Sunday, May 07, 2006
1882: College Entrance Exam
How well would you do on this college entrance exam, compiled from the exams of two relatively average universities in 1882 and 1883? The Latin and Greek portions were required at many colleges even for enrollment in science, engineering, and mathematics programs. I suspect you don't know Latin. The math and science questions are below the language questions. Comments in [brackets] are mine. Most of the test is copied verbatim from the source.
Latin Exam
State what portions of Latin authors you have read, and how long you have studied the language.
Section I
1. Translate:
3. Give the principal parts of each verb.
4. Inflect the present subjunctive active of censuerit, the future active of aguntur, and the imperfect subjunctive passive of liberata sit.
5. Explain the mood and tense of censuerit, and the mood of usus essem and fuissent.
6. Construction of periculus, opera, merito, and coujurationis.
7. What is the difference between gratias agere and gratium habere?
8. Who is meant by collegae meo? State briefly the duties of a praetor.
Section II
[This section included more translation of prose passages from original Latin. If you could translate the above, you're probably set here, too.]
Section III
Translate:
Translate:
Section IV
Translate into Latin:
Greek Exam
Translate:
Πoλν δέ μάλλov δ Κλξαρχoς ĕσπενδεν and all including through sentence ending, λαμβάνειν τά έπιτήδεια. Anab. book 2, chap. 3, sec. 13, 7 lines
1. Decline, writing the accent, πορίαν τάφρονς, νδωρ, πλήρεις, πολλά. What are the characteristic stem-endings of the three declensions?
2. Synopsis of έσπεδεν, είναι, άφεικέναι. Name the tenses of each Greek verb, with the meaning of each. Separate φαίνοιτο, εδειξαν, into their elements. Which modes have special mode-signs? Name the signs. How is the passive voice formed?
[At this point, I gave up typing this section. I do not have a Greek keyboard and using the character map was too cumbersome to transcribe the Greek text. I'll add these questions when I feel motivated.]
Ancient geography - The size and shape of Greece; the principal mountains and rivers; the natural divisions; the political divisions in their order from north to south
Mathematics Exam [no calculators allowed]
Arithmetic
1. Find the difference between 0.0000005 and 0.00005.
2. Change 0.03125 into a common fraction in its lowest terms.
3. If the year is considered 365.25 days instead of 364.242264, how great will the error be in 1880 years?
4. The dividend is 7,423.973, the quotient is 12.130, and the remainder is 0.413. What is the divisor?
5. What is the cost of 60.5 tons of coal when 0.9 tons cost $6.66?
6. Find the square root of 6.7081. Find the square root of 0.004 to the nearest ten-thousandth. Find the square root of 49/529.
7. Reduce 6,423 meters to kilometers. 4.15 meters to centimeters. 6.45 liters to milliliters. How many decigrams does a dekaliter of pure water weight?
8. Find the greatest common divisor of 256, 480, and 1296.
9. Divide two thousand five hundred one and four tenths by four thousand one hundred twenty-five ten-millionths. Divide 1.29136109 by 184.3 and write the answer in words.
10. A gentleman bought a yacht for $3,500 and sold it at a loss of 20%. The buyer sold it at a gain of 25%. What did the latter receive for the craft?
11. What sum of money, at 10% compound interest, will amount to $8,561.50 in three years?
12. The longitude of St. Petersburg is 39°47' east; of New York 74°41' west. When it is 1:00 in the afternoon in St. Petersburg, what time is it in New York? [Note: Time zones had not yet been standardized; local time was calculated based on local solar noon. This made railroad travel interesting.]
13. A cistern is 4 meters long, 24 decimeters wide, and 80 centimeters deep. How much water will it hold in cubic meters? In liters?
14. Extract the square root of 4.932841.
15. Find the exact value of
.
Algebra
1. Divide x4 + x3 + 5x - 4x2 - 3 by x2 - 2x - 3. Divide a6 - b6 by a3 + 2a2b + 2ab2 + b3.
2. Resolve x16 - y16 into five factors.
3. Find the least common multiple of (x + 2a)3, (x - 2a)3, and (x2 - 4a2).
4. From
, subtract 
.
