Are you Smarter than an 8th Grader?

[Meg 368]

This was forwarded to me from elsewhere.

Before I pass it along, I'd like to point out that:

Truth or Fiction says the document involved is real but questions if it is for an 8th grade final exam or for something else.

Snopes raises some interesting points about it as well.

So, without further ado, here it is:

=====================================================

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

[your_adress_here 11]

Patiently waits for someone (Duke, maybe) to answer all the above questions.

[OffTopic 3]

I was in 8th grade last year...I don't remember like any of that stuff...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Wow.  By the time I hit 8th grade in 1949, thing were a little more diluted.  But you have to remember that at the time, this was considered a complete education in a farming area where the students were often off helping on the farm.

One of the things you don't note is the ages of the students, some of whom were adults.  I think the next thing after 8th grade at that time was "reading" at a university when you may or may not earn a degree.  I don't think the concept of a high school existed in most areas.

But yes, it is humbling, isn't it.  How many pounds of wheat are in a bushel?  How do you convert from cubic feet to bushels?  Old hat, in those days.

[OffTopic 3]

That's is very different from what we learn now days. Seems like school is getting harder than it was 20 years ago.

[Duke87 1,070]

Well, since yah dared me.....

Also, I'm going to do this all off the top of my head and not "cheat" by googling.

Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.quote>

-Capitalize the first word of a sentence

-Capitalize all proper nouns

-Capitalize the first and last word of a title, and any non-trivial words in the middle

-That's only three, though somehow I think they must expect you to break "proper nouns" up into "people's names, days of the week, etc"

Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.quote>

-Nouns: people, places, things in general (only suffix and prefix modification)

-Adjectives: descriptive words for nouns (no modification)

-Verbs: words signifying action (full conjugation)

-Adverbs: descriptive words for verbs or adjectives (no modification)

-Interjections: standalone words to start a statement with significant emphasis, usually followed by an exclamation point (no proper modification)

-Prepositions: words describing relations (no modification)

-Pronouns: words used to substitute nouns for simplicity's sake (full inflection)

-Conjunctions: words used to join clauses together (no modifaction)

-Articles: a, an, the (no modification)

-Contractions: Words formed by joining two words together and putting an apostrophe where letters are omitted (modified by nature)

Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.quote>

Verse- a part of a song or poem

Stanza- a part of a poem bounded by skipped lines

Paragraph- a part of normally composed writing, bounded by changes in subject

What are the Principal Parts of a verb. Give Principal Parts of. lie, lay and runquote>

This must be archaic nomenclature, as I was certainly never taught of verb parts in school.

 

Define Case, Illustrate each Casequote>

Same.

What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.quote>

Punctuation is the marks other than letters and numbers which appear in writing, used to remove ambiguities in the wording.

Period- standard, default sentence ending

Question mark- ends a sentence that's asking a question

Exclamation- ends a sentence with emphasis

Comma- separates each item of a list, and clauses in a sentence

Colon- used to present the words or items which come after it as part of these which come before it

Semicolon- used to seperate significantly different parts of a sentence, or items in a list when one or more of those items is itself a list

Apostrophe- used to indicate possession or omission of letters in a contraction

Quotation marks- used to signify someone else's words or words being spoken

Dash/hyphen- used to seperate some compound words, or in a similar manner to a colon

 

Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.quote>

I'm skipping that one in the interest of time.

Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmeticquote>

Not sure what exactly they mean by this. How operations (addition, subtraction, etc.) work? I honestly never considered arithmetic as even having specific rules. More like it just is what it is, coming naturally without thinking about it.

A wagon box is 2 ft deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?quote>

Well, that's a 60 cubic foot box. As to how many bushe

[GreekMan 246]

I think you deserve a trixe!

well done!

[BurroDiablo 222]

Theres a TV show over here called 'Are you Smarter than a 10 Year old'... I never never seen a stupider bunch of uneducated, Ignorant  and clueless people than the contestants on that show in all my life... its even worse than that Woman who thought an Elephant was Bigger than the Moon...

