You think school is tough today...8th grade exam 1895

steveinaz

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 ?

F1nut

I remember that test.

Kris Siegel

I never took that test. I was in 7th grade I think in 1995 though all of the stuff on that test I learned in middle school.... that's tough? I hope middle school hasn't gotten easier or the next generation is going to have a tough time learning.

Polkersince85

steveinaz wrote:

Also notice that the exam took five hours to complete.

On top of that, I had to walk 14 miles one way to get there.

millerman 3732

Polkersince85 wrote:

On top of that, I had to walk 14 miles one way to get there.

yep, 14 miles in the snow up hill both ways, it was tough but we made it

F1nut

millerman 3732 wrote:

yep, 14 miles in the snow up hill both ways, it was tough but we made it

Barefoot too!

millerman 3732

F1nut wrote:

Barefoot too!

you got it, times where hard, my dad had to have money for moon shine to hell with shoes, he said.

Polkersince85

Yea, my Daddy said we were so poor when I was born that the woman next door had to have me.:eek:

PolkThug

From the same archive:

RULES FOR TEACHERS
1872




1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.
2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session.
3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.
4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.
6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.
9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves

millerman 3732

:rolleyes: :eek: 25 cents

PolkThug

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb//ottawa/exam.html

danger boy

HOLY ****! they should give that test to current day 8th graders and see how they do. hee hee hee.

I'd flunk for sure.

but i do know how to correctly set up a complicated 5.1 surround sound system. so take that 1895 8th graders. In your face!!

millerman 3732

Polkersince85 wrote:

Yea, my Daddy said we were so poor when I was born that the woman next door had to have me.:eek:

thats terrible :D

janmike

I guess it has been downhill ever since.

Mike682

8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

This is outstanding:D

PolkThug

This is why men went to church back then:

4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

dorokusai

Class of 1895 - F1Nut, Shack, George Grand, Reeltrouble1 and Tour2ma.

cfrizz

And if he married another teacher, she would be fired!:eek: :mad: :mad: :mad:

PolkThug wrote:

This is why men went to church back then:

4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

cfrizz

DAYAM you guys are lookin good for your age!:D Not too sure about your brains however.:eek:

dorokusai wrote:

Class of 1895 - F1Nut, Shack, George Grand, Reeltrouble1 and Tour2ma.

F1nut

We've got good genes.

janmike

dorokusai wrote:

Class of 1895 - F1Nut, Shack, George Grand, Reeltrouble1 and Tour2ma.

And you might the teacher have been Mark? Hehehe!

dorokusai

Nah, I'm too svelte to have been in that class

F1nut

The truth is he keep falling into bushes, so we wouldn't let him into class.

dorokusai

I'm into horticulture damnit...can a man pursue his hobby without being persecuted?!

shack

dorokusai wrote:

Class of 1895 - F1Nut, Shack, George Grand, Reeltrouble1 and Tour2ma.

Actually I was supposed to be the class of 1894....but I was held back a year.

Airplay355

8th grade? how many people actually made it to 8th grade in 1895...how old were they in 8th grade anyway? i'm not sure it's fair to compare 8th graders today with 8th graders back then

starchaser

I respectfully correct Doro that his records are off by more than a decade regarding rt1's graduation date.. yet, i sincerely appreciate and admire your attempt sir to associate him with a much younger group of siblings.

schwarcw

dorokusai wrote:

Class of 1895 - F1Nut, Shack, George Grand, Reeltrouble1 and Tour2ma.

Don't forget me in that group of old farts:D

michael_w

That's pretty funny. Kind of makes me think since I just finished taking all my exams for grade 12...

mulveling

Looks like it's mainly memorization, simple arithmetic, and formulaic (albeit tedious) tasks. At least they try to teach problem solving and creative thinking to kids these days - also many schools offer advanced algrebra in 8th grade

You can only take glorification of the good old days so far...

Mike682

The Arithmetic and U.S History sections are probably the most challenging because of the time constraints. The math section is challenging because some of the questions require conversions in addition to actual computations to arrive at the answers, all of which had to be done by hand. The history section requires a decent amount of writing, within a challenging time frame.

I'm assuming that all questions had to be answered..