This copy of the Eighth Grade Exam for Bullitt County Schools in 1912 was donated to the museum. We thought you might like to see what the test looked like a hundred years ago. Obviously it tested some things that were more relevant at that time than now, and it should not be used to compare student knowledge then and now.
Note that there are several typesetting mistakes on the test including a mistake in the spelling list. The word "eneeavor" should be "endeavor." This version of the exam was probably a master version given out to the schools (note that the spelling words wouldn’t be written on a test.) The museum has been told that the exam was handed out in a scroll form (that is why the paper is long.) The typos would have been corrected simply by contacting the teachers and telling them to mark their copies accordingly, much like would be done today. And there might not be quite as many typos as you think; "Serbia" for example was indeed spelled "Servia" back then.
Bullitt County Schools were mostly one-room schools in those days, scattered around the rural county. Students came together at the county courthouse once or twice a year to take this "Common Exam." It was apparently a big deal. The local newspaper urged students to do well, even urging seventh graders that it was not too early to start preparing. Some scholarships were provided to those who passed to go on to high school, which was also a big deal back then. In those days, high school was sometimes another county away and a rare thing for many farm children to be able to otherwise attend.
And remember to smile a little while reading this exam. It has been great fun, as well as a challenge, to think about the questions, and to come up with answers for 1912 and for today. For example, it has been interesting to see disagreements on even the basics, such as what is a "cord," much less the actual answer to the question, or the much more controversial questions about government and about "who discovered...". Smile. We are all learning from this test.
Our staff has put together possible answers on another page for your amusement.
1912 Eighth Grade Examination for Bullitt County Schools - Answers
The museum staff has put together the following answer sheet for the 1912 examination displayed on another page. As we noted on that page, the test focused on some things that were more relevant at that time than now, and it should not be used to compare student knowledge then and now.
Spelling, Reading, and Writing
Note that the spelling list contains a word that was incorrectly typeset: "eneeavor" should be "endeavor." We do not know what was required for reading and writing.
Arithmetic
Question #1:
.5764 = five thousand seven hundred sixty-four ten-thousandths;
.000003 = three millionths;
.123416 = one hundred twenty-three thousand four hundred (and) sixteen millionths;
653.0965 = six hundred fifty-three and nine hundred sixty-five ten-thousandths;
43.37 = forty-three and thirty-seven one-hundredths.
Question #2:
35.7 + 4 = 39.7
5.8 + 5.14 - 59.112 = -48.172
Question #3:
The two long walls are 20' by 9' or 180 square feet each. The other two walls are 16' by 9' or 144 square feet each. The door space to be deducted is 8' by 4.5' or 36 square feet. The two window spaces to be deducted are 5' by 3.5' or 17.5 square feet each. Thus we have (180 × 2) + (144 × 2) - 36 - (17.5 × 2) which reduces to 360 + 288 - 36 - 35 or 648 - 71 = 577 square feet. Since a square yard = 9 square feet, we divide 577 by 9 and get 64.1 square yards. At 12.5 cents per square yard, the cost will be $8.01, rounded to the nearest cent.
By the way, "kalsomining" is whitewash, a calcium-based cheaper paint. A quote: "Too rich for whitewash, too poor for paint".
Question #4: $2700 - $2400 = $300. Divide the increase by the original amount, or 300 ÷ 2400 = .125 or 12.5%
Question #5: Assuming that "a/c" means percent, the solution is to divide the sale price of $180 by .833 [100% - 16.67% = 83.3% or .833]. Thus 180 ÷ .833 = 216.086 or $216.09 rounded to the nearest cent.
Alternately, if the student recognized that 16 2/3% is one sixth then $180 is 5/6 of the original price. Thus the original price was $180 divided by 5/6, which is exactly $216.00. No rounding is necessary.
Question #6: Assuming that the question is asking for a total of the principal plus interest earned over the stated time period, the answer will be $63.41 using principal × rate × time.) with 3 years, 3 months, 3 days = 3.258 years. $50.30 × .08 × 3.258 = $13.11 interest.
