What the 8th grade test was like in 1895.

[chap]

What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...

--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, 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,""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. 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 on a school
seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the 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 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 US
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.

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? Also shows you how poor our education system has become... and,
NO! I don't have the answers, and I failed this 8th grade test!

[Al.]

Ahh yes, the good old days of Readin, Writin and Rithmatic :thumbsup: ...and two more Geography and History.

[TigerVic]

Many of those questions are either irrelevant today or the terminology has been replaced culturally or by the passage of time (e.g., epochs of US History). Still, they could be replaced by comparable questions today that many of today's students couldn't answer because they either can't or refuse to think.

Mathematically, one only had to know shopkeeper arithmetic back then, but not much more. The mathematical reasoning as well as depth of content knowledge required to compete or even survive in today's society is much greater.

In a national test given to 8th graders about 10 years ago, there was great disparity between the competency shown in the following two questions: #1. Find the perimeter of a rectangle that measures 50 yards by 80 yards. #2. Find the distance traveled if a person walks once around a rectangular plot of land 50 yards wide and 80 yards long.

[austinsm11]

Many of those questions are either irrelevant today or the terminology has been replaced culturally or by the passage of time
I agree.

I do like the application of real life problems into the math.

My guess is that the average person would struggle with an 8th grade exam today. Concepts that I learned in college for the first time are being taught in middle school.

You also have to take into consideration how much you have learned and now forgot. To someone who just covered the material, it would not be too difficult. A person who took that exam and passed would probably struggle with it 5-10 years later.

[longtimefirsttime]

Thanks Chap. My brain's smoking trying to answer many of those. I always hated the questions like:

If train A is traveling at 80 miles per hour leaving Boston at 3 PM toward Los Angeles and train B.....

[Spize]

It is a different time now with different educational priorities.

Many employers don't take small grammar errors into mind. Most computation is done on a computer or by a calculator. That was a big thing when I was in school, calculator or no calculator. Basically it was both when I was in school. Some questions you could use a calculator and some you had to show your work. Any more that is not relevant because the computer or calculator is a must in business these days or else your business won't survive. It is about productivity these days.

Also, a lot of those grammar questions don't matter so much since the advent of spelling and grammar check. You will rarely ever see handwritten material at the workplace anymore besides that of a post-it note.

In fact, don't be surprised if you begin to see English class have a section on reading typos in the near future. You may also soon see a section on internet language(Lol, BTW, IMHO, ect..).