Can You Pass This 8th Grade Exam From 1912?

[aGameOfThrones]

A museum in Kentucky has unearthed a rare find: an 8th grade exam given to students 100 years ago.

"For us, this is just fascinating," David Lee Strange, a volunteer at the Bullitt County History Museum, told ABC News. "It puts us in the mindset of 1912."

The exam spans eight subjects: spelling, reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, physiology, civil government and history.

"Some people say that the questions are trivial, but the questions relate to what the children at the time would have been familiar with," Strange said.

For example, there's a geography query: "Locate the following countries which border each other: Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania."

An 8th grader today may have trouble with that one but "the students back then would have to be familiar with that part of the world," according to Strange.

Strange explained, "1912 was right around the corner from what would become World War I. Eighteen students in Bullitt County would go on to die in that war."

The exam also asks students to define the cerebrum and cerebellum, differentiate between copyright and patent rights, and define each part of speech in the English language.

Think you have what it takes to pass the 8th grade? Take a shot at these final exam questions:

How long of a rope is required to reach from the top of a building 40 feet high to the ground 30 feet from the base of a building?

What is a personal pronoun?

Through which waters would a vessel pass in going from England through the Suez Canal to Manila?

Compare arteries and veins as to function. Where is the blood carried to be purified?

During which wars were the following battles fought: Brandywine, Great Meadows, Lundy's Lane, Antietam, Buena Vista?

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/8th-grade-exam-puts-adults-test-102146198.html

TEST here: http://www.bullittcountyhistory.com/bchistory/schoolexam1912ans.html

[AuH20]

And the generations that came before were inferior. ROFL I always laugh when I hear some fools talk like that. Even with shorter lifespans I'm amazed by some of their accomplishments.

[Sola_Fide]

It is no surprise that the government/prison/school industrial complex would take control and make ebonics more important than theology or physiology.

[MRK]

To be completely honest this is stuff that I had all learned in a Midwest elementary school by 4th grade. I went to a public school and I'm 23 now.

However there are people my age I have met who for example graduated from what they claim is one of the best public high schools in Michigan (Bloomfield Hills) and I guarantee even today they would not be able to get even 50% on this test.

[MelissaWV]

Yeah... um... some of those nations don't exist anymore. I don't disagree with the assertion that a very large portion of the populace has problems with most of those subjects, but this meme of being "dumb" because you can't pass a test from a hundred years ago is ridiculous.

There are typos on the test. Do I get a bonus?

[green73]

LewRockwell.com first posted this (http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/no_author/a-101-year-old-test-for-8th-graders/). The Daily Mail picked up on it (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2381482/Were-children-smarter-century-ago-Test-eighth-graders-Kentucky-dated-1912-ignites-debate-kids-intelligence-today.html), linking to them and it's really spread since, even with Brian Williams mentioning it (http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/08/dale-steinreich/what-gives-mr-williams/) on the Nightly News.

[heavenlyboy34]

The properties of a noun include...
1. Gender (masculine or feminine)
2. Number (singular, plural)
3. Person (first, second, or third)
4. Case (subject, object, or construct-possessive)
Actually, there are six cases if one wants to be uber-technical.

[MelissaWV]

Actually, there are six cases if one wants to be uber-technical.

You noticed a few of the errors as well :D

I also want no part of an exam that talks about half pennies in pricing. No. A penny is next to worthless as it is.

[heavenlyboy34]

You noticed a few of the errors as well :D

I also want no part of an exam that talks about half pennies in pricing. No. A penny is next to worthless as it is.
Yup! :D I forgot to mention that there are 3 genders of nouns. (masculine, feminine, neuter) Then there are all sorts of other technical problems with the test I don't even want to get into. Madness. :eek:

[brandon]

To be completely honest this is stuff that I had all learned in a Midwest elementary school by 4th grade. I went to a public school and I'm 23 now.


You learned the pythagorean theorem by 4th grade? thats pretty good

[MelissaWV]

You learned the pythagorean theorem by 4th grade? thats pretty good

I'm going to pick on this one because it definitely relates to what I said in another thread about questioning everything.

