1912 8th Grade Exam

[The Evil Genius]

This was recently donated to a museum.

 

I wonder how many 8th graders could still pass it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story here --> http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/08/8th-grade-exam-puts-adults-to-the-test/

[Chew]

looks like I'll be repeating 8th grade.

[War Paint]

I didn't read the article yet, but how many grades were there back then?   Was school mandatory back in 1912 or was it more for rich families?

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

I forgot how to write the decimals.

[China]

Is that supposed to be magnetic telegraph?  Because with that comma between them I was left wondering what the hell a magnetic is, other than an adjective.

 

Number 9 now has more than one correct answer.

[The Evil Genius]

There's some typos and outdated questions..but overall, it looks like a fairly difficult test for the average 8th grader.

[pjfootballer]

What if you don't know how to draw and can't sketch Sir Walter Rawleigh?

[thebluefood]

What if you don't know how to draw and can't sketch Sir Walter Rawleigh?

[Warhead36]

I just failed.

[RiggosMohawk]

1912's rules of good health probably include "Smoke fresh tobacco" and "Distill your own whiskey"

Edit: this test fascinates me. Non-US history is absent, as well as science (outside of human anatomy)

[thebluefood]

1912's rules of good health probably include "Smoke fresh tobacco" and "Distill your own whiskey"

Even if their bodies weren't it good shape, their minds seemed to be if this was your average 8th grade exam. 

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

What if you don't know how to draw and can't sketch Sir Walter Rawleigh?

Beat me to it

[Riggo-toni]

True story:

My great grandfather came to this country and became a successful business owner. After briefly serving in WWI, my grandfather wanted to go to college. My great grandfather was absolutely opposed to the idea - a college education was a fanciful waste of time. My grandfather's military service counted for college credits, and he given a college diploma after just one year and was hired as a high school principal.

[The Evil Genius]

meh.

 

nevermind.

[Predicto]

Everytime I try to get out they just pull me back in.    

 

I suspect that this is just another version of this test debunked by Snopes.

 

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

[Larry]

Everytime I try to get out they just pull me back in.

I suspect that this is just another version of this test debunked by Snopes.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

Pointing out that Snopes doesn't say that it isn't a real test. It says that, even it it is a real test, it doesn't prove the intended point.

[Predicto]

1912's rules of good health probably include "Smoke fresh tobacco" and "Distill your own whiskey"

Even if their bodies weren't it good shape, their minds seemed to be if this was your average 8th grade exam. 

 

It wasn't, of course.

Everytime I try to get out they just pull me back in.

I suspect that this is just another version of this test debunked by Snopes.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

Pointing out that Snopes doesn't say that it isn't a real test. It says that, even it it is a real test, it doesn't prove the intended point.

 

Exactly true.   The point that people seem to take from these tests is that education has gone downhill and that everyone in the past was a combination of Sir Isaac Newton, Shakespeare and Goethe.  

 

WHich is utter nonsense.  

[Special K]

I bet there are a significant number of college graduates who could not pass that exam, whether it's a real 8th grade exam or not. lol.

[zoony]

I happen to know several really old people who are complete effing idiots. They passed the 8th grade way back when no problem. They can't, however, turn on an iPad

[DCSaints_fan]

"By whom were the following settled: Ga. Md. Mass, R.I. Fla."

 

Would be funny to go back in time, and write "Indians" and judge the teachers reaction.

[spjunkies]

If a teacher put that thing in front of me I would calmly push it to the floor and proceed to walk out of the door.

[endzone_dave]

Just judging from those questions the 1912 eighth grader would have been crushed in my son's sixth grade math and science classes. 

[Larry]

Just judging from those questions the 1912 eighth grader would have been crushed in my son's sixth grade math and science classes.

That was the point of Predicto's Snopes article.

That, even if the purported test were accurate, it doesn't prove the poster's intended point that kids are dumb, today.

Rather, it shows that these kids supposedly focused more on the difference between a predicate and an adjective and the major battles of the War of 1812. But that they paid no attention to any history outside the US, no math beyond multiplication, and no science other than the anatomy of the major organs.

It doesn't prove that today's kids are dumber. It proves that we've chosen to focus more on other things.

[Dan T.]

Ran across this from Slate.  Kinda fits here. 

 

This “Histomap,” created by John B. Sparks, was first printed by Rand McNally in 1931.  This giant, ambitious chart fit neatly with a trend in nonfiction book publishing of the 1920s and 1930s: the “outline,” in which large subjects (the history of the world! every school of philosophy! all of modern physics!) were distilled into a form comprehensible to the most uneducated layman.

The 5-foot-long Histomap was sold for $1 and folded into a green cover, which featured endorsements from historians and reviewers. The chart was advertised as “clear, vivid, and shorn of elaboration,” while at the same time capable of “holding you enthralled” by presenting:

"the actual picture of the march of civilization, from the mud huts of the ancients thru the monarchistic glamour of the middle ages to the living panorama of life in present day America."

Continued here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/08/12/the_1931_histomap_the_entire_history_of_the_world_distilled_into_a_single.html?wpisrc=most_viral

(See link to larger version below image.)

 

Click for enlarged version:

http://www.slate.com/features/2013/08/histomapwider.jpg

[The Evil Genius]

Just judging from those questions the 1912 eighth grader would have been crushed in my son's sixth grade math and science classes.

That was the point of Predicto's Snopes article.

That, even if the purported test were accurate, it doesn't prove the poster's intended point that kids are dumb, today.

Rather, it shows that these kids supposedly focused more on the difference between a predicate and an adjective and the major battles of the War of 1812. But that they paid no attention to any history outside the US, no math beyond multiplication, and no science other than the anatomy of the major organs.

It doesn't prove that today's kids are dumber. It proves that we've chosen to focus more on other things.

 

Just to clarify, that wasn't my intended point in the original posting of the article and exam. 

 

My intended point was that I doubt many current 8th graders could pass this test. But I never said it was because the current batch of 8th graders are dumb. It's because they are learning different things 100 years later.

 

As always, I find it amusing to see what's being taught, where and when.