[Voar Tok 4]

Originally posted by: SkiGeek

What happened to us??? It is kind of humbling, isn't it?

quote>

Sort of yes, and sort of no.  I'd say that at this point, it's no longer a valid comparison because we teach other things in school.  Yes, I think we've dumbed down what we teach.  However, we teach different things now.  For example, in the math section, everything in there is basic arithmetic.  Yet, now, we offer courses like pre-algebra to those about to go into high school.

On a totally random note though, I think I could get about 50% on that test overall, which should be good enough to have a score equivalent to the class idiots.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: SkiGeek

. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion

quote>

 

Yavin

The Rebel Alliance destroys the 1st death star

Hoth 

The Empire overruns the rebel aliinace base on Hoth

Endor

The rebels destroy the 2nd Death Star and over throw  Palpatine and Save a soul.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Originally posted by: SkiGeek Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion

quote>

Yavin

The Rebel Alliance destroys the 1st death star

Hoth 

The Empire overruns the rebel aliinace base on Hoth

Endor

The rebels destroy the 2nd Death Star and over throw  Palpatine and Save a soul.

quote>

Oh, very funny.

------------

There is a point to be taken from this, but that point is not that we're somehow slipping. Rather, it's that an 8th grade education today is not the same thing as an 8th grade education 100 years ago, so it's incorrect to assume that our ancestors were undereducated if they never went to high school.

Keep in mind, times change. And while there are things on that test which almost no one knows these days (more because they don't need to than that they're neglectful of it), there are also plenty of things which someone entering high school today would know that receive no mention there.

The fact that we now have high school mandatory and college common as dirt shows not that we're slower in educating people, but that there's simply more stuff out there to learn. Looking at my answers to that test, I would probably have seemed rather stupid. But give me some questions on chemistry, physics, or calculus and I would totally own those sections while the kids of the day would be completely and utterly confused. So I ask you, kids of 1895:

-State Newton's three laws of motion

-What is the photoelectric effect?

-What are the seven strong acids?

-What is the derivative of y=sin(x)?

-What are the values for which 2x²+3x-6=0?

-What characteristics define a mammal?

Didn't think so.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, the whole thing is interesting, but parochial.  I think most kids leaving grade 8 in Canada, anyway, are far more multi-cultural than rural Kansans of the 1890s.  All of them have had at least four years of conversational French if Anglophone, and conversation English if Francophone.

My kids had the basis of both set theory, and algebra. 

Both left grade 8 as accomplished brass players with orchestra playing experience, but that was because of the school districts music program.

They both have good English reading and writing skills (Ontario is basically Anglophone), but their spelling was atrocious due to the fooling around with this facet that was done by the idiots at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education who managed to use the elementary school system as a giant experimental lab.

They both had good computer skills, but no programming, of course.  Programming is a high-school subject these days, taught in some simplified language that emphasizes developing algorithms (this is good!).

Their interpersonal skills were very good and remain so.  Both my kids are racially colorblind.  People are just people.

Oh, yes, and they are both immersed in the metric system.

Of these two kids, one is now 33, the other 29 years old.  I have reason to be proud of them.

---

Duke87:  Isn't the bushel the standard commodity measure for grains on the Chicago exchange?  If you ever trade there, you had better know what it is.  (8 dry measure gallons)

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

Wow, that is hard lol..

What are the Principal Parts of a verb. Give Principal Parts of. lie, lay and runquote>

I don't think this is "archaic nomenclature," I certainly know what it is...( I think!  Or I'm about to look really stupid...) The principle parts: present, present participle, past, and past participle

Lie - lie, (am) lying, lay, (have) lain; Lay - lay, (am) laying, laid, (have) laid; Run - run, (am) running, ran, (have) run

I'm not sure what "case" is though, unless they mean mood?

As for the final "e" rule: I think they mean like in "cane," the final "e" changes the short "a" to long "a."  I don't know though.  I hate grammar/spelling.  

That's pretty good for being off the top of your head though, Duke. 

I remember one time in 7th grade history my teacher read us a spelling list from a first grade book (from the 1800s)... half the words I couldn't even spell...

[s.i.X 13]

Case isn't as prominent in English as it once was, but generally its the part of a sentence that states the role of the subject, object or possessor. For example, vocative case it when you add someones name to the question directed at them. "Duke, do you understand that?" instead of just "Do you understand that?". Duke is the example of vocative case. There are hundreds of different cases and each language has different ones.