The test question you are referring to is likely:


How long of a rope is required to reach from the top of a building 40 feet high to the ground 30 feet from the base of a building?

The textbook answer would be 50 feet (30^2 + 40^2 = x^2 ... 900+1600 = 2500 = x^2 ... x = 50)

The realistic answer would not be 50.

If you disagree, I would like access to the magical rope that goes totally stiff from the top of the building to the ground 30 feet away from the building, and does not have to be knotted or otherwise manipulated to do so. The real answer would be that you would want more than 50 feet to actually do anything practical with that theoretical rope.

[MRK]

You learned the pythagorean theorem by 4th grade? thats pretty good

yes. then again i was in the 'advanced advanced' math class. not sure what that meant other than i always had several pages of homework that i was supposed to do but never did (and my grades suffered proportionately), and that all the other kids in school made fun of us, presumably because in 4th grade we were doing the math that they would be doing in 6th grade.

to get into this class i recall you needed something like 95th percentile scores on the state tests by 3rd grade. apparently i didn't get 95th percentile (or whatever the actual number was) but all my friends were in the class so I asked my mom why I wasn't in that class too. i guess she called the school, because soon afterwards, they gave me a personalized IQ test where this proctor kept telling me how smart I was (i thought this was just more 'everyone-is-a-special-winner' BS because that attitude was very popular in the 1990's) and then they said I could join the class because my results were in the 99th percentile. makes you wonder how many kids were actually competent enough to be in the class but were excluded due to state-sanctioned standardized testing,

so i guess everyone else who was actually competent was SOL if they didn't try to appeal the process. to be fair there wasn't enough space in the class for any more people so I can understand why they would exclude people. public school win... you can be bright but if the state decides that only 1 in 20 kids are bright and you're in a school where 1 in 4 kids are bright then chances are you are going to be placed in a classroom with the lowest common denominator where the teachers are tasked with trying to teach the windowlickers how to draw a triangle and count to ten instead of something like the pythagorean theorem (which itself is one of the most straightforward algorithms of all time).

i guess that's just what happens when teachers' performance is graded on reaching the lowest common denominator.

kids who are actually bright and didn't eat paint chips as a child are left with being bored out of their minds 90% of the time in class because they grasp the material as soon as it's presented and don't need the concepts hammered into their skulls ad infinitum just so they can get 50% on the yearly state exam so the school keeps its funding and the teachers keep their jobs. there's little to no incentive to do anything with the normal intelligent kids, because "they're already passing and the less fortunate need more help"

[krugminator]

To be completely honest this is stuff that I had all learned in a Midwest elementary school by 4th grade. I went to a public school and I'm 23 now.

However there are people my age I have met who for example graduated from what they claim is one of the best public high schools in Michigan (Bloomfield Hills) and I guarantee even today they would not be able to get even 50% on this test.

What did you get on the ACT out of curiosity?

[MRK]

i cannot believe i spent 12 years in that system. never will I subject my children to something like that. I want to share something with future parents. Back in the day you may remember the school system being good for yourself and most everyone you knew. It is not even close to what it may have used to be.

I watched it degrade before my eyes as the quality actually progressively decreased from elementary school to junior high school to high school, culminating in jackbooted thugs doing sweeps of the high school in later years as part of random lock downs and random room searches where everyone's belongings were lined up against the wall and inspected by K-9's.

by the end of senior year, all doors were locked at all times except the front and the back entrances where someone had to sign you in to get into the school, with in-school police officers right next to the entrance sitting on their ass in an office waiting for something to happen.

the quality of teachers were an absolutely, complete utter joke, especially in the mathematics department. literally i think one would be better off now with a faded 1950 algebra textbook with a broken binding and pages that fell out when you opened it than one of the stock teachers in the math departments there.

i had a final-period english teacher who did not realize that half of the class would go to the bathroom halfway through the class and just leave school for the day because she was so hopped up on pills and booze that she wouldn't realize what was going on.

