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? 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


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, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation?
Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7. 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 1050lbs. 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 meter?
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, 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, sub vocals, 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
& Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
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 five hours to complete.
Gives the saying "she/he only had an 8th grade education"
a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

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 1050lbs. for tare?
....
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
....
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long
at $20 per meter?
....
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance
around which is 640 rods?


Questions like that make you realize the beauty of the metric system ;)

I guarentee that if you give that test to all the eight graders in the country, only 1 out of 5000 would pass.

For many years now there have been complaints about the the gradual dumbing down of education in the U.S. - this 1895 eighth grade final exam really puts some perspective on the situation.

About a year ago I was in the lunchroom while a young employee was using her break time to do some of her college work. I was astonished to see that she was doing "fill in the blank" type of homework. It was real grade school material as far as I was concerned. Now I know why so many college graduates have so much trouble developing a strong career path after graduation: having a college education really doesn't mean as much about a person's abilities for communication, innovation, and leadership as it once did.

Thomas

I guarentee that if you give that test to all the eight graders in the country, only 1 out of 5000 would pass.I guess it depends on what the passing grade is....I gaurantee none could ace it.

BTW, not ALL kids are being "dumbed" down, my 10 year old just just started college prep geometry in the 7th grade. She finished last year year in all advanced classes with a 4.0 and has been asked to visit Europe and act a representative of the U.S.A. in an international scholastic convention. I am enrolling in college again so I can try to keep up and help her with homework, as of now I am calling buddies recently graduated to try and figure it out.

Think I'll print that out for my grandson, he can answer almost every question on Jeopardy.

That does seem like a pretty tough test......but I think you have to put things into persepective. In 1895, those types of subjects would have been taught thoroughly in the classroom. I never had grammar lessons like that and I don't know the volume of a bushel of wheat, but I can use a computer to do things that weren't even dreamed of in 1895. Some of you may think that the children in this country are dumber, but I don't think that's the case. Sure, there are some dumb kids, but look at Dennis' kid. Kicking butt and taking names. When I went through 7th grade (9 years ago, wow!), I took all the advanced classes I could and even got a chance, along with most of my friends, to take the actual SAT test - and there were a few of us that hit 1100 - in 7th grade - without ever taking geometry or high school english.

I've noticed in college that some professors really hate to see students rely on calculators, even in engineering classes. While I understand that we need to be able to survive without them, the only reason for the fancy calculators and the computer programs is that the problems are much more complex and in-depth than they were 30 years ago. Dumb? No - just that some of the basics are ingrained at a younger age and just don't need to be taught. Each generation has the advantage of learning (quickly) from the previous one.

Failing that damn 1895 test,
Ryan

to make it fair you would have to ask questions that are valuable to this generation, i.e. the difference between 56k dialup and dsl and t1, t1, and t3 lines. or hybrid fuel economy vs v8s and i4s or something of that nature. the only people this would apply to would be those on the farm or ranch. and why would they ask about inches and then say meters in the same question? doesnt make sense to me.

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

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

Jim passes the test!!! :D I was wondering how long (if ever) it would take for someone to check this out. :p Remember, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Congrats, Jim you win a :beers: !!

BillL

I could read the test, but don't know any of the answers. :)

But today's grade school kids can fix your PC after you break it.
They know how to program a VCR.
They have friends all over the entire globe.
They can look up the answers to all of those questions.

Its all a matter of prospective.
Who really needs to know how many bushel per cubic foot?

Its all a matter of prospective.
Who really needs to know how many bushel per cubic foot?

I believe you meant perception and bushels. Sorry to pick on you, I was just reading the Pet Peeves posts. :D

BillL

For many years now there have been complaints about the the gradual dumbing down of education in the U.S. - this 1895 eighth grade final exam really puts some perspective on the situation.

About a year ago I was in the lunchroom while a young employee was using her break time to do some of her college work. I was astonished to see that she was doing "fill in the blank" type of homework. It was real grade school material as far as I was concerned. Now I know why so many college graduates have so much trouble developing a strong career path after graduation: having a college education really doesn't mean as much about a person's abilities for communication, innovation, and leadership as it once did.

Thomas

yeah but how many of today's high school students really need to know how many bushels of corn a wagon will hold?

True, though, I might have a hard time with those questions myself.

a

I believe you meant perception and bushels. Sorry to pick on you, I was just reading the Pet Peeves posts. :D

BillL

He may have also meant perspective, which probably fits best anyway.

Sorry to say but the test has some errors. (Guess they were not as smart as we think) The following question is wrong.

Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same
latitude?

It is the other way around. That Atlantic Coast is warmer due to the Gulf Stream current moving up from the tropics. The Pacific Coast is colder due to Pacific currents moving down from Alaska.

Jim passes the test!!! :D I was wondering how long (if ever) it would take for someone to check this out. :p Remember, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Congrats, Jim you win a :beers: !!

BillL

I'll be waiting by the mailbox for that beer....wait it's another trick cause you can't trust ANYTHING you read on the internet. ;) :D