1895 - US 8th grade final exam

[Omaroo]

removed due to misinformation

[Octane]

Sorry, Chris.

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

H

[Omaroo]

Wow.

Do you live on that site Humayun?

Thanks for the heads up. Seems that you just can't trust what you read. Unreal...LOL

[avandonk]

Archaeologists have just found a test written by stone age people. It was found scratched on a stone deep in a cave.

Q1
What is the optimum angle to hit a piece of flint to make a very sharp edge?
Give full details about speed and dexterity needed.

Q2
What should you do if a mammoth charges your hunting group?

A. Stand firm with spears held at attack angle and firmly embedded in the ground.
B. Run like hell and go hungry!
C. None of the above.

There was a bit that was indecipherable but then this.

Q42
If your woman tells you off for spending too much time 'fishing' with your fellow warriors do you say

A. None of your business.
B. At least we tried
C. Just show her all the fish

Bert

[Omaroo]

LOL Bert :lol:

[Octane]

Nah, Chris. Just really skeptical. :)

H

[Barrykgerdes]

I read through the "exam paper" referred to and could relate it to the typical exams that we endured in the 1940's at the "intermediate" level (third year at a high school). Some was even 6th class work. English as a subject was largely based on grammar and parsing and analysis was the way it was done. I hated English and could scrape through exams when Grammar was 40% of the paper, spelling 10% and writing (composition) the rest. I could get full marks for grammar (it was logical) 90% for spelling(memory) so I only needed 5% for the rest. I usually got about 20% of it right. The English "writing" was about the books, poems, Shakespeare that I could not stand so never read them. I never studied or did homework but still managed to scrape through the leaving certificate.

The typical questions were based on the syllabus that was probably studied at the time and the answers would have been known by the students.

I was particularly interested in the practical nature of the maths problems we had based on commodity prices and measurements. I remember butter was 1s 10d per lb, sugar was 4d per lb, potatoes 5lb for 6d and we did pounds, shillings and pence problems based on this, much more intensive calculations needed than with the decimal system.

Yesterday I did a bus tour to Cambridge and Oxford. The Tour guide quoted history and dates relating to the kings and church that I remember having to learn off pat for my history exams. I also remember much that was in our history books of the era that is not included these days because it is not "politically correct". Off course it may not have even been "politically correct" then either.

Barry

[avandonk]

Chris there is thing called Poe's law to do with parodying extremists where the parody is indistiguishable from the extremist dogma.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe's_Law


This skit and some of the comments underneath are a very neat proof.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCzbNkyXO50&feature=fvwrel


Maybe there should be a corollary that when an article is dry and academic sounding it should still be suspect without corroborative evidence.

If I was out to fool intelligent people I would be very careful to make the spiel to sound as authoritative as possible. It also helps to appeal to their world view by having some of the story absolutely correct. This is the bread and butter of spin doctors.

H is really good at smelling the rats.

Bert

[Cam]

TOO FUUNY!!! Have to love the chasers lol