# An 8th Grade Education



## Elf Mommy (Mar 31, 2009)

Take this test and pass it on to your more literate friends. 

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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. [/align] 
*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 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?! *


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## pinksalamander (Mar 31, 2009)

I could answer a few of the grammar ones, none of the arithmetic ones, well the History ones are US but if they were UK I reckon I could answer a few.... still difficult though!


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## LadyBug (Mar 31, 2009)

i didn't undstand half of the words, LOL!


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## pinksalamander (Mar 31, 2009)

2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 

Some of these questions are rather impossible given that the size of a bushel of wheat is not something currently on our school curriculum... and I'm not sure it ever will be...


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## Korr_and_Sophie (Mar 31, 2009)

I would hate to do the arithmetic questions without a calculator. I hope they at least had an abacus, or they would have to do it all long hand. I bet very few 8th graders could do it long hand, even if they were given the size of a bushel of wheat and knew the material. 

A 5 hour test is freakishly long. I hope they got breaks. Even when I did my diploma exams, it was maximum 2 tests per day, and those were at least 1 hour, but more if you needed. That was stressful enough. 

I think I would have failed the 8th grade in 1895.


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## Pet_Bunny (Mar 31, 2009)

7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20 per metre?

Surprising theyused imperial and metric systems in math. Let me pull out my calculator.


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## 4cm (Mar 31, 2009)

Is there an answer key? I wonder if the questions I guessed at are right or not. =)



> 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.


I like the emphasis on homonyms. Your, you're, and there, their, and they're are always mixed up these days. :nope:


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## kherrmann3 (Mar 31, 2009)

*4cm wrote: *


> Is there an answer key? I wonder if the questions I guessed at are right or not. =)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


To, too, and two are other ones that get mixed up. Homonyms are my pet peeve!


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## Hazel-Mom (Apr 1, 2009)

It's a hard test, but I'm pretty sure that when I was in 8th grade, I could do most of those (if they'd been in Flemish, and about Belgian history, LOL).

But other than that, I'd probably do ok. We always had long tests, usually we had one subject per day, in the morning. Tests lasted 4 hours each, and if you were done early, you could study for next subject, or read.

We got afternoons off to study. So our test periods lasted about a week and a half. That was twice a year.

Then in high school it went up to sometimes one subject morning, one afternoon. And in 12th grade, we also had oral exams! Who does those nowadays?I always say my kids have it very easy in school


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## pinksalamander (Apr 1, 2009)

Hazel-Mom wrote:


> It's a hard test, but I'm pretty sure that when I was in 8th grade, I could do most of those (if they'd been in Flemish, and about Belgian history, LOL).
> 
> But other than that, I'd probably do ok. We always had long tests, usually we had one subject per day, in the morning. Tests lasted 4 hours each, and if you were done early, you could study for next subject, or read.
> 
> ...



We have oral exams at our school. I've done loads of oral exams in English, R.E, Drama, French and Spanish.


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## pamnock (Apr 1, 2009)

In the United States quest to "leave no child behind", we "dumbed down" our education system.

I'm amazed at how many of the college students I see at school that have to take remedial math and English classes.

Pam


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## hartleybun (Apr 1, 2009)

im like Hazel-Mom - i tell my kids that school is easier than in my day:rollseyes daughter has just done two maths exams - one of them was testing her ability to use a calculator. they were all checked to make surethat they had the required calculator:? 

what ever happened to using their brains:rollseyes


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## BethM (Apr 1, 2009)

Even my high school algebra and geometry classes didn't allow calculators, *everything* was long hand!


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## hartleybun (Apr 1, 2009)

when they start a new school year, each september, we are told what brand of calculator to buy:rollseyes

if i really want to annoy them i say that when i started school i learned how to use an abacus:nasty:


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## pinksalamander (Apr 1, 2009)

But bear in mind that children nowadays have to take in a lot more information in daily lives and are exposed to much more. 

