Ian Maurer
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A Bit of History
The Sunday Mail
of 12 February 2006 featured an article titled "Dumbed Down", by
political editor Darrell Giles,
expressing dismay at the lowering of standards in basic education over the last
50 years.
The paper quoted example questions from the final year
examinations given to Grade 8 students in the year 1955.
This was, at the time, the entry examination for attendance at high school and
marked the end of primary school.
The full examination papers were made available on The Sunday Mail web site for
Maths,
English
and
Social Studies.
For answers to the 1955 Scholarship Maths
Examination click the links below for
my handwritten answers. It took me
about 2 hours to do the problems, but it was a long time since I have dealt with
Pounds, Shillings, Pence, Chains,
Perches, Rods, Hundredweight and Quarters.
How would you have gone in this test at the age of 13, even if it was converted
to Dollars, Kilograms and Litres,
with no calculator allowed?
Please Note: When you click
on these links, the scanned images might appear too small to read. If so, move
your
mouse pointer over the image and click on the button which appears in the lower
right corner.
Maths Question 1 Sections (i), (ii) and (iii) Maths Question 1 Sections (iv) and (v)
Maths Q1 Sections (vi) and Q2 (i) and (ii) Maths Q2 Sections (ii) contd. and (iii)
Maths Question 2 Section (iv) Maths Q3 and Q4 Section a (i)
Maths Q4 Sections a (ii) and b Maths Questions 5 and 6
Maths Questions 7 and 8
Maths Question 8 contd.
For further information please email me or phone 3369 4866.
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