Are You Smarter Than A 1912 8th Grader?

1912 8th Grade Exam

Source: The Smithsonian

This early 20th-century doozie was given to 8th graders in the Bluegrass State to test their scientific literacy…and to make its 21st century discoverers/takers feel incredibly stupid. Fear not, though; for every geography question you Nagasaki’d, there’s an expert refuting the real value of tests like this. Case in point: researchers Will Grant and Merryn McKinnon say “We pretend that factoids are a useful proxy for scientific literacy, and in turn that scientific literacy is a useful proxy for good citizenship. But there’s simply no evidence this is true.”

With that said, though, if you still can’t get behind basic concepts like alternative energy sources and global warming, you’re on your own.

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