17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, September 19, 1912: We had a test in General History today. Wasn’t hard at all.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’m glad that the General History test wasn’t difficult for Grandma.
A hundred-year-old book called the Outlines of General History by V. A. Renouf contained information about how to develop good questions:
Different Kinds of Questions
The questions which are most frequently asked in exercises and examinations can be classed somewhat as follows:
Questions of Fact
- Personality: Who did a certain thing?
- Place: Where did a certain event happen? What places were affected by a certain cause or event?
- Time: When did a certain event happen? How long did a certain period last?
- Who built Memphis?
- Name all of the countries conquered by Alexander the Great.
- What year did Nineveh fall?
Questions of Comparison
- Comparison with recent or contemporary events or conditions in one’s own country.
- Comparison with events or periods in the history previously learned.
- Comparison of historical personalities.
- Does a man’s education stop when he has left school? What opportunities did the Athenians have for continuing their education through manhood?
- Compare the condition of debtors in early Rome with that of early Athens?
- Compare the government of Shih Hwang-ti with that of Darius?
Questions of Cause or Effect
- Geographical causes
- Causes lying in certain institutions
- Effects of certain events
- In what way did the natural formation of Greece encourage commerce?
- What were the causes of the Peloponnesian war?
- Why is the battle of Marathon counted among the decisive battles of the world?
Which types of questions did Grandma’s teacher include in the exam?
It’s been awhile–Where have the years gone?– since I’ve taken a history exam, but I think that many of the types of questions asked on a history test today would still fit into this categorization schema.
But, I bet that there are fewer questions today that ask about dates. It seems like students were asked to memorize more things back then than they are now.