Question #7: Since the number of boys equals 2/3 of the number of girls, or B = (2/3)G [or .67G], we can write the equation as 1.67G = 120. Divide both sides of the equation by 1.67 and the equation becomes G = 120 ÷ 1.67 which equals 71.856 which rounds to the whole number of 72. Since there are 72 girls, 120 - 72 = 48 boys.
Alternately, using just fractions, B = (2/3) G and B + G = 120, we get (5/3) G = 120. Staying in fractions, we can multiple both sides of the equation by 3, giving 5G = 360, or G = 72, from which we can determine that B = 48. Rounding to whole numbers thus becomes unnecessary.
Question #8: The answer is 50 feet. Use the pythagorean theorem (a2 + b2 = c2).
Question #9: 5,092 steps Solution: (assuming the question is saying 2¼ miles), 5280 feet (in a mile) times 2¼ miles = 11,880 feet. Divide that by the size of step (2 1/3 feet) = 5,092
Question #10: $7.62. A simple volume problem. One cord at 4 × 4 × 8 feet = 128 cubic feet. 24 × 4 × 6¼ = 600 cubic feet. Divide cord volume into measured volume; times $1.62½. (Interesting to note that a cord of wood was $1.62½ in 1912. What does it sell for today?)
Grammar
Question #1:
Traditionally there are eight grammatical parts of speech identified this way (taken from Wikipedia)
Noun: any abstract or concrete entity; a person (police officer, Michael), place (coastline, London), thing (necktie, television), idea (happiness), or quality (bravery)
Pronoun: any substitute for a noun or noun phrase
Adjective: any qualifier of a noun
Verb: any action (walk), occurrence (happen), or state of being (be)
Adverb: any qualifier of an adjective, verb, clause, sentence, or other adverb
Preposition: any establisher of relation and syntactic context
Conjunction: any syntactic connector
Interjection: any emotional greeting (or "exclamation")
Other more recent sources separate the articles (a, an, the) as a part of speech, and drop the interjection. For example see the Purdue site.
Question #2:
A proper noun is the name of a specific person, place, or thing (such as "Tuesday").
A common noun refers to a person, place, or thing in a general sense (The "town" is not far away.)
The properties of a noun include...
1. Gender (masculine or feminine)
2. Number (singular, plural)
3. Person (first, second, or third)
4. Case (subject, object, or construct-possessive)
Question #3: A personal pronoun is a pronoun that refers to a particular person, group, or thing. The following chart is copied from Wikipedia.
Personal pronouns in standard Modern English
Singular
Plural
Subject
Object
Possessive determiner
Possessive pronoun
Reflexive
Subject
Object
Possessive determiner
Possessive pronoun
Reflexive
First
I
me
my
mine
myself
we
us
our
ours
ourselves
Second
you
your
yours
yourself
you
your
yours
yourselves
Third
Masculine
he
him
his
himself
they
them
their
theirs
themselves
Feminine
she
her
hers
herself
Neuter
it
its
-
itself
"English personal pronouns have three inflections related to the purpose they serve in a sentence or phrase: nominative, accusative (objective), and possessive. For the first person singular, these are I, me, and mine, respectively." For more details, see this site.
Question #4: The properties of verbs are person, number, tense, voice, and mood.
Question #5: "William struck James." is in active voice. Passive voice would be "James was struck by William."
Question #6: Adjectives have three degrees of comparison.
positive
comparative
superlative
good
better
best
wise
wiser
wisest
beautiful
more beautiful
most beautiful
Question #7:
Question #8:
"John ran over the bridge."
"John" is a proper noun used as the subject of the sentence.
"Ran" is an intransitive verb and forms the simple predicate of the sentence.
"Over the bridge" is a prepositional phrase that modifies the verb and answers the question "Where did John run?"
"Over" is the preposition; "bridge" is the object of the preposition, and "the" is an article adjective indicating which bridge.
