<p>This is interesting. A good math and Latin student would probably do well, even nowadays; however, the Greek section would undoubtedly be a stumbling block for most.</p>
<p>Can</a> You Pass Harvard's 1869 Entrance Exam? (We Bet Not) - Culture - GOOD</p>
<p>The Greek section is actually hand-written. Times have certainly changed.</p>
<p>I think even a good contemporary math student would be squashed by the math portion. To be fair, I can barely remember how to do square roots by hand, much less cube roots. 1869 seems a little early for the use of slide rules in the U.S. They may have expected the use of Newton’s method here.</p>
<p>The math problems do not seem like they would be beyond the scope of someone who recently did well in high school math (up to trigonometry and precalculus; no need for calculus), although some of the problems can be rather time consuming.</p>
<p>Were Latin and Greek common high school foreign languages back in 1869? If so, then the modern analogue would be Spanish and French. Of course, this means that they were expecting students to have studied two foreign languages.</p>
<p>The world geography section might stump a lot of modern students, but if Harvard gave such an entrance test today, you can bet that high schools today would rewrite some of their social studies curricula to include stuff that they expect to be on that test.</p>
<p>What would be interesting is to know what percent of the population would have had access to that kind of education in the first place. What percent were going to high schools at all?</p>
<p>The 1870 US census found about 38.5 million people in the US.</p>
<p>According to [Historical</a> summary of faculty, students, degrees, and finances in degree-granting institutions: Selected years, 1869-70 through 2005-06](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_178.asp]Historical”>Historical summary of faculty, students, degrees, and finances in degree-granting institutions: Selected years, 1869-70 through 2005-06) , there were only 52,286 students enrolled in 563 degree granting post-secondary schools in 1869-1870. 9,371 bachelor’s degrees and 1 doctoral degree were conferred that academic year.</p>
<p>Data from [Educational</a> Attainment CPS Historical Tables - U.S. Census Bureau](<a href=“http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/historical/index.html]Educational”>http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/historical/index.html) indicates that, in 1940, only about 24% of the population 25 years old and older in the US had at least completed high school. It is unlikely that the percentage in 1870 was higher.</p>
<p>I agree with ucb that the math doesn’t look tough but time consuming. But it has “vulgar” fractions which offends my sensibilities.</p>
<p>I know nothing about Latin or Greek. But I could answer some of those history and geography questions assuming they accept answers based on the movie 300.</p>
<p>Even now I think rich people, or at least well traveled people, would have an easier time with those geography questions. If you spend your time skiing in the Alps you likely know where Mount Blanc is. Or if you happen to own that pen.</p>
<p>Looks like a student who took Latin and Greek throughout high school (as many did at the best schools), knew his geography/history, and could do some fairly difficult arithmetic would be in good shape.</p>
<p>[MIT</a> Entrance Examination, 1869-70: Exhibits: : Institute Archives & Special Collections: MIT](<a href=“http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/exam/]MIT”>http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/exam/)</p>
<p>Compare to 1869’s MIT!</p>
<p>I actually knew that geography in 4th grade, but I certainly don’t know it any more! The ancient history I’ve forgotten, but knew most of it at one time. The math is easy - I once had to do cube roots for a statics exam when my calculator batteries ran out. I never took Latin or Greek - interesting that they actually give you the vocabulary and only want you to figure out the grammar.</p>
<p>The MIT exam looks easier - which explains why when my grandfather was asked to leave Harvard he ended up at MIT. :)</p>
<p>“The Greek section is actually hand-written.”</p>
<p>Probably because whoever prepared the exam did not have a way to readily get something printed up in the Greek alphabet.</p>
<p>ulciscor. Best. Word. Ever.</p>
<p>^^Yes, and it it’s even better if you use the proper old Roman pronunciation, which would be something like “oolkeeskor”</p>
<p>Hmm! I tried to link to the Harvard test and my computer froze, not once, but twice!</p>
<p>In any case, it made me think (dangerous), and I had no ancestors living in this country, or even on this contnent in 1869. How about some of you?</p>
<p>The exam was most definitely designed for upper class white males who had already received a classical education. The British educational influence is still very evident, although I am surprised that there is no science at all.</p>
<p>Relatives on my father’s side were here in 1869 - my great, great grandfather was a judge in Illinois in the 1860s.</p>
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<p>It does sort of seem like the focus of pre-university preparation has shifted from geography, history, literature, etc. to more somewhat more advanced math and science, and more focus on those topics.</p>
<p>Of course, this is only around 200 years after Newton, which I guess is a fairly short time.</p>
<p>But these days I can just Google/wiki the answers to all those geography, history and literature questions I don’t know or remember.</p>
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<p>Throughout the 19th century, Harvard and similar type colleges had conflicting views about whether science beyond what’s covered in “Natural Philosophy” should be included in the curriculum. </p>
<p>The common thinking was that a modern science education as we know it was something for the “lower-class” technicians to handle as the upper-classes mostly felt they/their sons shouldn’t “lower” themselves to learn vocationally applicable subjects/fields. This mentality wasn’t just applied against modern science/engineering subjects, but also against any academic field outside the narrow classical curriculum common in the 19th century Ivy/Little Ivy colleges. </p>
<p>Some colleges founded in the early-mid 19th century like NYU and CCNY were created to provide education in modern subjects disdained by their Ivy/Little Ivy counterparts. </p>
<p>Ironic how nowadays…it is those very classical fields as well as other areas of the arts, humanities, and social sciences which are disdained by many students, parents, and society at large precisely because they are deemed “too impractical”.</p>
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<p>Yes, my ancestors emigrated from England to the US during the period from the 1760s to the 1840s. In 1869 all eight of my great-grandparents were alive and living in the US. None of them went to Harvard or MIT though. My parents were the first generation to go to school beyond the 8th grade.</p>
<p>I just recently graduated from HS and am not seeing the difficulty in the math section. I would find it easier to just memorize a bunch of algorithms for finding square roots and doing long division than the stuff I was expected to know. I’m sure all of my AP Calculus classmates and I could have scored very high on that potion of the exam in 8th grade (ok, maybe some needed to complete 9th grade)</p>
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<p>This is all true. I will just add that the catalyst for the shift in pedagogical philosophy was the Industrial Revolution. At the turn of the century (~1900,) Harvard and other ivies felt it was falling behind newer tech schools like MIT, and shifted its philosophy to make technical fields as strong as their other fields. In fact, at that time Harvard tried to actually buy MIT, unsuccessfully of course.</p>
<p>On another note, somebody put up statistics on what percentage of Americans graduated from high school in 1869. I will just interject that this doesn’t mean that everybody else didn’t go to high school at all. I think it was relatively common to attend a couple of years of high school and then quit to work.</p>
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<p>I agree.</p>
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<p>The ones who attended high school still seemed to be a minority of their generation in the 19th century. Recalled reading that most students finished their education at 8th or sometimes even 6th grade and were then expected to start working for a living/start an apprenticeship. </p>
<p>And that’s assuming the kids/adolescents even had a full elementary/junior high education…which cannot be assumed considering numerous accounts of people who had spotty or even no schooling in their lives.</p>