Wasn't too sure where to place this but Current Events seemed good for it. Ever wonder about today's educational standards? Here is an 1895 Eighth Grade Final Exam. Sorta makes you wonder what happened.



Subject: 1895 Eighth Grade Final Exam


Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. - - -

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?

What happened to us??? It is kind of humbling, isn't it?

What? Nothing yet? You all trying to answer this exam? It's a 5 hour exam.

karmafury, truer words have not been spoken in a long time.
It's almost pathetic what students are being taught and tested on in school today.
When my child was in 5th grade I had to confront his math teacher about the made up math they were teaching.
What's really troubling is what they are not being taught. So much history that the books leave out-important history.
It's staggering.
tina

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no tests!!!!

What I want to know is why they send my son who has had all F's on his report card to grade 10??? What happened to failing our kids??? Awwwwwwwwww their poor self esteem!!!! pfffffffffft!!!!!!!!!!!!

The fact that he knows he will go onto the next grade doesnt help him. Why bother trying, or do a half assed job if you know you don't have to???

if he has all f's, why would YOU let him pass?

long story......dont want to go there here.....

fair enough.

be well.

5 hours for 45 questions???

That doesnt even compare to todays tests!!!

The tests today, with all due respect are much harder than that!

Slack given today requires the student to perform at a higher standard. I agree that there is a lot less discipline today, but the pressure to do well is much stricter than that!

The knowledge required is more detailed and complex as well. Children today are required to answer many more questions than 45, and must do so in an hour. And thats just one subject!!

amen, fanta.

i bet my sixth grader could FLY through that test...

it's not about difficulty, it's the wording...they went for different skills back then.

yes, I agree! The skills on that test are good to know, but what is asked of students today leaves little time past grammer school for time to be spent teaching only those particular skills!

I don't know, maybe it's where I live. I'm taking 4 classes, all of them are on-line. For this reason we are all forced to use 'discussion boards' on which many of our assignments are also completed. Because we can't be in class, we have a special format for 'exchanging papers' and reviewing them.

All my clases have people from the 19/20 year Freshman, to the middle aged adult, needing or wanting to continue their education.

I will be totally truthful when I say - If I never saw anyone elses work, I would be a nerveous wreck, imagining only how poorly I'm doing. I never did 'test' well and I beat myself up over problems I get wrong - BUT...

taking these classes on-line, was the best thing, and the worst I could have done. No matter how poorly I think I did on a test, when the results all come in - I'm pretty far ahead of the crowd - AND I'M NOT GETTING ALL A's HERE. Not because I can't, but because I overbooked myself and don't have enough time for study. My error, completely.

The one thing that really bothers me though are the written parts of the assignments that we all get view and often have to 'review'. None of the studends want to review my work, so the teachers do. Why? Beacuse there are only about 5 out of the 100 or so students in my classes, who can string two sentances together with correct structure and make them logical enough to understand. They don't even use spell check? arghh!

Now I KNOW that my tests say I'm pretty far above the others, though I'm not a A or barely an A student. However, in the written aspects, I'm really wondering how any professor, teacher or other educated person, could possible compare those top 5 students with the other 95.

You have to know, they can't all fail, but they should.

Now I've started asking them in our discussions, "so, do you have any plans to go into the teaching field?"

That's my concern - I can't imagine how these poeple are going to get a degree, they are nearly illiterate. Yet they will pass, and here I am working my @$$ off just to get a B.

How is that education?

Here's the other thing, EVERY one of my teachers specifically indicated that they would discount for spelling, even in accounting. Yet when the teachers write in the discussions, some of them are nearly as bad at the students. I keep thinking, it's just because they are in a hurry and so busy.

You think?