested generation, many kids are lacking in remedial skills here in the US. I know of high school students who don't know how many states we have or how many months are in a year! I don't believe that a senior should be allowed to graduate without being able to spell the word, or enroll in college until they can spell that either.

I see a lot of college students who are helpless, spoon-fed babies who can't tie their own shoes, let alone get a degree. What a waste of their parent's money!

Pam

 

[pinksalamander]

Pam for some reason I was just able to edit your post! I wanted to quote it but I pressed something different and it let me edit it!

But wanted I wanted to say was:

OK fair enough. Even I can name all the US states and I don't even live there!

 

[pamnock]

pinksalamander wrote:

But wanted I wanted to say was:

OK fair enough. Even I can name all the US states and I don't even live there!

A really sad reflection on the students of the US

Pam

 

[BethM]

pamnock wrote:

pinksalamander wrote:

But wanted I wanted to say was:

OK fair enough. Even I can name all the US states and I don't even live there!

A really sad reflection on the students of the US

Pam

I heard recently that students in the US are 35th in the world at math. I think that's really sad. Also that only 52% of kids in Los Angeles graduate high school.

I will agree that high-level math might not be necessary for, say, an art degree. But you'd still need an understanding of basic, and some more complicated, concepts.

Are computer courses standard in the UK? As far as I know, they're more elective here, so many US kids don't have to know how to write html.

 

[kherrmann3]

I hate some of the people in my college classes. They are so slow, it's not funny. I mean, it's not their fault, but it's still annoying.

When I was in high school, I had to take a history class. They were discussing World War II and they were talking about Hiroshima. The teacher was reading about the destruction that the bomb caused, and one of the girls in my class yelled, "Oh, no! Not the eggrolls!" When the teacher regained his composure, he kindly told her that eggrolls were from China, not Japan. Then, she said, "So, that's why parts of the Great Wall are missing?" The teacher didn't know what to say to that...

:expressionless