there was another english/speech/something teacher i had who would tell her students to write about unions in assignments then publicly argue with them about unions after they turn in their papers and say that the student didn't know what unions actually were and that they shouldn't talk about things they don't know about.

there was another teacher i had who had two kids competing for valedictorian status in her same class but was family friends with one so she lowered the grade for one of them by falsely counting questions wrong so the kid had to take every one of his graded materials back to her and prove that they were right.

i could go on for a while longer, but i'm sure i wont touch on anything that most of you haven't already heard already.

by the way, this is at a multiple 'blue ribbon' award-winning school that is consistently ranked number 1 in the public school system for the state. so even the best of the public school system is not something you want to subject your kids to.

[MRK]

What did you get on the ACT out of curiosity?

I didn't take the ACT, but I did take the SAT once as a senior and got a 2140 (with the writing section included).

[fisharmor]

by the end of senior year, all doors were locked at all times except the front and the back entrances where someone had to sign you in to get into the school, with in-school police officers right next to the entrance sitting on their ass in an office waiting for something to happen.

I can't imagine high school if they had made it impossible for me to smoke. I think I would have simply stopped going.

[MelissaWV]

I didn't take the ACT, but I did take the SAT once as a senior and got a 2140 (with the writing section included).

And now I feel old...

Once upon a time, that was an impossible score.

I'm going to go eat my mush and watch Perry Mason now :(

[nano1895]

First thing I noticed was there is a noticeable emphasis on geography (identifying which countries border each other and bodies of water). I don't really remember there being alot of emphasis on geography, let alone having exam questions on it. Although my elementary school DID have a geography bee and wow did the finalists know a ton about geography. Other than that though, the other concepts seem about right for 8th/9th grade level....

Pythagorean Theorem, basic biology, some grammar (ew :P), and some history. I'd assume most of those battles were Civil War era and around ish, that would be around 50 years ago. So the modern equivalent would be remembering the location of famous battles in WWII. My AP US History class actually didn't really focus too much on battles in the wars, more so the political / economical / social impact and mainly covered early 1600s - 1930's, the last 60 years was skimmed on. The current AP US History test is like that too, it asks questions mainly based on the 1600 - 1900 era peaking around the Gilded Age (1870 - 1920 ish)

@fisharmor

Funny story At my highschool about 20-30 years ago there was this set of stairs that (supposedly) everyone congregated to smoke, it was basically the place smokers went to when the teachers told them to "take care of their business". Nowadays you're not allowed to smoke at all, but everyone says that place continues to smell like pot.

[MRK]

And now I feel old...

Once upon a time, that was an impossible score.

I'm going to go eat my mush and watch Perry Mason now :(

They added a writing section when I was graduating. I averaged around 700 on each section and ended up with 2140. So for just the reading and math I got a 1400 something.

[MRK]

Funny story At my highschool about 20-30 years ago there was this set of stairs that (supposedly) everyone congregated to smoke, it was basically the place smokers went to when the teachers told them to "take care of their business". Nowadays you're not allowed to smoke at all, but everyone says that place continues to smell like pot.

Before they mandated the door lockdown, there was a few pine trees behind which people would smoke, although from what I could tell, few did because if you were caught you would get detention, then after three detentions suspended, then after two suspensions expelled. One day I went to school and saw some big Caterpillar machine uprooting all three pine trees in an apparent effort to stop the activity. I guess that didn't stamp out the problem so they decided to keep the school in permanent lockdown instead.

[MRK]

One thing is for sure, public schools definitely promote equality now.

Unfortunately this is accomplished by stagnating the minds of the normal in the halls of a prison, until everyone becomes mentally incapable.

[Demigod]

First thing I noticed was there is a noticeable emphasis on geography (identifying which countries border each other and bodies of water). I don't really remember there being alot of emphasis on geography, let alone having exam questions on it. Although my elementary school DID have a geography bee and wow did the finalists know a ton about geography. Other than that though, the other concepts seem about right for 8th/9th grade level....