"Helen's parents love her."
"Parents" is a common noun used as the subject of the sentence.
"Helen's" is a possessive noun used to identify the parents.
"Love" is a transitive verb and forms the simple predicate of the sentence.
"Her" is an objective pronoun used as the direct object of the verb's action.
Geography
Question #1: Longitude and latitude are the imaginary lines that divide the Earth into measurable horizontal and vertical lines. Latitude lines are measured from the equator to the poles. Longitude lines extend from the north to south poles and are measured east and west from the prime meridian to the International Date Line.
Question #2: 1. North Frigid Zone, north of the Arctic Circle; 2: North Temperate Zone, between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer; 3. Torrid Zone, between the Tropical Circles; 4. South Temperate Zone, between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle; 5. South Frigid Zone, south of the Antarctic Circle.
Question #3: The Gulf Stream is a warm ocean current that flows from the Gulf of Mexico parallel with the US coast toward Newfoundland, Canada, and then continues across the Atlantic Ocean toward northwestern Europe as the North Atlantic Drift.
For Question #5
Map courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.
Question #4: The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about 363 miles from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. It was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard (New York City) and the western interior (Great Lakes, Chicago) of the United States that did not require portage.
Question #5. Locate the countries Turkey [Ottoman Empire], Greece, Servia [Serbia today], Montenegro, Roumania [early spelling of Romania]. These are all in south-central Europe. See the map to the right.
Question #6: Kentucky (Frankfort); Ohio (Columbus); Indiana (Indianapolis); West Virginia (Charleston); Pennsylvania (Harrisburg); Illinois (Springfield).
Question #7: Locate cities: Mobile (Alabama); Quebec (Canada); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Liverpool (England); Honolulu (Hawaii).
Question #8: Three largest states ranked by size: Texas, California, Montana (at the time of the test; Alaska had not been made a state yet).
Question #9: Blue Ridge (eastern U.S. from Georgia to Pennsylvania), Himalaya (Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau), Andes (western South America extending from north to south through Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina), Alps (alpine countries in central Europe), Wasatch (Utah).
Question #10: 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.
Physiology
Question #1: The liver is the largest gland in the body. It lies below the diaphragm in the abdominal-pelvic region of the abdomen. It secretes bile.
Question #2: The likely intent of this questions was to determine the elements of the human cardiovascular system which include the heart, lungs, and blood vessels.
Question #3: The heart is the vital organ of the body that pumps the blood. It is about the size of a fist. The four sections of the human heart are the left atrium, right atrium, left ventricle, and right ventricle.
Question #4: Arteries distribute oxygenated blood throughout the body, while veins carry de-oxygenated blood to the heart. The liver and kidneys purify the blood. Note: H.L. King of Lexington KY points out that "arteries channel blood away from the heart, veins channel it toward the heart. The key is to note that the pulmonary artery channels oxygen-depleted blood from the right ventricle to the lungs. It then returns, oxygenated, to the left atrium via the pulmonary veins."
Question #5: The body's chief nervous center include first the brain and then the spinal cord.
Question #6: The Cerebellum, located just above the brain stem, controls balance, equilibrium and fine movement coordination. The Cerebrum is located in the front portion of the forebrain, and determines intelligence, personality, interpretation of sensory impulses and motor function. It also helps with planning and organization as well as touch sensation.
Question #7: The spinal column supports the body and provides protection for the spinal cord.
Question #8: We should study physiology so that we can better understand our body and how to better take care of it, as well as understand the functioning of other creatures. A good understanding of physiology (how the body works) is the basis of all medicine. Without knowing how the body works, how it is made up and how it can go wrong, we cannot even begin to design effective treatments and interventions, including surgery or new pharmaceutical drugs.
Question #9: Eat right, exercise; get proper sleep, drink plenty of water, maintain proper hygiene (other answers possible).
Civil Government
Question #1:
"Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally - either directly or through elected representatives - in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination." [Wikipedia] While a number of countries today are considered democracies, in 1912 the number was much smaller, and it is likely the expected example was the United States of America.