5. Multiply together
and 
and 
.
6.
. Find x.
7.
and 
. Find x and y.
8. Find the square root of
.
9.
Reduce this to a fraction with a rational denominator.
10. Find the 5th power of 2a². Find the fourth root of
.
11. Square
. Cube 
.
12. A and B engage to mow a field [a difficult undertaking in 1882]. A alone can mow it in b days and B can mow it alone in c days. What time will it take them to mow it together?
13. Solve for x and y: x3 - y3 = 215, x2 + xy + y3 = 43
14. Find four values for x.
Geometry
1. What is an isoceles triangle? An equilateral triangle? A right-angled triangle? A rhombus? A rectangle? A segment of a circle? Draw a figure of each.
2. Prove that the angles at the base of an isoceles triangle are equal to one another.
3. Prove that straight lines which are parallel to the same straight lines are parallel to each other.
4. Prove that the diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other.
5. Inscribe a trapezium ABCD in a circle, and prove that the sum of angles A and C is equal to the sum of angles B and D.
6. Define similar polygons; a circle; an angle.
7. How will the height of a triangle be found if its base and area are known?
8. Prove that when two angles of a triangle are unequal, the sides opposite those angles are unequal. Also prove that the side opposite the larger angle is larger.
9. Two tangents drawn from the same point to the edge of a circle include a right angle. What length of arc is enclosed by these lines?
United States History Exam
1. How did the policy which the early English settlers in North America pursued toward the Indians differ from that of the French?
2. What was the point at issue in the French and Indian War?
3. When was the Constitution of the United States adopted? Explain the difference between the Confederation, the Union, and the Southern Confederacy.
4. When was negro slavery introduced into North America? When was it abolished in the United States? [Hey, it was 1882. Do you really expect political correctness?]
5. Why do those who believe in the Monroe doctrine look with disfavor on Monsieur de Lesseps' proposed canal at the Isthmus of Panama?
6. What are the three branches of our general government?
7. How is the President's cabinet appointed?
8. Explain the process by which a bill becomes a law.
English Grammar Exam
[Note: Many linguistic constructs considered poor grammar in 1882 are now accepted thanks to the failure of most people in that era to pass tests like this one.]
1. Correct the errors you see in the following sentences and justify the criticisms you make:
3. Analyze the following sentence:
Rhetoric Exam
1. Write the following correctly:
3. Illustrate by short sentences the correct usage of these words: transpire, couple (noun), aggravate, will in the first person, demean, balance (noun).
4. Name the figures illustrated by the short sentences below. [I have no idea what this means.] If any are faulty, point out and correct the fault:
Geography Exam
1. Name all the oceans and seas, and the principal gulfs and bays, which border on the coast of North America, describing also their respective positions on the shoreline.
2. Enumerate, in regular order, beginning to the north of the Straits of Gibraltar, all the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.
3. Locate the following cities, stating in what country, and on what river, bay, lake, or sea, they are situated: Paris; Nankin; San Fransisco; Lisbon; Cairo; Sevastopol; Bombay; Cincinnati; Chicago.
4. Where are the following islands: Sicily, Ceylon, Roanoke, Jamaica, Borneo, Falkland, Hebrides?
This is the educational background you must have to pass the Harvard entrance requirements:
Greek - First one hundred and eleven pages of Goodwin's Greek Reader, or first four books of Anabasis; First fifty-five lessons of White's First Lessons in Greek; Greek prose
Latin - Caesar, Gallic War, books I-IV (or books I-III and Sallust, Catiline); Virgil, Aeneid, I-VI (or Eclogues and Aeneid I-V); easy Latin at sight; Latin prose; questions on grammar, history, and antiquities suggests by passages
Ancient History and Geography - Greek history to death of Alexander; Roman history to death of Commodus [Gladiator!]. Smith's Greek and Leighton's Roman histories are recommended.
Mathematics - Simple Arithmetic [which includes doing square roots and logarithms on paper]; compound numbers and the metric system; Algebra, through quadratic equations [which includes what you see above]; Plane geometry (first thirteen chapters of Pierce's Geometry);
Physics - Rolfe's and Gillet's Natural Philosophy for High Schools and Academics (without the Appendix), or Avery's Elements of Natural Philosophy
English - A short English composition required [probably about 300 words]
French or German - Translation at sight.
