8th Grade Exam

[Ross]

Remember when people would refer to someone as having an 8th grade education as a way to put them down? Check this out:
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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 , 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, 65 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 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 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 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, and
syllabication.
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, sub vocal,
diphthong, cognate letters, and lingual.
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-, and 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 d
iacritical 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.
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? This also shows you how poor
our education system has become... and, NO! I don't have the answers

[philoserenus]

this looks more like a university final than a grade 8 final to me... talk about our educational system declining eh? haha... goodness...

[snow]

holy cow!

[narferman]

I think the answer is 12. Hehehe.

[cb977]

I think the answer is 12. Hehehe.

Great answer, Zach!

[camille1585]

God I feel so stupid all of a sudden. I think I could correcly answer 6 questions, and I'm being generous with myself!
And I really DO think that people are stupider now. French students can't write a single sentence without making at least 10 mistakes and I also know people who whip out the calculator to do 10+9 or something like that. It's scary!

[shakkai]

Urban Legends Reference Pages: 1895 Exam

But I'm not saying that compulsory education has improved or is anything close to very good and comprehensive now!!

[Tindomul]

Hmmm, well I think given the proper preparation any 8th grader with enough marbles in his head could do it. I really like the Geography section. Especially question 7. I would not get them right because many of the answers have changed since 1895, hehe. I'm sure we have more countries now.
Ok, here is the deal. A high school education in most countries of the world is equivalent to BA. In South America, when you graduate high school you get was is called Bachillerato (meaning Bachelors!) If any of you are teachers, and you see kids that just came from another country you see that they find our requirments so damned easy. Math is a cinch to them, as well as social studies. Their only problem is the language.

By the way, I think the test is very biased, only a farmers son or daughter would know the volume of a bushel. I have never seen a bushel, of anything.

[Gin]

Sign me up for grade 1 lolol... Gin

[Magnus A]

Very interesting to read this kind of "old" test!

Do you know what was required to pass? 50%? 100%?

To compare the question to your own situation you have to reorient the questions to your childhood. (Area, units, language and so on)

As I recall my youth (20 years ago in Sweden) I do not think this level of questions would have been to hard for a final test.

Remember that the education is very different if you have a final test or not! This kind of teaching philosophy has been abandon long ago in Sweden. We do not have final tests of this kind in lower education! Had the school system in Sweden been oriented for final exams I am absolutely certain that question of this level would not have been of any problem for the majority!