From My Observation Transpeople Are Smarter Than Average...

[Guest amie]

but how smart would you have been considered back in 1895?

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, 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, "He only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it? Heehee!

So, how many stumped you?

[Guest amie]

Come on, Jendar, Evan, Sally, DJ, Lizzy, Nekomata, Charolette, Shakura, etc. and all the other Brainiacs on this site get your butts in here, I want your thoughts on this. I know you're out there and I wanna see if you're as moved by this as I.

I want your feedback and I want it ASAP. lol

[Guest mwade1981]

I may be crazy, but it looks like a fun test. But I don't think I would pass with out a computer, I'm helpless with out spell check. To be honest even with spell check I have truble. But other than my inablity to spell my ansers there was nothing on that test that looked like a trick question, and its been so long scince I've been in school and studied any of that stuff that I find my strugling to remember a lot of the gramer rools. Now I'm going to have to go and look all that stuff up to make sure that I still remember it all.

Morgan

[Guest Evan_J]

Come on, Jendar, Evan, Sally, DJ, Lizzy, Nekomata, Charolette, Shakura, etc. and all the other Brainiacs on this site get your butts in here, I want your thoughts on this. I know you're out there and I wanna see if you're as moved by this as I.

I want your feedback and I want it ASAP. lol

You know, you were allowed undisclosed admittance to the fellas beer/pool room till like 5 minutes ago smartypants.

I dunno. It might not be too bad. Its worded very formally. That's what gives it such a surface appearace of being totally out of the question. But no, at 3something in the morning I am not gonna try it lol.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Well I have one reply - duhhhhhhh, whaaaa????

You have a great point in this posting, that the good ole days were necessarily the dream world we think!

But there is one question that is sooooo obvious:

The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. (Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography.) Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós ("correct") and γράφειν gráphein ("to write"). Orthography is distinct from typography.

While "orthography" colloquially is often used synonymously with spelling, spelling is only part of orthography. Other elements of the field of orthography are hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks and punctuation. Orthography describes or defines the set of symbols (graphemes and diacritics) used, and the rules about how to write these symbols.

ANY similarity of my answer and the Wikipedia definition is coincidence.

Lizzy

[Guest angie]

Actually,

It is proven that trans are of above average intelligence and creativity.

I guess,being both gendered,we use both hemisphere's of the brain.

Angie

[Guest Nekomata]

Oh, I aced that test. I got 100%. And this was when I was in 2nd grade.

[Guest amie]

Oh, I aced that test. I got 100%. And this was when I was in 2nd grade.

lol.

Quality.

[Guest Zabrak]

Oh, I aced that test. I got 100%. And this was when I was in 2nd grade.

You're 114 years old?!

[Sally]

When did I become a brainiac?

Actually, the main difficulty is in the wording and then add in the Kansas facts about climate and all - that you would have gotten in the 8th grade.

And I must admit not knowing the dimensions of a bussel of wheat so I am stumped on the wagon question in Arithmetic.

Given their text books and one week to read them all - it would be a snap, nothing that difficult - just unfamiliar.

No questions about the cattle industry, Oil or cotton - so they would have had trouble with the Texas exam!

It is interesting.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Nekomata]

You're 114 years old?!

*Grin* I aged well, didn't I?

[Guest Sakura_Stingray]

Well let me wet my whistle and name each of my hairs.. i do believe we have found my old test exam

~-spits in a bucket before pulling up pants to the chest-~

I thought i threw that back into the ol' well back'n my farm.. How did it get back here?

~-looks at it, then uses it as tissue paper-~

Well galle gee whittikers it is mine.. I would recogize this anywhere! I left it blank like this back then when there i was a schooly

(Making a jock of the thing.. go with the flow >.>)

[Guest Donna Jean]

Angie...........

LOL...you are one evil Task Mistress!

I don't want to break what's left of mind right now....

I have a sign on my forehead...."Handle With Care!"

That was good, though...very thought provoking....the education that was given years ago compared to today!

I went to elementry school in rual Georgia....moved to Cleveland, Ohio and they put me back a grade because I didn't know enough ....

Moved back to Georgia a couple years later...got moved ahead a grade because I was so smart....

Dang! Broke even!

Huggs....

(Now leave me alone!.....lol)

Donna Jean