I think German makes heavy use of case. It's an extremely confusing thing.

Another useless thing: In Slovenian, they don't just have singular and plural. They also have dual. One of the few languages that have retained that feature.

[simsmart 1]

Originally posted by: El Burro Theres a TV show over here called 'Are you Smarter than a 10 Year old'... I never never seen a stupider bunch of uneducated, Ignorant  and clueless people than the contestants on that show in all my life... its even worse than that Woman who thought an Elephant was Bigger than the Moon...

quote>

They cheat, a rocket scientist lost (are you smarter than a fifth grader). He worked at NASA.

[patriots_1228 51]

im telling you, this is a hoax. my tests so far this year have been much more basic. like "define X" |x+2|>1

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body Isn't the bushel the standard commodity measure for grains on the Chicago exchange?  If you ever trade there, you had better know what it is.  (8 dry measure gallons)quote>

I guarantee you that wouldn't help you with those questions. Because that's a more standardized modern definition. Traditionally, what exactly defined a bushel was different depending on what it was a bushel of. A bushel of wheat was not the same size as a bushel of corn, oats, or anything else. Given that Kansas is mostly farms (even today) and Wheat is the biggest crop there, they obviously expected to know the volume and weight of a bushel of wheat since that was important to know. If the question mentioned a different crop, the answer would not be the same.

I believe the differing definitions were so that a bushel of any crop would have approximately the same monetary value. Of course, prices change, so that didn't work too well in the long run.

I suppose I should also point out that a dry measure gallon is not the same as a liquid measure gallon- that gallon of milk you bought at the supermarket has no relation to the "gallon" of grain at the exchange. Further confusing things, a US gallon (4 quarts, 3.785 liters) is not the same as an Imperial gallon (about 4.5 liters, 1.2 US gallons). See why so many people prefer metric?

Originally posted by: BlondeTwiggy

What are the Principal Parts of a verb. Give Principal Parts of. lie, lay and runquote>

The principle parts: present, present participle, past, and past participle

Lie - lie, (am) lying, lay, (have) lain; Lay - lay, (am) laying, laid, (have) laid; Run - run, (am) running, ran, (have) run.quote>

Those are "tenses", at least as I learned them. So you just confirmed my suspicion of the terminology being archaic.

As for the final "e" rule: I think they mean like in "cane," the final "e" changes the short "a" to long "a."  quote>

Yeah, see, they never bothered teaching us telling us any "rules" like that. Because let's face it, the idea of applying rules to English is absurd. There are no rules, only general trends with tons of things that violate them. So if English is you're first language, it only confuse things to try and learn rules for it since you just know it naturally and know how a word is supposed to be pronounced from hearing it spoken... and even if you see a word in print before ever hearing it, you can really only make an educated guess at how it may be pronounced, since English is not a phonetic language. And even those educated guesses aren't worth much. If they were, "facade" would be pronounced "face aid", "pedophile" would be pronounced "ped ah fuh lee", etc. I presume stuff like this probably still gets taught in ESL classes, though.

Originally posted by: s.i.X Case isn't as prominent in English as it once was, but generally its the part of a sentence that states the role of the subject, object or possessor. For example, vocative case it when you add someones name to the question directed at them. "Duke, do you understand that?" instead of just "Do you understand that?". Duke is the example of vocative case. There are hundreds of different cases and each language has different ones.quote>

Yeah, see... unimportant for everyday knowledge of English. Maybe important for learning a second language, depending on what that language is. Important in general only if you're a linguist. And also considering kids are exceedingly bored by this kind of stuff, it's little wonder they stopped bothering to teach it.

[coolotter88 2]

a caret u is probably a u with a circumflex on top

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Originally posted by: BlondeTwiggy

As for the final "e" rule: I think they mean like in "cane," the final "e" changes the short "a" to long "a."  quote>

Yeah, see, they never bothered teaching us telling us any "rules" like that. quote>

They don't teach phonics anymore? 

They might not.  I learned phonics but my sister (who is two years younger and went through the same school system) did not.

But, then they were changing things around when I was in school.   For instance, N_O_Body mentioned set theory.   I learned set theory in the first grade.   It was part of the "new math" program that was a reaction to Sputnik.   They took out lots of history and added lots of math and science. 