Also, you don't have to have a brilliant understanding of maths and english to go to university. I'm awful at maths, doesn't mean it will affect my art degree (I hope!)

I actually made my Mum take the 11+ exam and she couldn't do it. Her and her 'highly intelligent' friend completely failed it, and when my Mum flicks through my A Level folders the majority of the time she has no idea what it is about, which shows that it may not be just an easy ride. In fact (in the UK) I believe we are the most tested generation, what with the SATs from the age of 4, GCSEs, A Levels, mocks and all.

I hate it when my grandparents complain and say everything is 'easy' now because we have computers that do 'everything' for us. They don't have to learn how to create websites using HTML and understand the concept of macros and binary code to pass an exam.

/rant


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## pamnock (Apr 1, 2009)

Although a highly tested generation, many kids are lacking in remedial skills here in the US. I know of high school students who don't know how many states we have or how many months are in a year! I don't believe that a senior should be allowed to graduate without being able to spell the word, or enroll in college until they can spell that either.

I see a lot of college students who are helpless, spoon-fed babies who can't tie their own shoes, let alone get a degree. What a waste of their parent's money!

Pam


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## pinksalamander (Apr 1, 2009)

Pam for some reason I was just able to edit your post! I wanted to quote it but I pressed something different and it let me edit it!

But wanted I wanted to say was:

OK fair enough. Even I can name all the US states and I don't even live there!


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## pamnock (Apr 1, 2009)

*pinksalamander wrote: *


> But wanted I wanted to say was:
> 
> OK fair enough. Even I can name all the US states and I don't even live there!



A really sad reflection on the students of the US 

Pam


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## BethM (Apr 1, 2009)

*pamnock wrote: *


> *pinksalamander wrote: *
> 
> 
> > But wanted I wanted to say was:
> ...




I heard recently that students in the US are 35th in the world at math. I think that's really sad. Also that only 52% of kids in Los Angeles graduate high school. 

I will agree that high-level math might not be necessary for, say, an art degree. But you'd still need an understanding of basic, and some more complicated, concepts.

Are computer courses standard in the UK? As far as I know, they're more elective here, so many US kids don't _have_ to know how to write html.


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## kherrmann3 (Apr 1, 2009)

I hate some of the people in my college classes. They are so slow, it's not funny. I mean, it's not their fault, but it's still annoying. 

When I was in high school, I had to take a history class. They were discussing World War II and they were talking about Hiroshima. The teacher was reading about the destruction that the bomb caused, and one of the girls in my class yelled, "Oh, no! Not the eggrolls!" When the teacher regained his composure, he kindly told her that eggrolls were from China, not Japan. Then, she said, "So, that's why parts of the Great Wall are missing?" The teacher didn't know what to say to that... 

:expressionless


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## pinksalamander (Apr 1, 2009)

BethM wrote:


> *pamnock wrote: *
> 
> 
> > *pinksalamander wrote: *
> ...



Well all schools study ICT. We were all taught very basic HTML. I took ICT at A Level.

By that point about ICT I meant that although my grandparents and parents may have had to learn other things in complex detail, they didn't have to learn complicated things like HTML and binary code. I would say learning and understanding the basics of a lot of modern things is a lot more difficult than learning general high school maths or science. I mean even science has progressed an awful lot since my parents did it, and we are studying completely different things that seem a lot harder.

I think education and the subjects that are on our curriculum are a lot more complex, and although there are still a lot of 'stupid' people in my generation I think a lot would actually have a higher IQ than their parents. I certainly know from talking to my teachers that I consider them to be of equal knowledge in things as me. OK so my English teacher knows a lot more about English than me, but our knowledge of history, or of maths or of science is pretty much the same. And she is 20 years old than me.


