Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough

[Tdol]

This site has got the Cambridge Proficiency exam from 1913:

What would you do… if you had to sit this exam? « one year

It's worth a look to see what they were testing in those days.

[5jj]

Fascinating. I particularly liked " Embody each of the following words in a sentence, in such a way as to shew that you clearly apprehend its meaning":


You mightalso be interested in questions that native speakers were dealing with a few years earlier.

London University Matriculation Examinations

1. Account for the letters in italics in - nam e, these, those, passenger, sovereign, wettest, cities, potatoes, sceptre, sceptic, handiwork, righteous, tomb, could, our.(1879)

2. What was the ancient form of the Feminine Gender? What traces remain of it? How has it been supplanted? Discuss the meaning an origin of the termination -ster (1879)

3. Classify the pronouns. (1879)

4. Trace as fully as you can the history of the inflexions of thou, and of he, she , it, in singular and plural (1880)

5. Distinguish between Syntax and Prosody. Define a perfect rhyme.(1880)

6. Discuss the words italicised in the folloowing:-
'Long ago we were wont to let plain living accompany high thinking.'
'Methinks you might have spoken, but you durst not.' (1881)

7. Parse must in 'He says he must go' and 'He said he must go,' and mention some other words that are similarly unchanged. What do you know of the verbs quoth and wot? (1887)

8. Derive the following county names: Middlesex, Northumberland, Cornwall, Durham. Hampshire, Surrey.

College of Preceptors Senior Certificate:

1. Analyse into clauses only, naming in each case the kind of clause, and showing the way in which the different clauses are related:-

............................To bleed for others' wrongs
In vindication of a cause, to draw
The sword of the Lord and Gideon - oh, that seems
The flower and top of life! But fight because
Some poor misconstruing Trifler haps to say
I lie, when I do not lie,
Why should I? Call you this a cause? I can't.
Oh, he is wrong, no doubt; he misbehaves -
But is it worth so much as speaking loud ?
And things so merely personal to myself
Of all earth's things do least affect myself.

2. Parse the words italicised in the above passage. (1903)

[Tdol]

I wonder what they would make of our exams- I think that while Proficiency may test very different things, it is still a testing exam.

[Hedwig]

Shame, I can't open it. I sat the exam in '76 and would have liked to compare.

[Tdol]

I've just tried the link and it's working.

[Hedwig]

I finally gained access through Google and then searched the site till I found the article. (The link still doesn’t work for me, nor typing out the url for the home site. Go figure.)

It’s very interesting, and pretty different from the 1970ies’ exams. Students in 1913 were expected to explain or justify their choices. Scary! Very often you just go by the ear, whether in your native language or a foreign one, and explaining things like this in an exam… well, I never had to do it before I went to teachers’ training college. As to the essays, the examinees (if that’s a word, lol) were expected to have an ample cultural background. In my time we were given the chance to use our imagination and write fiction. I’m not sure I’d heard about the Pre-Raffaelites when I was 17! Also, in the 70’s we didn’t take phonetics in secondary school.
There were some interesting remarks below. And to think I and my university lecturer friend often rant about how ignorant today’s kids are and how educational standards have significantly dropped since our time! Gives food for thought.

[Tdol]

I was surprised by the amount of phonetics there, but without tapes it makes sense. I would not like to have to write any of the essays.