Are You Smarter Than an 8th-Grader 1899-present?

For much of the 19th and early-20th centuries, schooling rarely extended beyond the eighth grade. Exams delivered at the end of that year were often used for admission into high school and were the subject of a lot of public interest and pride. The results might even be published in the local paper.

The next two questions are representative of the kind of eight-grade-graduation exam that might have been delivered in 1899 at a one-room schoolhouse.

1. Why were states admitted in pairs for some of the early part of our history?

• To balance the Whig- and Democrat-controlled states.

• To balance the slaveholding and non-slaveholding states.

• To balance the populated East and the frontier West.

• So that the Senate would not deadlock.

In music, what is meant by "common time"?

• 4/4

• The downbeat.

• Harmony

• The number of measures before a repeat.

The next two questions are from a 1912 eight-grade examination for Bullitt County schools in rural Kentucky. At the time, the county had a population of about 9,400 people, 1,782 of whom were children in school. State laws newly required each county to have a high school. Around 12 percent of Kentuckians over the age of 10 were illiterate.

Through which of the following bodies of water would a vessel pass going from England through the Suez Canal to Manila

• Baltic Sea

• Black Sea

• Caspian Sea

• Red Sea

In the election of a president and vice-president, how many electoral votes is each state allowed?

• The number of counties in the state.

• The state's number of senators.

• The state's number of congressional districts

• The total number of congresspeople the state has.

The SAT was part of an attempt by elite Northeastern colleges to expand their reach across the country and identify high-achieving students by focusing on aptitude rather than knowledge. However, the test failed to fully divest itself from culturally specific content, which is why you might find questions about, say, proverbial sayings.

The first SAT, administered in 1926, was taken by just 8,040 students (1.97 took the exam in 2024). Grading all the tests by hand took 5,120 hours of work. The time constraints were intense, and students were warned not to expect to finish. Of the test-takers, 60 percent were boys and 40 percent girls. On average, the girls did better.

The next two questions are from the first SAT.

Assume the premises to be true and unquestioned, and judge the conclusion in relation to them.

Premises: Some rapid walkers fatigue quickly. James is a rapid walker.

Conclusion: James fatigues quickly.

• Necessarily true.

• Necessarily false.

• Probably true.

• Probaby false.

• Undetermined.

Which one of the six statements below tells the meaning of the following proverb? "The burnt child dreads the fire."

• Frivolity flourishes when authority is absent.

• Unhappy experiences teach us to be careful.

• A thing must be tried before we know its value.

• A meal is judged by the dessert.

• Small animals never play in the presence of larger ones.

By the 1970s, a large portion of the country was attending and graduating from high school. Yet many of these graduates were struggling to find work amid the decade's economic downturn. This helped incite a panic that the schools weren't teaching students how to do basic things like balance a checkbook and mail a letter, leading to a wave of minimum-competency tests across the country .

The next two questions include one from an exam delivered to 11th-graders in Florida in 1977.

Your a cashier in a cafeteria. A customer's bill comes to $3.48 with tax. He gives you a $10 bill. Which of the following would be his change?

• Seven dollars-four dimes-one nickel-three pennies.

• Six dollars-two quarters-two pennies.

• Seven dollars-two quarters-two pennies.

• Six dollars-four dimes-one nickel-three pennies.

One must use credit to have a good credit rating. A good way to keep a satisfactory rating is:

• Borrow money from friends.

• Make a budget to avoid using credit.

• Pay your bills promptly.

• Pay cash for everything you buy.

• None of the above.

In the 1970s and '80s, lawsuits and public critique began to take aim at standardized tests' cultural biases and their disproportionate impact on nonwhite and disabled students, among other groups. As a result, the tests attempted to move away from questions involving presumed knowledge.

The next two questions are from a 1982 SAT.

Ten people meet, and everybody shakes hands exactly once with everybody else. What is the total number of handshakes?

• 9

• 10

• 45

• 50

• 90

Choose the word nearest to the opposite meaning of "turgid":

• Strong

• Glossy

• Deflated

• Easily described

• Haphazardly distributed