These are only the required sections. There are several dozen more "optional" books, knowledge of which probably increased your chances of acceptance. These included more advanced mathematics (up through trigonometry), more science (botany or chemistry), and higher skills in other languages.
The examinations also included sections on French and German language which I did not include here for the sake of space. The source of this material is a college prep book published in 1884 in the United States. The two colleges in question were Bowdoin (Maine) and Vassar (New York) universities. The book states that these exams are among the easiest.
Latin Exam
State what portions of Latin authors you have read, and how long you have studied the language.
Section I
1. Translate:
Et quoniam nondum est perscriptum senatus consultam, ex memoria vobis, Quirites, quid senatus censuerit exponam. Primum mihi gratiae verbis amplissimis aguntur, quod virtute, consilio, providentia mea res publica maximis periculis sit liberata; deinde L. Flaccus et C. Pomptinus practores, quod corum opera forti fidelique usus essem, merito ac jure laudantur; atque etiam viro forti, collegae meo, laus impertitur quod eos, qui hujus coujurationis participes fuissent, a suis et rei publicae consiliis removisset.2. Decline senatus, eos, and rei publicae.
3. Give the principal parts of each verb.
4. Inflect the present subjunctive active of censuerit, the future active of aguntur, and the imperfect subjunctive passive of liberata sit.
5. Explain the mood and tense of censuerit, and the mood of usus essem and fuissent.
6. Construction of periculus, opera, merito, and coujurationis.
7. What is the difference between gratias agere and gratium habere?
8. Who is meant by collegae meo? State briefly the duties of a praetor.
Section II
[This section included more translation of prose passages from original Latin. If you could translate the above, you're probably set here, too.]
Section III
Translate:
Ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenniDivide the first two verses into feet, marking the caesura. Account for the quantity of a in correpta and dura, of i in excisa, and e in trabe.
Limina perrumpit, postisque a cardine vellit
Aeratos; jamque excisa trabe firma cavavit
Robora, et ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram.
Adaparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt;
Adaparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum,
Armatosque vident stantis in limine primo.
Translate:
Talia fatus erat, coepit cum talia votes:Explain Stygias and Eumenidum.
Unde haec, O Palinure, tibi tam dira cupido?
Tu Stygias inhumanatus aquas amnemque severum
Eumenidum aspicies, ripamve injussus adibis?
Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.
Section IV
Translate into Latin:
- In the middle of summer, Cicero went from Rome to Athens.
- They are ashamed of their deeds.
- This man, worthy of the highest honor, was slain by the sword.
- If he had not defended the city, it would have been taken by the enemy.
- It is said that the senate thanked Cicero in the strongest terms, because he had freed the state from the greatest perils, and had not feared the enmity (invidia) of abandoned citizens.
Greek Exam
Translate:
Πoλν δέ μάλλov δ Κλξαρχoς ĕσπενδεν and all including through sentence ending, λαμβάνειν τά έπιτήδεια. Anab. book 2, chap. 3, sec. 13, 7 lines
1. Decline, writing the accent, πορίαν τάφρονς, νδωρ, πλήρεις, πολλά. What are the characteristic stem-endings of the three declensions?
2. Synopsis of έσπεδεν, είναι, άφεικέναι. Name the tenses of each Greek verb, with the meaning of each. Separate φαίνοιτο, εδειξαν, into their elements. Which modes have special mode-signs? Name the signs. How is the passive voice formed?
[At this point, I gave up typing this section. I do not have a Greek keyboard and using the character map was too cumbersome to transcribe the Greek text. I'll add these questions when I feel motivated.]
Ancient geography - The size and shape of Greece; the principal mountains and rivers; the natural divisions; the political divisions in their order from north to south
Mathematics Exam [no calculators allowed]
Arithmetic
1. Find the difference between 0.0000005 and 0.00005.
2. Change 0.03125 into a common fraction in its lowest terms.
3. If the year is considered 365.25 days instead of 364.242264, how great will the error be in 1880 years?
4. The dividend is 7,423.973, the quotient is 12.130, and the remainder is 0.413. What is the divisor?
5. What is the cost of 60.5 tons of coal when 0.9 tons cost $6.66?
6. Find the square root of 6.7081. Find the square root of 0.004 to the nearest ten-thousandth. Find the square root of 49/529.
