An exam set for Victorian 11-year-olds is too hard for most of today's A-Level students, a Birmingham headteacher said. It sparked renewed claims that education standards have been "dumbed down". The tests, set at King Edward's School in Birmingham in 1898, would tax most people today, the school's current head, Roger Dancey, acknowledged. The questions covered Latin, details of British history, English grammar, and maths. They were aimed at the brightest 11-year-olds of the time. David Thomas, chief executive of education charity the Careers Research and Advisory Centre, said the exam was "a good example" of dumbing down. "Most of the questions could not be attempted today even by A-Level students," he said. Mr Dancey, chief master of high-flying King Edward's School, in Edgbaston Park Road, said he would struggle to answer all the questions - but many more people at least achieve some level of learning today than ever did in 1898. "I'm sure we would all have difficulty completing the paper and getting 100 per cent," he said. "It's a very challenging paper. If I'm criticising, it's heavy on factual knowledge and mechanical exercises and low on analysis and understanding and the creative side. But it's a fascinating picture of what they were asking candidates to do just over 100 years ago." King Edward's School exam questions from 1898 * Explain the meaning of o' Dee, dank with foam, western tide, round and round the sand, the rolling mist. * On the outline map provided, mark the position of Carlisle, Canterbury, Plymouth, Hull, Gloucester, Swansea, Southampton, Worcester, Leeds, Leicester and Norwich; Morecambe Bay, The Wash, Solent, Menai Straits and Lyme Bay; St Bees Head, The Naze, Lizard Point, and state on a separate paper what the towns named above are noted for. * Where are Omdurman, Wai-Hei-Wai, Crete, Santiago, and West Key, and what are they noted for? * What kings of England began to reign in the years 871, 1135, 1216, 1377, 1422, 1509, 1625, 1685, 1727, 1830? * State what you know of - Henry II's quarrel with Becket, the taking of Calais by Edward III, the attempt to make Lady Jane Grey queen, the Gordon riots. * Write in columns the nominative singular, genitive plural, gender, and meaning of: operibus, principe, imperatori, genere, apro, nivem, vires, frondi, muri. * Write these phrases in a column and put opposite to each its Latin: he will go; he may wish; he had; he had been; he will be heard; and give in a column the English of fore, amatum, regendus. |
