See how well you'd fare on this 101-year-old quiz for Bullitt County, Ky., junior high students

[Douglas Carpenter]

You’re probably not smarter than an 8th grader from 1912

By Colin Schultz for the Smithsonian

In the early years of the 20th century, the students in Bullitt County, Kentucky, were asked to clear a test that many full-fledged adults would likely be hard-pressed to pass today. The Bullitt County Geneaological Society has a copy of this exam, reproduced below—a mix of math and science and reading and writing and questions on oddly specific factoids–preserved in their museum in the county courthouse.

But just think for a moment: Did you know where Montenegro was when you were 12? Do you know now? (Hint: it’s just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. You know where the Adriatic Sea is, right?)

Or what about this question, which the examiners of Bullitt County deemed necessary knowledge: “Through what waters would a vessel pass in going from England through the Suez Canal to Manila?” The Bullitt geneaological society has an answer sheet if you want to try the test, but really, this question is just a doozie:


A ship going from England to Manilla by way of the Suez Canal would pass through (perhaps) the English Channel, the North Atlantic Ocean, Bay of Biscay (possibly), Strait of Gibraltar, Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden/Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Thailand (may have been called Gulf of Siam at that time), South China Sea.




Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/07/no-youre-probably-not-smarter-than-a-1912-era-8th-grader/#ixzz2bUqxoqE8
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[yesphan]

1. I do know where Montenegro was when I was 12.

Same place it is now.

That's about all I know.

[monmouth3]

2. My dad had a similar test and till the day he died swore TV would make us all stupid..Smart man..n/t

[LWolf]

3. There's one word on that spelling list I don't know.

It's either a typo or an extinct word...which?

"eneeavor."

It would be fun to show this to my 8th graders next month.

[Aerows]

4. I caught that, too

It's got to be a typo for endeavor.

[truebluegreen]

5. Got to be "endeavor"

but there's other stuff on the test I don't know...

[LWolf]

11. Well, that's what I was thinking.

My 8th graders would have a field day with that, since I'm pretty demanding when it comes to their spelling and grammar.

[pnwmom]

6. And how many of those 8th graders could answer all the questions that our kids have to answer?

Last edited Fri Aug 9, 2013, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)

For example, here's the kind of math question NY 8th graders face, a question based on the "Common core."

http://www.engageny.org/sites/default/files/resource/attachments/math-grade-8.pdf

A trainer for a professional football team keeps track of the amount of water players consumer throughout practice. The trainer observes that the amount of water consumed is a linear function of the temperature on a given day. The trainer finds that when it is 90 degrees F the players consume about 220 gallons of water, and when it is 76 degrees F the players consume about 178 gallons of water.

Part A. Write a linear function to model the relationship between the gallons of water consumed and the temperature.
Part B. Explain the meaning of the slope in the context of the problem.


(Commentary: This question aligns to CCLS8.F.4 because it assesses a student’s ability to assess a function that models a linear relationship from a description of a relationship between two values (x,y) and interpret the rate of change.)

[NYC Liberal]

7. Snopes:

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

What nearly all these pundits fail to grasp is "I can't answer these questions" is not the same thing as "These questions demonstrate that students in earlier days were better educated than today's students." Just about any test looks difficult to those who haven't recently been steeped in the material it covers. If a 40-year-old can't score as well on a geography test as a high school student who just spent several weeks memorizing the names of all the rivers in South America in preparation for an exam, that doesn't mean the 40-year-old's education was woefully deficient — it means the he simply didn't retain information for which he had no use, no matter how thoroughly it was drilled into his brain through rote memory some twenty-odd years earlier. I suspect I'd fail a lot of the tests I took back in high school if I had to re-take them today without reviewing the material beforehand. I certainly wouldn't be able to pass any arithmetic test that required me to be familiar with such arcane measurements as "rods" and "bushels," but I can still calculate areas and volumes just fine, thank you.

...

Consider: To pass this test, no knowledge of the arts is necessary (not even a nodding familiarity with a few of the greatest works of English literature), no demonstration of mathematical learning other than plain arithmetic is required (forget algebra, geometry, or trigonometry), nothing beyond a familiarity with the highlights of American history is needed (never mind the fundamentals of world history, as this exam scarcely acknowledges that any country other than the USA even exists), no questions about the history, structure, or function of the United States government are asked (not even the standard "Name the three branches of our federal government&quot , science is given a pass except for a few questions about geography and the rudiments of human anatomy, and no competence in any foreign language (living or dead) is necessary. An exam for today's high school graduates that omitted even one of these subjects would be loudly condemned by parents and educators alike, subjects about which the Salina, Kansas, students of 1895 needed know nothing at all. Would it be fair to say that the average Salina student was woefully undereducated because he failed to learn many of the things that we consider important today, but which were of little importance in his time and place? If not, then why do people keep asserting that the reverse is true? Why do journalists continue to base their gleeful articles about how much more was expected of the students of yesteryear on flawed assumptions? Perhaps some people are too intent upon making a point to bother considering the proper questions.

[hunter]

8. I'll bet Pavel Schilling wasn't the answer they wanted for inventor of the telegraph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Schilling

[Progressive dog]

9. Montenegro didn't exist when I was twelve,

at least as a separate country.

[joeybee12]

10. I'd love to know what kalsomining is...

I looked it up...it's whitewash of some sort.

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. another kick for another day