7. Reduce 6,423 meters to kilometers. 4.15 meters to centimeters. 6.45 liters to milliliters. How many decigrams does a dekaliter of pure water weight?
8. Find the greatest common divisor of 256, 480, and 1296.
9. Divide two thousand five hundred one and four tenths by four thousand one hundred twenty-five ten-millionths. Divide 1.29136109 by 184.3 and write the answer in words.
10. A gentleman bought a yacht for $3,500 and sold it at a loss of 20%. The buyer sold it at a gain of 25%. What did the latter receive for the craft?
11. What sum of money, at 10% compound interest, will amount to $8,561.50 in three years?
12. The longitude of St. Petersburg is 39°47' east; of New York 74°41' west. When it is 1:00 in the afternoon in St. Petersburg, what time is it in New York? [Note: Time zones had not yet been standardized; local time was calculated based on local solar noon. This made railroad travel interesting.]
13. A cistern is 4 meters long, 24 decimeters wide, and 80 centimeters deep. How much water will it hold in cubic meters? In liters?
14. Extract the square root of 4.932841.
15. Find the exact value of
.Algebra
1. Divide x4 + x3 + 5x - 4x2 - 3 by x2 - 2x - 3. Divide a6 - b6 by a3 + 2a2b + 2ab2 + b3.
2. Resolve x16 - y16 into five factors.
3. Find the least common multiple of (x + 2a)3, (x - 2a)3, and (x2 - 4a2).
4. From
, subtract .5. Multiply together
and and .6.
. Find x.7.
and . Find x and y.8. Find the square root of
.9.
Reduce this to a fraction with a rational denominator.10. Find the 5th power of 2a². Find the fourth root of
.11. Square
. Cube .12. A and B engage to mow a field [a difficult undertaking in 1882]. A alone can mow it in b days and B can mow it alone in c days. What time will it take them to mow it together?
13. Solve for x and y: x3 - y3 = 215, x2 + xy + y3 = 43
14. Find four values for x.
Geometry
1. What is an isoceles triangle? An equilateral triangle? A right-angled triangle? A rhombus? A rectangle? A segment of a circle? Draw a figure of each.
2. Prove that the angles at the base of an isoceles triangle are equal to one another.
3. Prove that straight lines which are parallel to the same straight lines are parallel to each other.
4. Prove that the diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other.
5. Inscribe a trapezium ABCD in a circle, and prove that the sum of angles A and C is equal to the sum of angles B and D.
6. Define similar polygons; a circle; an angle.
7. How will the height of a triangle be found if its base and area are known?
8. Prove that when two angles of a triangle are unequal, the sides opposite those angles are unequal. Also prove that the side opposite the larger angle is larger.
9. Two tangents drawn from the same point to the edge of a circle include a right angle. What length of arc is enclosed by these lines?
United States History Exam
1. How did the policy which the early English settlers in North America pursued toward the Indians differ from that of the French?
2. What was the point at issue in the French and Indian War?
3. When was the Constitution of the United States adopted? Explain the difference between the Confederation, the Union, and the Southern Confederacy.
4. When was negro slavery introduced into North America? When was it abolished in the United States? [Hey, it was 1882. Do you really expect political correctness?]
5. Why do those who believe in the Monroe doctrine look with disfavor on Monsieur de Lesseps' proposed canal at the Isthmus of Panama?
6. What are the three branches of our general government?
7. How is the President's cabinet appointed?
8. Explain the process by which a bill becomes a law.
English Grammar Exam
[Note: Many linguistic constructs considered poor grammar in 1882 are now accepted thanks to the failure of most people in that era to pass tests like this one.]
