Can You Pass This 8th Grade Exam from 1912?

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How would you have done as a middle school student 100 years ago? Thanks to this cool copy of an official Bullitt County, Kentucky 8th grade exam from 1912, you can now can find out.

The test focuses on Spelling, Reading, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, Physiology and Civil Government. And it’s tricky.

Just for fun, I made a mini-quiz comprised of 10 of the questions from the original exam. Test yourself below. Good luck!

 

Here’s how the original exam looked in 1912:

bcschoolexam1912sm1

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Want the answers? Click here.

Thanks to Bullitt County History for the awesome resource.

60 Comments

  1. That is WAY to hard, even for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Well, I’m only in 4th grade.) 😐
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    😀 :U :B :! 😕 :C

  2. Look at history number 2—”Sketch briefly Sir Walter Rawleigh, Peter Stuyvesant.” And “percent” is “per cent!” Peechtival!

  3. Seriously, if they had exams like that NOW, I don’t think I would last 2 minutes of this D:

  4. History Q 7 My A Two Presdents Who Died In Office William Henry Harrison And Zachary Taylor Three Presdents Who Died From A Gun Wound Abraham Lincoln James A Garfield And William McKinley.

  5. Phonograph is Thomas Edison, for copyright is the thing that tells you the year that the thing was made,three largest states Alaska,Texas,Montana. Soooooo….how is this hard?

    • I’m also homeschooled this test actually was not that hard. I got 90%. I learned all of this stuff in school.

  6. Looking at the test I’d like to thank the nuns who were my first teachers sixty one years ago for having given me a good solid education. I think I’d get a B.

    On another note I see a lot of the comments referring to the high quality of homeschooling. I used to look askance at homeschooled kids until it came closer to home. Some years ago my sister was forced to homeschool her youngest son as he refused to attend the local Junior High. She had a Masters Degree in Fine Arts and was able to connect with other homeschooling parents and arranged tutors who included a prizewinning author and a physicist who had been on a Nobel Prize winning team. After he was old enough to attend High School she convinced him to at least give it a try. After a week his only remark was that if he’d known that school was this easy he’d have gone back sooner. A strong testament to my sisters’ teaching abilities.

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