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yoda
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Location: Incheon, South Korea
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 Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:52 am Post subject: Could You Pass the 8th Grade in 1895? |
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I reckon I could but only with a D- 
Could You Pass the 8th Grade in 1895?
Here is just part of the test:
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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, subvocals, 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, super.
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. |
The issue at heart is really have we lowered our standards so much or have we just de-emphasized useless information. I personally think it is both but our standards are pathetically low. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:30 am Post subject: |
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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, and 1865?
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So in 1895, Grade 8 students covered the history of America from 1492 to 1865 in one year? |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 1:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Read Snopes' article. |
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Nowhere Man
Joined: 08 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:29 am Post subject: ... |
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I actually expected Snopes to show that this wasn't a real test, but they do make their points. It is, though, still only an opinion.
While I'd generally agree with them, I think it's fair game to use this thread to criticize our education system. My pet peeve is math.
Snopes poimts out that the math is only basic math, absent of algebra, advanced geometry, etc... that they note our high school students study (apparently ignoring that this was an 8th grade test. In my school system, 8th grade was Middle school, not high. I know it's different elsewhere).
Anyway, middle school math was retarded. It went something like this:
6th grade: 786 x 57
7th grade: 50,786 x 157
8th grade: 250,786 x 4157
I was lucky to miss the 8th grade portion via a "daring" new program: Let "gifted" 8th graders learn algebra!
This gets tons of laughs from my Asian students, who start the advanced math at grade 6 or earlier.
And I hate math. I would attribute this at least in part to the middle school era where we learned nothing new, but just carried the same functions out on exponentially larger sums. Fer cripes sake, I didn't even learn exponentials until "gifted" algebra...
Not to mention that all of that math seems a bit abstract and useless unless you're studying something like chemistry or physics, which we didn't study until 11th and 12th grade. I like science but still find it painful to study...
Mind you now, I do come from a cornfield ghetto. Perhaps I only speak for myself, but my state isn't ranked high or low in terms of education. It's very middling.
But, to sum up, I don't really see my vaccuous knowledge of orthography as evidence that our standards have decreased, but I believe there is MASSIVE room for improvement in secondary education.
As well as higher education, but that's another story. |
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Sooke
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Location: korea
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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| I wasn't alive then, so I guess I would've failed. (Is being 'not born yet' an excused absence?-Seems like everything else at my uni is.) |
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