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## hartleybun (Apr 1, 2009)

even this forum is an example of the difference between mine and my childrens generation. if i wanted to find out anything at their age i went to the library and trolled thru piles of books. now, they like me, sit at the computer and google. all from the comfort of the living room.

im sure i thought my mother had it easier than me when she was at school. i know my two think that way.

having said that, a few years ago a teacher told me there was no point struggling to teach my dyslexic son to write as by the time he grows up we will all be using speech recognition computers to do all our paperwork.:banghead


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## BethM (Apr 1, 2009)

*pinksalamander wrote:*


> Well all schools study ICT. We were all taught very basic HTML. I took ICT at A Level.
> 
> By that point about ICT I meant that although my grandparents and parents may have had to learn other things in complex detail, they didn't have to learn complicated things like HTML and binary code. I would say learning and understanding the basics of a lot of modern things is a lot more difficult than learning general high school maths or science. I mean even science has progressed an awful lot since my parents did it, and we are studying completely different things that seem a lot harder.
> 
> I think education and the subjects that are on our curriculum are a lot more complex, and although there are still a lot of 'stupid' people in my generation I think a lot would actually have a higher IQ than their parents. I certainly know from talking to my teachers that I consider them to be of equal knowledge in things as me. OK so my English teacher knows a lot more about English than me, but our knowledge of history, or of maths or of science is pretty much the same. And she is 20 years old than me.


First, what's "ICT?"

Where I am (Kansas), they don't teach programming or binary at the high school level. (Maybe private schools have it, but not the public ones.) It's not mandatory, anyway. There are so many people who don't have computers at home, I don't think they'd be able to get it on the curriculum without a lot of protest.

Personally, I bet the science our parents studied in school seemed difficult to them, but we've grown up with those "old" concepts, so it's the newer stuff that is difficult to us. I would probably be unfamiliar with some science concepts in textbooks now, just because it's new to me. (Though I do read and listen to a lot of science and technology related things because I find it really interesting, so I manage to keep up a little bit.)

Maybe I failed to articulate my original point, though. There are lots of people in the US that come out of school without basic knowledge. They can work a calculator, but don't understand basic math concepts, or know how to figure out something longhand. They can't do basic things like name all 50 states, or, like Kelly's example, know that the atomic bomb was dropped over Japan. 

Schools must be more advanced in the UK than they are here. Arguing UK schools vs. US schools doesn't quite work. We've got the "No Child Left Behind" thing. Schools that don't pass enough student on the standard tests often get their funding cut, so some of the tests have been made easier so more people can pass. I have heard of cases where teachers will change the student's scores and pass someone who didn't know the answers. And since kids only really have to know what's on the tests, some schools don't teach anything beyond what's on the test. These are worst-case scenarios, and there are schools that go above and beyond, but there are also a lot that do the minimum (sometimes that's all they have the money to do).

I didn't actually intend to start an arguement!


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## pla725 (Apr 1, 2009)

I'm grading 8th grade math tests for the State of Florida. Without giving away too much, most of the students couldn't even figure out the square footage of a deck and how many gallons of stain the deck needed. To be honest I would have some difficulty with some of the problems on the test.


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## hartleybun (Apr 2, 2009)

*BethM wrote: *


> I didn't actually intend to start an arguement!



education is a real minefield over here:rollseyeswith the same debate about the ability of school leavers. tho' our education secretary (government minister) was in new york recently singing the praises of grading schools. seems that each week there's a 'new' method of teaching. when my daughter started school i , and many other parents, were berated by the reception teacher because our kids could read and write a little. we were told not to teach them to write any further because we were doing it wrong. and could we not teach them to read because the school uses a different method.

aaaaaaaarrrrrgh. luckily they are now in one of the best secondary schools around, even the government inspectors like it enough to recommend other head teachers visit it.


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## pinksalamander (Apr 2, 2009)

I guess it might be different as we have the grammar school system here. So everyone goes to a similar primary school with the same curriculum, but then when you are 11 you take a test called the 11+, if you pass it, you can get into a grammar school where the teaching is (generally) much better and they achieve much higher A Level results and the teaching is generally more academic (a lot of my friends are studying latin, classics, sciences etc at A Level). If you don't pass the 11+ (like me) you go to a secondary school where the teaching is more vocational, although we still achieve good A Level results. 