1. Correct the errors you see in the following sentences and justify the criticisms you make:
a. Nor want nor cold his course delay.2. Give the future tense of the verb to be.
b. I cannot say that I admire this construction, though it be much used.
c. Whom they had sat at defiance.
d. As soon as he was landed, the multitude thronged about him.
e. If I was a Greek, I should resist Turkish despotism.
f. Had I commanded you to have done this, you would thought hard of it.
g. All debts are cleared between you and I.
3. Analyze the following sentence:
And when its yellow lustre smiled4. Give your reasons for justifying or condemning the use of should or would in the following sentences:
O'er mountains yet untrod,
Each mother held aloft her child
To bless the bow of God.
a. I would think you ought to be more attentive to your studies.5. Discuss the modifying effect of the adverbial elements in the following sentence:
b. It should seem that John has incurred at the displeasure of his teacher.
Earth keeps me here awhile; yet I shall leave it and rise on fairer wings than thine, to skies more clear.
Rhetoric Exam
1. Write the following correctly:
33 w 56th. st new york apr 26, 1882 my dear, little sister ... i am, affectionately yours, Mary R. Bradely To Miss Lucy A. Bradley. 1001 main st. buffalo n y2. Define the following terms: barbarism, tautology, onomatopoeia, anticlimax, rhyme, epigram.
Married at bethel vt jan 24 by rev Harrison gray pastor of the m.e. church A H Gaitlin of this city and Mary M daughter of John Kellogg jr.
3. Illustrate by short sentences the correct usage of these words: transpire, couple (noun), aggravate, will in the first person, demean, balance (noun).
4. Name the figures illustrated by the short sentences below. [I have no idea what this means.] If any are faulty, point out and correct the fault:
1. "Truth, like the angel in Jacob's vision, bids me up and on."
2. He was swamped in the meshes of his argument.
3. The house has been spoiled by improvements.
4. "We were ever from the cradle bred together."
5. "It is well to die, if there be gods; and it is sad to live, if there be none."
6. Life flows on like a river, ever the same, never the same.
7. "Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools."
8. I do not live to eat, but take food in order to sustain life.
9. You are a nice girl to treat me in that way.
Geography Exam
1. Name all the oceans and seas, and the principal gulfs and bays, which border on the coast of North America, describing also their respective positions on the shoreline.
2. Enumerate, in regular order, beginning to the north of the Straits of Gibraltar, all the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.
3. Locate the following cities, stating in what country, and on what river, bay, lake, or sea, they are situated: Paris; Nankin; San Fransisco; Lisbon; Cairo; Sevastopol; Bombay; Cincinnati; Chicago.
4. Where are the following islands: Sicily, Ceylon, Roanoke, Jamaica, Borneo, Falkland, Hebrides?
This is the educational background you must have to pass the Harvard entrance requirements:
Greek - First one hundred and eleven pages of Goodwin's Greek Reader, or first four books of Anabasis; First fifty-five lessons of White's First Lessons in Greek; Greek prose
Latin - Caesar, Gallic War, books I-IV (or books I-III and Sallust, Catiline); Virgil, Aeneid, I-VI (or Eclogues and Aeneid I-V); easy Latin at sight; Latin prose; questions on grammar, history, and antiquities suggests by passages
Ancient History and Geography - Greek history to death of Alexander; Roman history to death of Commodus [Gladiator!]. Smith's Greek and Leighton's Roman histories are recommended.
Mathematics - Simple Arithmetic [which includes doing square roots and logarithms on paper]; compound numbers and the metric system; Algebra, through quadratic equations [which includes what you see above]; Plane geometry (first thirteen chapters of Pierce's Geometry);
Physics - Rolfe's and Gillet's Natural Philosophy for High Schools and Academics (without the Appendix), or Avery's Elements of Natural Philosophy
English - A short English composition required [probably about 300 words]
French or German - Translation at sight.
These are only the required sections. There are several dozen more "optional" books, knowledge of which probably increased your chances of acceptance. These included more advanced mathematics (up through trigonometry), more science (botany or chemistry), and higher skills in other languages.
The examinations also included sections on French and German language which I did not include here for the sake of space. The source of this material is a college prep book published in 1884 in the United States. The two colleges in question were Bowdoin (Maine) and Vassar (New York) universities. The book states that these exams are among the easiest.
# posted by Dev @ 12:01 AM 