Limited or constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the guidelines of a constitution. The likely answer in 1912 would have been Great Britain.
In an absolute monarchy, the monarch wields unrestricted political power over the sovereign state and its people. Until 1905 the Tsars of Russia governed as absolute monarchs. One example that might not be obvious would have been the head of the Roman Catholic Church who rules over Vatican City.
A republic is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Leadership positions are directly or indirectly elected or appointed rather than inherited. In 1912 an example might have been the Republic of France.
Question #2: As citizens of the United States, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the county of Bullitt, and the local school system, these students would be subject to the jurisdiction of the local school board, and the county, state, and federal governments.
Question #3: The students may have been required to identify the current officers by name, but we will assume they were to identify them by office.
The county judge in 1912 served both as an executive head of county government and as a judicial judge. He was also a member of the county fiscal court, the legislative body of the county.
Magistrates served as members of the fiscal court, and also had minor judicial duties.
The sheriff and his deputies were responsible for enforcing the law within the county.
The county court clerk had multiple duties including serving as the county court's clerk and clerk of the fiscal court. He was also responsible for maintaining county records including deeds, marriage records, and wills.
The county jailer was responsible for overseeing the incarceration of prisoners.
Question #4: The federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch includes the Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) which is responsible for the passage of all federal laws as outlined in the Constitution. The executive branch includes the president and vice president along with the various executive cabinets. The president is the head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. He has the responsibility of negotiating treaties, and appointing cabinet members with the concurrence of the Senate. The judicial branch is responsible for interpretation of laws, and in determining the outcome of civil and criminal cases. It is headed by the Supreme Court.
Question # 5: The president is constitutionally obligated to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." He appoints ambassadors, member of his Cabinet, and federal judges with the advice and consent of the Senate. He directs foreign policy and is commander in chief of the armed forces. He has the power of the veto whereby all bills passed by Congress must be presented to him. He may sign the bill, allowing it to become law; he may veto it and return it to Congress with his objections; or he may take no action. If he vetoes the bill, Congress may override his veto by voting two-thirds majority approval. If he takes no action for ten working days, and Congress is still in session, then the bill becomes law without his signature. However if Congress has adjourned, the bill does not become law. This is commonly known as a pocket veto.
Question #6: Only Congress can declare war. Only Congress can impeach (House), try (Senate), and remove office holders, including the President and Supreme Court Justices from office. Only Congress can raise and lower taxes.
Congress can not pass a law that turns an act into a crime after the act was committed; accept a title of nobility; suspend writ of habeas corpus (except under special circumstances); pass a Bill of Attainder (which means they can't punish anyone or group without a trial); tax any goods exported from any state; and Congress cannot vote themselves a pay raise during their current term in office.
(Note that this answer is not exactly correct for 1912. Constitutional amendments changed the Congressional powers over the years.)
Question #7: How many presidential electors are each state allowed? Each state receives a number of presidential electors in the electoral college equal to the number of congressional districts in that state (which varies by state population, but is never less than one) plus the number of senators (always two). At the time of this test, Kentucky had 13 electoral votes out of 531 electoral votes nationwide. Today Kentucky has 8 electoral votes out of 538 nationwide.
Question #8: The president and vice-president of the United States must be a natural born citizen of the United States, be at least thirty-five years old, and have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least fourteen years. The governor of Kentucky must be at least thirty years of age and have resided in the state for at least six years preceding the general election; and never fought a duel.
Question #9. Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention.
Question #10: The president and vice-president are selected by a group of electors known as the electoral college. Each state is granted a number of electors equal to the number of its members of the United States Congress (Senate and House of Representatives). To be elected, the president and vice-president, running as a team, must receive a majority of the electoral votes. If no one receives a majority, then the members of the House of Representatives select the president. Each state receives one vote, with its representatives voting as a bloc.
