I'm sure some have seen this, but some may not have.

How well can you do?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from email

Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that
they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us
have passed the 8th grade in 1895? (LOOK CLOSELY... THAT'S EIGHTEEN NINETY
FIVE) This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, 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 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 around
which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.
********************************************
US History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which US 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)
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 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.
**********************************************



Also notice that the exam took six hours to complete. Gives the saying
"He only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

 

Quote:

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

This question, along with a couple others makes me question how true the test is. Would metric conversions have reached Kansas in 1895?

I think it still makes the point very well.

That's a damn hard test!

Waxy

 

I read that, and looked up to see how far along the metric system was then - http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/dates.htm . I'm not sure...


I know I missed one or two questions - ok - its been a while...


Well - try this - here is an answer... http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/1895exam.htm

 

I learned almost all of this info by the 5th grade.

 

and forgot it all by 6th.


Thats a rough test but I guess thats what they learned back then.

 

I got one quistion right...and I only been outta school for 3 and a half years.....granted, that was off the top of my head, some of the quistions though were missing indformation such as the interset rate, is that a monthly or yearly interest?
what is the siz eof a bushel? what is the weight of a bushel? and what the heck is 640 rods????? I could have gotten the mtric one if I felt like taking the time to do the ..umm..cannot think of the word for cahangeing yards to meters.....aHH!! oh well

 

I had an easier time with my calculus final in college!!!

 

yeah.... since thats all stuff that i dont need to know to survive in this world, id consider it wasted space in my brain.

how many bushels of wheat will fit in a wagon ? i dont know... start filling it up and count each bushel....

im not a booksmart guy but i think im doing pretty well for not knowing answers to the questions they ask on "who wants to be a millionaire" but if i knew those answers.... id be rich!

 

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!

 

And who gives a poop what something cost in metric anyways? that is like telling me the cost in spansish YOU IN AMERICA Tell me in English in in Standard, none of that foreign crap!!! I want inches pounds, cost of dollers per pounds and miles per hour, no meter of kilo craP!!!!!!!!

 

Oh - I'm glad you replied Jimmy. I needed a good laugh today...

 

Thankyou, so did I am a twork, very stressful.....would rather.....surf...net...AHHH THEY GOT ME damn work demons!!!!


OMG the voices in my head, they are back NOOOO!!!.

oh wait, n/m that is just the radio attached to my ear...oops.

 

sounds like you've been stuck at work a lil too long...

 

10 hours a day behind a desk having some moron with twice the stripes telling me what they think I should do...and when I tell them how it works, and what I hafta do, and that they are wrong I get in trouble!!! Master Seargents do not like getting shown up by an airman in front of 200 people under them don't know why? I am almost off.....thank God here comes the weekend. and aftyer I get off, I hafta go work out, because there are a few fat mrons in the air force, so me, a 135lb 5'6" has to go lose weight and crap i jsut want a BEER!!!! LET ME GO HOME!!!

 

I liked the math ones, didn't take time to figure them out though but not to hard for the most part. Didn't look through the rest. For the city folks out there, a bushel of wheat weighs 60 pounds for official weight and measure purposes. It might not actually weigh that. Poor quality wheat can weigh down around 50, but serves no purpose other than feed, or it can weigh over 63 pounds per bushel, which is very good quality. I can't remember how long a rod is though It seems like it is 12 feet but I could be completely wrong, I'll have to look it up in the morning. Also, I'd assume the interest rate would be annual as 7 percent a month is really good, wish I could find something like that to invest my money in.

Whether or not the test is real, I do think our elders were better educated than we are today and they valued an education more. Such as how many tests are given today that ask for real answers and not multiple choice? I use to hate the tests we had to write out a long answer but I gurantee I remembered things better because of it. I like learning new things but I don't like school that much. Anyways, I'll shut up now.