The BDOTGNZA notes that this is American, but it applies here

[MSTRS]

WHAT IT TOOK TO GET AN 8TH GRADE EDUCATION IN 1895...
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.

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& nbsp;
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, f ain, 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?! Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO, I don't have the answers!

[Laava]

Don't! Stop it, you're scaring me!:crybaby::crybaby::crybaby:

[Swoop]

8. Name events connected with the following dates: ... 1800,
The NEWS comes on the TV! 1850 = the weather is on the TV.:sweatdrop

[Ixion]

I'd need to check the definition of bushel (American bushel, presumably).

And they don't define if they mean simple or compound interest.

The arithmetic secrion seems very easy, for the time allowed.

Orthography was never as popular in the Empire as in the States.

But, by and large, this would be of a similar standard to the old Matriculation examination. No educated person should have any difficulty with any but the orthrographics (allowing NZ substitutions ofr Kansas and Imperial history for US)

[MisterD]

What's 8th Grade?

[MSTRS]

What's 8th Grade?

Year 8, Form 2 or Standard 6 in the old money

[Hitcher]

Obviously more was taught in those days about "arithmetic" than just the doing of sums.

Imperial measurement shits me to tears, particularly units of measure like bushels, whether American or Imperial.

[tri boy]

Even back then, they refused to acknowledge any "world history".
F**king seppo"s.

[sugilite]

Obviously more was taught in those days about "arithmetic" than just the doing of sums.

NCEA Arithmetic Exam
Q1: How many batteries does your calculator use?

Thank you for coming.

[MSTRS]

NCEA Arithmetic Exam
Q1: How many batteries does your calculator use?

Thank you for coming.

Did you take the advanced class?
We were asked 'How many fingers am I holding up?" by the crowd control specialist (teacher, for those more fortunate like Sugi). I don't think they wanted to know for it's own sake...rather, they were checking to see if the Ritalin was working.

[yungatart]

NCEA Arithmetic Exam
Q1: How many batteries does your calculator use?

Thank you for coming.

Today's kids have no need of calculators...they use their cellphones for every thing!


(I kid you not!!Trouble is I have yet to see a cellphone that can do trig calculations....)

[Ixion]

Having managed to get out of 8th grade (you do realise that if you fail that exam you have to resit the 8th grade year?), you might wish to enter High school. That requires a somewhat harder entrance exam:
1885 HIGH SCHOOL ADMISSION TEST
Algebra
I. Define Algebra, an algebraic expression, a polynomial.
Make a literal trinomial.
II. Write a homogeneous quadrinomial of the third degree.
Express the cube root of 10ax in two ways.
III. Find the sum and difference of 3x - 4ay + 7cd - 4xy + 16, and
10ay - 3x - 8xy + 7cd - 13.
IV. Express the following in its simplest form by removing the parentheses and combining: 1 - (1 - a) + (1 - a + a²) - (1 - a + a² - a³⁾.
V. Find the product of 3 + 4x + 5x² - 6x³ and 4 - 5x - 6x².
VI. Expand each of the following expressions and give the theorem for
each: {a+4}², {a2-10}², {a+4} {a-4}.
VII. Divide 6a⁴ + 4a³x - 9a² x² - 3ax³ + 2x⁴ by 2a² + 2ax - x².
VIII. Find the prime factors of x⁴ - b⁴ and x³ - 1.
IX. Find the G.C.D. of 6a² + 11ax + 3x², and 6a² + 7ax - 3x².
X. Divide (x² - 2xy + y²)/ab by (x - y)/bc and give the answer in its
lowest terms.
ARITHMETIC
I. If a 60 days note of $840 is discounted at a bank at 4 1/2% what are the proceeds?
II. Find the sum of {square root of} 16.7281 and {square root of} .72 1/4.
III. The interest of $50 from March 1st to July 1st is $2.50.
What is the rate?
IV. What is the cost of 19 cwt. 83 lb. of sugar at $98.50 a ton?
What is discount? A number?
V. Divide the difference between 37 hundredths and 95 thousandths by 25 hundred thousands and express the result in words.
VI. The mason work on a building can be finished by 16 men in 24 days, working 10 hours a day.
How long will it take 22 men working 8 hours a day?
VII. A merchant sold a quantity of goods for $18,775.
He deducts 5% for cash and then finds that he has made 10%.
What did he pay for the goods?
IX. By selling goods at 12 1/2% profit a man clears $800.
What was the cost of the goods, and for what were they sold?
X. A merchant offered some goods for $1170.90 cash, or $1206 payable in 30 days.
Which was the better offer for the customer, money being worth 10%?
GEOGRAPHY
I. What is the axis of the earth?

What is the equator?
What is the distance from the equator to either pole in degrees, in miles?
Why is it warmer at the equator than near the poles?
II. Name four principal ranges of mountains in Asia, three in Europe, and three in Africa.
III. Name the capitals of the following countries:
Portugal, Greece, Egypt, Persia, Japan, China, Canada, Hindostan, Thibet, Cuba.
IV. Name the states on the west bank of the Mississippi, and the capital of each.
V. Bound New Jersey, and name six important cities in the state.
VI. Tell the situation of the following:
Detroit, Chicago, Portland, Rio Janeiro, Callao, Venice, Bombay, St. Louis, Halifax, Vera Cruz.
VII. Name 10 countries of South America, and the capital of each.
VIII. Bound Russia and name its capital and largest river.
IX. In what countries is coffee raised?

What are the principal exports of France?
Of the West Indies?
X. New York is nearly 75 {degrees} west of London.
When it is noon at the former, what time is it at the latter?
GRAMMAR
I. Analyse the following:
Perseus ground his teeth with rage, for he saw that he had fallen into a trap.
II. Make a list of all the verbs in the sentence above, and give the principal parts of each of them.
III. Parse for, had fallen, that, saw
IV. Give two uses of the hyphen.
V. Copy the sentence below, and punctuate it properly.
"Will you please to tell me boys, for what the reindeer is useful"?
VI. Write a sentence containing a noun used as an attribute, a verb in the perfect tense potential mood, and a proper adjective.
VII. Correct

{a} It is only me.
{b} Who did she invite?
{c} Whenever my husband or son take an umbrella down town, they always leave it.
VIII. Write the declension of

{a} bird,
{b} man,
{c} fly,
{d} fox,
{e} it
IX. Write four lines of poetry, giving particular attention to the use of capitals, and to punctuation.
X. Make three sentences, using the plural of sheep

{1} in the nominative case,
{2} in the possessive,
{3} in the objective.
XI. Write a declarative sentence; change to an imperative, to an interrogative, to an exclamatory, and punctuate.
U.S. HISTORY
I. What people settled Massachusetts?
Where did they land, and what was their character?
II. Name four Spanish explorers and state what induced them to come to America.
III. What event do you connect with 1565, 1607, 1620, 1664, 1775?
IV. Name the thirteen colonies that declared their independence in 1776.
V. Name three events of 1777. Which was the most important and why?
VI. What caused the war of 1812?

Who was president during that war?
What was the result of it?
VII. What form of government was established in 1789?

Into what three branches was the government divided?
What do the Senate and House of Representatives constitute?
VIII. What caused the Mexican war?

What was the result?
What American general commanded at the capture of the City of Mexico?
IX. What was the remote and the immediate cause of the great Civil war.

Who captured Fort Donelson?
X. Name three commanders of the Army of the Potomac.