Which is one reason my generation of Americans is so bleeping awful at world history.  I bought a copy of the world civilizations textbook currently used by the local high school simply because it covered subjects that my education skipped right over.  (and, for the record, yes, I graduated from high school and I have a bachelor of science degree in information systems management.  A major no one had ever heard of back in those days.)

[s.i.X 13]

Originally posted by: coolotter88 a caret u is probably a u with a circumflex on topquote>

That's exactly what it is.

In most cases, a "silent e" on a word is there because it was added by scribes to make words fit properly on parchments. They woulde often adde and e to the worde to make the sentence stretche betweene eithere side of the page. It looked bettere. Also, if you pronounce the e and leave out the cedilla in façade, it isn't "face ade", it's "fake ade". The word is French, and in French when you have c before a, it's pronounced k, unless it has a cedilla, then its pronounced s.

Schools don't teach phonics because it's a flawed system. They do give the basics of IPA as it applies to English and go through most of the ~237 rules and 70-whatever exceptions. It takes longer but it's much more accurate.

[coolotter88 2]

wait a minute, what do you mean you don't know what a silent e is?!

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

LOL s.i.X, I always wondered why olde englishe had all those useless "e"s hanging around.

I wonder if our language will eventually evolve to lose all silent e's? Except then how will you know whether to use a long "a" or short "a"??

English is so confusing, I feel sorry for people trying to learn it as a second language.

I learned phonics, I don't know if it is better than the other method(s), but I've always been able to pronounce words pretty well (that I've never read before) except façade, the funny thing is, I always thought it was fah cade. Until this summer, when I heard some guy say "fah sod" and I was like "Oh hey that's how you say that word" and I felt pretty stupid. 

But I've never been able to pronounce French words  

[OffTopic 3]

I remember last year, the quadratic formula.  I actually memorized that!  It was hard.  Why does Old English have all the "e"s?  And then they spell things differently, like centre instead of center.  The English language they say is the hardest to learn, although we have kinda simplified it.  Notice I said kinda.

P.S. we use too much slang.

   

[Duke87 1,070]

For y=ax²+bx+c, y=0 at x=-b±sqrt(b²-4ac)/2a

You're going to use that thing a lot in any math or science related study. It'll be burned onto your brain before you know it. The really fun part is when you get imaginary solutions.

In algebra they'll also teach you that them minumum/maximum of the parabola is at x=-b/2a. Of course, they won't teach you where that comes from- it doesn't come out of thin air, it involves this little thing called calculus. And while it's the kind of thing that may make the less than nerdy run for some good 'ol ethanol, you should make an effort to stay sober during the process- never drink and derive.

[coolotter88 2]

yeah, there was a calculus accident in our town, 5 people were killed and it was because they were drinking and deriving.

[Sam 163]

Interesting topic Ski

We hear a lot about how things have changed and I think this is a good illustration.

(I don't suppose you have the answers as well?)

Originally posted by: Duke87

...

In algebra they'll also teach you that them minumum/maximum of the parabola is at x=-b/2a. Of course, they won't teach you where that comes from- it doesn't come out of thin air, it involves this little thing called calculus...quote>

They don't teach calculus anymore?

Originally posted by: Duke87

What are the Principal Parts of a verb. Give Principal Parts of. lie, lay and runquote>

This must be archaic nomenclature, as I was certainly never taught of verb parts in school.

 

Define Case, Illustrate each Casequote>

Same.

quote>

I think by case they mean nominative, accusative, dative and genitive (ie subject, object, indirect object and possessive)

Principal Parts I think are infinitive, past tense, past participle and present participle

You probably learned these but they may not have been named as such.

Originally posted by: SkiGeek

...

I bought a copy of the world civilizations textbook currently used by the local high school simply because it covered subjects that my education skipped right over. 

...quote>

Yes, I tend to feel my history education has a lot of gaps. I can probably describe a lot about the various factors that influenced Australian foreign policy between the end of the second world war and the end of the 20th Century, but I know virtually nothing about the American War of Independence and other major events in world history as there was no time left to cover them in the course.

