1895 8th Grade Final Exam

[125 CSL]

Been on this education kick for a few days now,........

 

 

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

 

 

https://newrepublic.com/article/79470/1895-8th-grade-final-exam-i-couldnt-pass-it-could-you

 

 

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 do, lie, lay 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 50 cts. per bu, 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 inch? 
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, and 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, super. 
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 N.A. 
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 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 inclination of the earth.

 

 

 

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, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam:

[240zness]

Don't make em like they used to..

 

You can forget all the info , but difficulty builds character.

 

It's all inside the box now

 

Imo

[heywier427]

[racerx]

Yep, now u just Google shit. You can reference it but will not know the applications. Most kids today can't sign their name because they don't teach cursive anymore.

[125 CSL]

Today,......it is this. Common Core.

 

 

If this was the only instance then we could say Common core is doing great for the next generation, but even the liberal leftist youtube is filled with CC fails.

[wayno]

It's all about controlling how people think, not if they can think for themselves.

The powers that be see a future for this country, and if you do not see their future then you might as well not exist, we see that right now, if you don't go to college you don't fit in their vision, I think 2008 proves this, once the unemployment runs out you are not in their statistics anymore whether you have a job or not, you don't exist unless you are camping where they can see you, and that is un-except-able.

We need to make things in this country instead of buying crap from other countries, that way we employ people here instead of over there.

 

By the way I totally fail that test above , I am a dunce. :lol:

[racerx]

Some people are not meant to go to college, they learn better hands on. And some people are better at fabricating, fixing or maintenance. A friend of mine got a certificate in auto mechanics and made a successful career out of it. He retired from a city job not long ago. Another friend got into real estate and he, too, only have a certificate. I think its a folly to think people fit into a college or university mode, specially now with the cost. I mean is it worth it to be in debt for like $60 k, and major in history?

[tr8er]

Great post CSL. Really a great way to illustrate the issue. School was once something more than daycare. Once they required attendance, I think the future was spelled out. It really is sick how accommodating us daycare has become. I spent a long time choosing the right private school for my kids, and even so, I'm not satisfied.

[racerx]

Attendance means money for the district and common core is not so much about learning the subjects but about passing a certain test. After 7 years or so most reviews are not good. Also if you recall, "no child left behind" well that went south. So maybe in a few years they will do away with common core and something else will come up.

[datzenmike]

That test also contains period and location specific questions. Like about Kansas. In addition there may be questions, (I didn't look at all of them) that have been made obsolete in 100 years. I remember my teen kids being taught how to find the answers rather than memorizing volumes of facts and figures. In the past you had to be a GP of information to get by.

 

Do any of you realize that just a life time ago you could spend years researching something (traveling to and from the library, taking out books (some will be a waste of time) returning them, ordering books and references from the library or buying them and having them mailed to you? In some cases these would not be leant out and you had to travel where they were and read them) when today you can Google it in 10 seconds? Today, knowing how to search is more important than knowing something.  

[125 CSL]

Don't remember when I first heard about separate classes for boys and girls, but it has been a while back. A whole lot of these studies out and about, so it should be almost an easy just do it.

 

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865643351/Florida-middle-school-boost-academic-results-by-going-to-all-boys-but-critics-abound.html

 

Do boys and girls perform better in school when separated by gender?

That “D” grade was a gut check, but it wasn’t a pink slip. Changing a school's culture takes time, Haley reassured his teachers. And he was right. The next year the school earned a “B,” and each of the past two years the school earned an “A” grade.

 

-----when the program in the article starts out, it flounders until it gets the teaching down, then it shines.

 

 

 

BUT,...the aclu hates the idea

http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/number-of-single-sex-classrooms-growing/

 

Number of Single-Sex Classrooms Growing

 

Recently, the ACLU successfully challenged single-sex programs in the Adrian R-III school district in Missouri and applied enough pressure to have similar plans dropped from schools in Louisiana.

 

 

and a bit of Captain Obvious

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-0627-boys-men-20170626-story.html

 

Face it: Boys learn differently than girls, and that's OK

 

Traditionally, schools fail to recognize the conditions that account for and exacerbate the achievement gap between girls and boys, thus impeding the full development of boys’ intellectual and emotional potential.

 

 

web md going into the finer points,.

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/how-boys-and-girls-learn-differently#1

 

How Boys and Girls Learn Differently

[datzenmike]

I attended a one room schoolhouse in the '50 and there were Boys and Girls entrances.... and then everyone just used the same classroom. Older boys brought in the well water in a bucket. One year there was no grade 7. You couldn't help but learn things from another grade when you are in the same room.

[125 CSL]

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2018/04/nations_report_card_2018_us_achievement.html

 

A nationally representative group of nearly 585,000 4th- and 8th-graders took the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2017, the first time the tests were administered digitally. The results, released Tuesday, show no change at all for 4th grade in either subject or for 8th graders in math since the tests were last given in 2015. Eighth graders on average made only a 1-point gain in reading, to 267 on the NAEP's 500-point scale.

 

 

 

More or less no change in math and reading scores. With everything going on in the education that is not in anyway related to teaching students, not much of a shock no real improvement.

[racerx]

Too much social media

[racerx]

And so much for no teacher left behind and core math...

[505plus5]

Good points, here.