We are used to referring to the times we are living in as modern and calling everything that had happened before we were born as history. And it is history, no one will argue with that. But what do we mean by that word? Usually, it’s something distant and unrelated to our “modern” lives.
However, this examination paper from the beginning of the 20th century proves that the school students back then were much more educated than you imagine when you first hear the date. At least, they were required to be, as we don’t have the answers the kids of 1912 provided to these questions.
When you look at this examination paper, you will see some typos, as well as words that actually used to be spelled differently, like countries ‘Servia’ and ‘Roumania’. Some questions will seem difficult to answer because of being relevant to the times the exam was prepared at, while others will prove that some things have remained the same.
If you are interested in answers, you can find them on this page. It’s not always clear what is meant in the question due to the time that has passed, but it’s still an interesting thing to do.
As you can see, the eighth-graders had to show some prominent knowledge in various fields back in 1912. That is to be expected, considering that receiving an education was a lot more difficult back then. We take it for granted nowadays, and it is definitely one of the reasons kids often show poor results in schools, and adults can’t answer questions considered as general knowledge.
Of course, the world has changed, and we no longer need to keep a lot of those things in our head when we can keep them in our pocket. Still, there’s always room for improvement, and knowledge is something you can never have too much.