Although there is no legal requirement to do so, a state's electors almost always cast their ballots according to how the state's citizens voted in the general election.
History
Question #1. Juan Ponce de León made the first European expedition to Florida, which he named. Vasco Núñez de Balboa is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto became the first recorded European to reach the Mississippi River. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River.
These are likely the expected answers on the 1912 test. Although Native Americans were present in these places before the arrival of the Europeans, the names of their people who first visited these sites are lost in the mists of time.
Question #2: Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularizing tobacco in England. In 1594, Raleigh heard of a "City of Gold" in South America and sailed to find it without success. For various reasons, he was executed in 1618.
Peter Stuyvesant served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City.
Question #3:
In November 1732 the ship Anne sailed from Britain carrying 114 colonists, including General James Oglethorpe, who settled at what became Savannah, Georgia.
Maryland was first settled by mainly Roman Catholic families led by the Calvert family as a place where they could freely practice their faith.
The first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, established their settlement at Plymouth in 1620.
In 1636, Roger Williams, after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, settled at the tip of Narragansett Bay, on land that would become Rhode Island. A number of non-Puritan colonists as well as those that believed in religious freedom joined him.
Florida has had a long history of immigration, including French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century, as well as entry of new Native American groups migrating from elsewhere in the South. Florida was under colonial rule by Spain and Great Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries before becoming a territory in 1822 of the United States.
Question #4:
The Battle of Brandywine was fought between the American army of Major General George Washington and the British army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777 during the Revolutionary War.
The Battle of Fort Necessity, or the Battle of the Great Meadows took place on July 3, 1754 in Pennsylvania. The engagement was one of the first battles of the French and Indian War and George Washington's only military surrender.
The Battle of Lundy's Lane (also known as the Battle of Niagara Falls) was a battle of the War of 1812, which took place on 25 July 1814, in present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario.
The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, was fought on Wednesday, September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, and was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil.
The Battle of Buena Vista, on February 23, 1847, saw the United States Army use artillery to repulse the much larger Mexican army in the Mexican-American War.
Question #5: The Battle of Quebec was fought on December 31, 1775 between American Continental Army forces and the British defenders of the city of Quebec, early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came at a high price. General Richard Montgomery was killed, Benedict Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than 400 men were taken prisoner.
Question #6: The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions due to Britain's ongoing war with France, and the impressment of American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy. One major battle was the Battle of Baltimore, during which the National Anthem was created.
Question #7: Three Presidents who were assassinated (for this 1912 test) were Lincoln, McKinley, & Garfield. Presidents who died in office (but not assassinated) were William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor.
Question #8
Civil War: Battle of Columbus, Georgia on 16 Apr 1865; commanders were Union General James H. Wilson and Confederate Major General Howell Cobb. [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Columbus_(1865)]
War of 1812: By date, the last battle was in February 1815 at Fort Bowyer, Alabama in which a British force of at least 3000 attacked a smaller American force of fewer than 400 led by fort commander William Lawrence who surrendered on 11 Feb 1815. However the generally recognized last battle of the war was the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew Jackson leading the Americans and Edward Pakenham among the British.
French and Indian War: Battle of Signal Hill on 15 Sep 1762 with British forces led by William Amherst and French forces led by Guillaume de Bellecombe. [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Signal_Hill]
Question #9: What President impeached? Andrew Johnson (who succeeded Lincoln) for violating the "Tenure of Office Act", when he sought to remove his Secretary of War without Senate approval. Republicans were mad at him for being lenient to the South.
Question #10: Magneto - Faraday; telegraph - Samuel Morse; cotton gin - Eli Whitney; sewing machine - generally, Elias Howe, though disputed; telephone - Alexander Graham Bell; phonograph - Thomas Alva Edison.
If you, the reader, have an interest in any particular part of our county history, and wish to contribute to this effort, use the form on our Contact Us page to send us your comments about this, or any Bullitt County History page. We welcome your comments and suggestions. If you feel that we have misspoken at any point, please feel free to point this out to us.