I think I unfortunately learned more history from watching Doctor Who than I learned in school.

I think however one of the most important thing to get out of an education is the ability to think through situations and problems even though an area of knowledge may be unfamiliar.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The best way to acquire historical knowledge is by reading.  The literature is massive, a veritable information explosion on its own.  You have your choice:  Dry as dust tomes that describe history objectively;  Historical novels that follow the history, but interject some fiction. 

Historical novels have to be taken with a grain of salt, because the author uses "poetic license".  I am currently reading Colleen McCullough's Antony and Cleopatra.  I think the historical stuff is pretty much OK, but of course the human interactions between the characters is constructed mostly out of whole cloth.  Further, you have to be sure your novelist is a good researcher.  Ms. McCullough made a gross error in one of the early Roman period novels and got a certain set of obscenities reversed.  Being a good worker, however, she put a note in the next volume with an apology and a correction.

I am an amateur scholar of the Caesar period of Roman history, and her stuff is enlightening, but with a salt block, please.  I have a scholarly treatise or two, and I am sure some of them have been consulted by this author.

By the way, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is word for word out of the recognized history of the time.  Only the dialog was created, the events are quite accurate.  Of course, as an educated person, you are supposed to know a lot of stuff when watching this play.  For example, you need to understand that Phillippi, where the final defeat of the conspirators took place is in Macedonia.  The Romans could really move their legions around.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: sam

They don't teach calculus anymore? quote>

They do, but it's optional. So naturally, a lot of people don't take it. And most that do wait until college, because it's a requirement for many majors, and if you take it in high school, you'll only have to retake it again in college... unless you take it at the AP level and get a high score on the AP test, and your school accepts the AP credit, which some might not. For instance, Manhattan College (where I go) will only accept AP credits from schools in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. If you're from any other state, it's no good and you have to retake the classes here. They also won't accept transfer credits from other colleges for any classes related to your major. Though if it's from somewhere that's known to be a really good school, they have been known to make exceptions to that rule. They won't, for instance, mind accepting transfer credits on your calculus class from Columbia. But someone looking to transfer credits from a place like that is rare.

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

I didn't learn (most) of this last year I think I should write one of these, because this one isn't really accurate of the things we learn at school [at least not mine]

EDIT: Here's a few questions out of my biology homework due tomorrow...

1. Describe the endosymbiotic theory.

2. What significant mammalian adaptations led to their sucess during the Cenozoic Era?

3. Explain the pattern known as punctuated equilibrium.

4. Explain how radioactivity is used to date rocks.

Have fun!

EDIT 2: You know, while you're at it...how about some Health questions?

True or false, if false, change the incorrect word.

1. Your body converts all carbohydrates into fiber.

2. The body uses proteins to make lipids, which are substances that control the rate of chemical reactions in cells.

3. An increased risk of heart disease is associated with a high intake of saturated fats.

4. Water-soluble vitamins are stored in fat.

5. Water is a nutrient vital to every body function.

[sEAhAwk fAn121 0]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.quote>

It was admitted as a free state, but there was enough opposition that a rogue slave state government soon followed. It sided with the north in the Civil war, though.[

quote>

 

Partially Correct  

 Kansas was first settled with the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened up Kansas and Nebraska to settlers. The act says that states would be admitted  into the Union either a slave or a free state by Popular sovereignty which means that the people living in the state would decide if the state were to be Slave or free. Kansas held the election but Proslavery "bushwhackers" came into Kansas and threw the polls from free to slave. A bogus state legislature in Lecompton, Kansas, just west of Lawrence. But the antislavery opened up their own legislature in Pawnee, Kansas just east of the present day capitol of Topeka. Both legislatures passed a constitution and sent it to the US Congress. The Topeka Constitution was Anti-Slavery and the Lecompton Consititution was Pro-Slavery. Both were rejected by congress due to because the Lecompton Legislature was made by a bogus legislature and the Topeka Legislature wasn't voted in by the people. Another consititution was passed in Leavenworth it was also rejected. The final constitution, The Wyandotte Consititution was Anti-Slavery and was passed by the US Congress. Kansas was admitted into the Union as a Free State. 

Yeah thats only when Kansas was becoming a state. Theres alot more but I'm tired