1895 8th Grade Final Exam

[Cyndi B.]

1895 8th grade final exam

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, 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: 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, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, lingual’s
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 'he 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!

No, I don't have the answers! And I don't think I ever did!

Have fun with this... pass it on so we're not the only ones who feel stupid!!!

[Darwin Maring]

I had an aunt that graduated from the 8th grade and she then taught school. Her sister, my mother, had a 6th grade education, lived to the age of 93, and did well for herself.

Have you ever watched the TV program, "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" I have never seen anyone make it all the way, they use up all the free passes and still are stumped.

[Bobbie Mayer]

I think it is a fake as they would not have had measurements in meters. Or metres. But I could be wrong and I'm sure eighth grade had a lot more rigor in areas like grammar in those days.

[Cyndi B.]

My grandmother too never went beyond 8th grade but her first job was as a teacher, then a telephone operator then a Registered Nurse. I think we learned alot of those things we just can't remember them. I know my children never learned phonics which meant no long or the short of E, I, O and U. They ask me to spell simply spelled out words which they cannot do when I ask them to "sound it out".

[Steve Outlaw]

A quick trip to snopes.com: 1895 Exam will show that this is FALSE. Interesting though.

[Bobbie Mayer]

Originally Posted by Steve Outlaw

A quick trip to snopes.com: 1895 Exam will show that this is FALSE. Interesting though.

I do think it is faked, but the Snopes article simply says the conclusion that we are less-well educated now is wrong. It never demonstrates that the exam is not an actual 1895 exam. (Though I doubt very much it is.)

Truth or Fiction says a little more about it, and lists it as unproven.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/a/1895exam.htm

[mcbrew]

Originally Posted by Bobbie Mayer

I think it is a fake as they would not have had measurements in meters. Or metres. But I could be wrong and I'm sure eighth grade had a lot more rigor in areas like grammar in those days.

Not saying the test is real, but the metric system has been around since 1791. An interesting note on the metric system: it has been adopted by all countries except the United States and Burma.

[Bobbie Mayer]

It has been around, but I doubt the metric system was taught to American students in 1895, or we would have adopted it by now! (As we should have.)

[Alf S.]

Hi: All...I get winded getting up the first grade, let alone the 8th!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie