Could YOU progress to high school?

[Catherine]

This is a 1912 8th-grade graduation exam. It had to be passed before the student could enter high school. Can YOU pass it? Remember, 1912 -- so no calculators, no Wikipedia -- just you, and your knowledge.

I'll let a few folks have some fun before I post the score I got.

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2013/0812/1912-eighth-grade-exam-Could-you-make-it-to-high-school-in-1912/Arithmetic

[kcjenkins]

My score

34

Correct

3

Wrong

92%

You answered 34 of 37 questions correctly for a total score of 92%.

[jklcpa]

I would have failed with a 70% - 26 correct and 11 wrong. Ugh! In general, the world geography and a couple of the explorers were where I missed the most.

[Catherine]

I got five wrong; a couple of the grammar questions and a couple of the oddball history questions. Never learned my Civil War battles; no class ever covered them! 84% for me; phew! I get into high school.

[JohnH]

I got 24 correct, 13 wrong for a piddly 65%.

Need to brush up on my American geography and American History.

World geography was fairly easy for me, except for those pesky Balkan states.

Looks like I'm headed back to repeat 8th grade.

[Guest Taxed]

Quiz results Your score Average reader score Expert score

23

Correct

14

Wrong

62%

You answered 23 of 37 questions correctly for a total score of 62%.

54%

I guess I am joining JohnH to repeat 8th grade.

Those history questions were tough?

[jklcpa]

I don't feel so bad now after all. Summer school for us!

[Guest Taxed]

At our age it is hard to remember those old European and early American history questions. I think I got almost all of them wrong.

Doing the math problem without a calculator took some time. I now have more appreciation for tax preparers in the 60s/70s who used adding machines to do paper returns and if 1 line changed redo the whole form and schedules all over again.

Can you imagine the frustration when you are done with the return, the client says BTW i forgot to tell you this or that???

I can still remember the final test at HRB doing the return on paper, but I had a calculator.

[kcjenkins]

Oh, yes, I well remember the feeling. In my early tax days, we used carbon paper to make the copies, and a 10 key was the only 'tool' we had. When I finished a return and then the client said. "Oh, by the way......." I wanted to scream.

[jklcpa]

Yep, I remember those days too. I didn't have the pleasure of carbon paper, but I prepared many returns in pencil that were then photocopied and assembled.

[JohnH]

When I first started, we would staple 3 pages of each form together with carbon between them. Top set went to IRS, middle set went in our files, and bottom set to the client.

Then the carbonless sets on NCR paper came along. THAT was high tech! But they were expensive - I seem to recall about 35 cents per page. We would prepare the main forms using that paper and revert to the carbon paper sets for lesser-used schedules. The return looked like a product from a committe. For the high-few returns we would prepare them by hand, then type them on a typewriter, and photocopy them. My first copier used liquid toner, the paper came in rolls, and the copies had a gray cast to the background.

[Guest Taxed]

Anyone remember those acetate stensils of the tax forms?

[jklcpa]

John brought back another memory for me. The firm I mentioned in my post above was a small firm where we prepared in pencil and photocopied. Thank goodness I missed those carbon days! I worked at a very large firm as a co-op during college that had every return prepared by pencil and then typed out, and this was after the copiers were on the scene. I think there were about 50 people that worked there, and they had typing and math checking departments (as well as separate depts. for tax, audit, bookkeeping). This firm liked the typed look better, and believe me that firm had the fanciest Xerox copier out. It took up one whole side of an office and would collate something like either 50 or 100 sets at a time. Boy was that thing noisy!