Pythagorean Theorem, basic biology, some grammar (ew :P), and some history. I'd assume most of those battles were Civil War era and around ish, that would be around 50 years ago. So the modern equivalent would be remembering the location of famous battles in WWII. My AP US History class actually didn't really focus too much on battles in the wars, more so the political / economical / social impact and mainly covered early 1600s - 1930's, the last 60 years was skimmed on. The current AP US History test is like that too, it asks questions mainly based on the 1600 - 1900 era peaking around the Gilded Age (1870 - 1920 ish)

@fisharmor

Funny story At my highschool about 20-30 years ago there was this set of stairs that (supposedly) everyone congregated to smoke, it was basically the place smokers went to when the teachers told them to "take care of their business". Nowadays you're not allowed to smoke at all, but everyone says that place continues to smell like pot.

You are a lucky guy.I learned geography since 3 grade up until 3 year high school.You had to know at least 70-80% of the world capitals and where the countries are on a map without borders.What climates the countries have,which countries they border,main industry and production.Not to even mention the statistics like how much gold,iron,food regions produce are how much % per region.

But I am amazed that a 1912 American geographical test asks where Balkan countries are and who they border ,because I clearly doubt that even most people on this forum could answer me this today.

[MelissaWV]

You are a lucky guy.I learned geography since 3 grade up until 3 year high school.You had to know at least 70-80% of the world capitals and where the countries are on a map without borders.What climates the countries have,which countries they border,main industry and production.Not to even mention the statistics like how much gold,iron,food regions produce are how much % per region.

But I am amazed that a 1912 American geographical test asks where Balkan countries are and who they border ,because I clearly doubt that even most people on this forum could answer me this today.

Funny story about that.

My Geography class (we had a dedicated half-year of it) was ridiculously difficult. We started with US Geography, where we needed to be able to draw a reasonably identifiable map of each state, including major features, by hand. This was actually pretty interesting and resulted in learning to identify the states in some unique ways (Iowa has a "nose," for instance). We learned the major bodies of water in the US in a similar way, and anyhow you had to more or less know the big rivers in order to accurately draw the states whose borders are defined by them.

Then we moved on to World Geography.


Succession, 1992-2003

As the Yugoslav Wars raged through Croatia and Bosnia, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, which remained relatively untouched by the war, formed a rump state known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in 1992. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia aspired to be a sole legal successor to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but those claims were opposed by the other former republics. The United Nations also denied its request to automatically continue the membership of the former state.[13] Eventually, after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević from power as president of the federation in 2000, the country dropped those aspirations, accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession, and reapplied for and gained UN membership on 2 November 2000.[4] (From 1992 to 2000, some countries, including the United States, had referred to the FRY as Serbia and Montenegro.[5]) In April 2001, the five successor states extant at the time drafted an Agreement on Succession Issues, signing the agreement in June 2001.[14][15] Marking an important transition in its history, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003.


Croat independence (1991–)

Further information: History of Croatia since 1995

The tensions escalated into the Croatian War of Independence when the Yugoslav National Army and various Serb paramilitaries attacked Croatia.[73] By the end of 1991, a high intensity war fought along a wide front reduced Croatia to control of about two-thirds of its territory.[74][75] On 15 January 1992, Croatia gained diplomatic recognition by the European Economic Community members, and subsequently the United Nations.[76][77] The war effectively ended in 1995 with a decisive victory by Croatia in August 1995.[78] The remaining occupied areas were restored to Croatia pursuant to the Erdut Agreement of November 1995, with the process concluded in January 1998.[79] Croatia became a World Trade Organization (WTO) member on 30 November 2000. The country signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union in October 2001. Croatia joined NATO on 1 April 2009, and the European Union on 1 July 2013.

Add this to all of the previously unknown countries that used to be drawn as just "the USSR," and I had a rough go of it. We would literally learn how to draw a nation, and then they would tweak their borders or declare themselves split apart or some other thing.