A lot of people don't like the grammar school system because they don't think its fair that some students get a better education than others. To be honest, I don't see a problem with it and I've been through it. My Mum suffered at school because she was borderline, so she managed to pass the test but wasn't really good enough. She ended up going to a very academic school where she was constantly pushed but was just not clever enough and came out with CFF at A Level. However I go to a school where I am in just the right place for my intelligence and am predicted CCC (which for me is pretty good). 

The 'no child left behind' sounds like a pretty silly idea. There are people who I went to school with who have definitely been 'left behind' but to be honest they weren't heading anywhere any way (a friend I have in mind achieved two GCSEs before getting pregnant and now works in a factory making shower heads. She was never destined for university).

By the way, I didn't really consider this an argument at all! 

And ICT stands for Information Computer Technology.


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## BethM (Apr 2, 2009)

*pinksalamander wrote: *


> I guess it might be different as we have the grammar school system here. So everyone goes to a similar primary school with the same curriculum, but then when you are 11 you take a test called the 11+, if you pass it, you can get into a grammar school where the teaching is (generally) much better and they achieve much higher A Level results and the teaching is generally more academic (a lot of my friends are studying latin, classics, sciences etc at A Level). If you don't pass the 11+ (like me) you go to a secondary school where the teaching is more vocational, although we still achieve good A Level results.


Oh, ok. That sounds like an ok system to me. 

Here, if you're in public school, everyone's pretty much the same the whole way through. In high school (age 14-18, approx.) everyone takes the same core classes and then you have to fill the rest of the day with electives. I guess it's ok to give people a choice, but many young people aren't able to make good choices. I knew quite a few people who struggled in college, because they'd used all their electives on "easy" classes. It wasn't that they weren't smart enough, they just didn't have the foundation they needed, and had to catch up. (I also knew people in high school who used their electives taking Advance Placement or classes at university, and they were way ahead of anyone else.)
But each state gets to set it's own standards, so an education in one place might be better or worse than in a different state.


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## pinksalamander (Apr 2, 2009)

We do 'elective' classes too. From the age of 14-16 you take GCSEs which are two year courses. You have to take the basics (english, maths, all sciences, religious education, ICT, PE) but then you choose 4 other subjects you would like to take and drop the rest (I took Product Design, Geography, Spanish and Drama, dropped stuff like history and French etc). Then at A Level (which is another 2 year course) you take 4 subjects, and drop one in the first year so at the end of school you end up with three A Levels and 1 AS level (the one you dropped, worth half).


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## pamnock (Apr 2, 2009)

*pinksalamander wrote: *


> The 'no child left behind' sounds like a pretty silly idea. There are people who I went to school with who have definitely been 'left behind' but to be honest they weren't heading anywhere any way (a friend I have in mind achieved two GCSEs before getting pregnant and now works in a factory making shower heads. She was never destined for university).



It's true that there are many who simply aren't destined for college (my middle son is one of those). Very intelligent, but prefers working with his hands over sitting in class.

Pam


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## Elf Mommy (Apr 2, 2009)

I think my biggest problem with the American education system right now is its way of pigeonholing students into one way of learning. We hear about some great way of teaching in New Zealand or Japan and so the State or District decides that is the ONLY way to learn. They force all teachers to teach that way for a few years, only to find the next BEST thing and tell us all now that's the only way kids learn. Because they only want you to use that ONE method, they take away all of your materials to teach any other way. They tell you the last method they thought was God's Gift to Teaching is now baaaaaaaad! baaaaaaaaaaad! Don't do that anymore!

sigh

When I left college, one of the things they made us do was develop our own philosophy of teaching. My philosophy is that all children are different. They are going to require different methods of obtaining information as well as different methods of discipline. Look at children as individuals and cater to what each one needs to learn at the best of his or her ability. 

Our country can't wrap its head around that.


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## hartleybun (Apr 2, 2009)

:yeahthat:you are sooooo right:biggrin2:eloquently put:biggrin2:


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