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This is why we grew into the greatest Nation in the World. Take this test and pass it on to your more literate friends..

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

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. 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: 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 hour 15 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 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting
1,050 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 6,720 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 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, 1865.


Orthography (Time, one hour)
[Do we even know what this is??]
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.' (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, 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 U.S. 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 'I only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it? No wonder they dropped out after 8th grade.
They already knew more than they needed to know!

Topics: 8th, grade, final, exam, 1895
Safari Woman
I will share this tomorrow - cool find. I suspect that few would pass.
  • January 23, 2015
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Walter D.
Holy sh!t batman "Orthography?" I don't have time now but I might have to give myself this test. I guarandamntee you that the average 8th grader today couldn't answer 10% of these.
  • January 23, 2015
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Marge Pauls
Walter, they can't even READ...
  • January 23, 2015
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Angelina
This will keep me busy!
  • January 23, 2015
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Randall Covey, Russian Hacker
Am NOT going to try this, for there is no wish to find out how ignorant I actually am.
Will just coast along with my IQ scores and call it "good". lol
  • January 23, 2015
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Kahaluu Girl
just glanced at it and decided that in the 1st test, the1st ? alone would prob take me an hour....9  rules, really!?...yikes
  • January 23, 2015
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GodAlwaysWins
oy; we've lost language which means we have lost thinking, which makes us slaves to visual memes from the media and repetitive auditory rap memes
  • January 23, 2015
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Dale Barnes
I remember my parents having quite the discussion about schools removing Latin from the courses.
  • January 24, 2015
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Mike Blackwood
there are people in harvard that couldn't pass this test
  • January 23, 2015
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Mike Blackwood
seems to me the globull warming crowd needs a good geography lesson
  • January 23, 2015
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  • Like
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