Guess the exam - just for fun

[Cortina]

Ok, who wants to guess the approximate year and level of the following exam questions? I tried and was hopelessly out. If you think they are parts of public exams, are they O'level, GCSE, CSE or A'level etc? Or do you think they are 11 plus, CE, something else etc?:

Exam paper 1. No calculators or similar were allowed for this first one

Find the factors of - px-qx-p+q;

Multiply 68.5 by 0.000478

An alloy is composed of two metals A and B in the proportion 9:7 by volume. The density of A is 8.7gm. per cu.cm., and that of B is 7.1 gm. per cu.cum. Find in kilograms the weight of a cube of the alloy which has an edge 40cm.

A quadrilateral ABCD has E as the mid-point of the diagonal AC, and the line drawn through B parallel to AC cuts DE produced at F. Prove that the area of the triangle ADF is half of that quadrilateral.

Exam paper 2:

Rewrite As a question: vous vous levez
As adverbs: Vif: joyeux
In the plural: Celui-ci est le votre
In the negative: Donnez-le-moi!

Give the french for:

Tomorrow - the twenty-first of April - at a quarter to four in the afternoon - two weeks ago - early - too many sweets - cows eat grass

Write about 35 words in French in answer to the following question:

Ou passez-vous vos vacances? Que faites-vous?

Exam paper 3:

Translate into Latin:

This war will terrify the wretched citizens.
Did you throw the spear into the water?
We heard many animals which we could not see
The ambassadors changed their clothes in order to deceive the chieftain

Translate into English:

Consul multa dona sociis dedit.
Muros aedificare proximo anno conati sumus.
Dux sine dubio barbaros copiis parvis vincet
Litteras in carcere scriptas ad conjugem misit.

Exam paper 4:

Answer in French the following questions. Do not use the past historic or write more than you need. Full marks will not be given for answers directly copied from the text.

There then follows a long passage in French

Pourquoi devainent-ils trouver un garage Renault? (4)

Vous etes Monsieur ou Madame Johnson. Vous parlez a la receptionniste pour commander le petit dejuner. Qu'est-ce que vous allez lui dire? Ecrivez deux phrases (2x3)

Pourquoi ne pouvaient-ils pas descendre a l'hotel ou ils descendaient d'habitude?(4)

There are 14 questions in total like the above. All must be answered in French.

The second part is a 5 paragraph translation from French into English. Candidates are allowed one and three quarter hours in total.

Has Cortina emigrated so she need never tell us the answer?

Hello. Will reveal v soon, I promise. Just out at the moment. Get back to you tomorrow :).

I would say Common Entrance - so 13.

Flamingtoaster, they are not all the same type of exam.

1. O level
2. GCSE
3. O level
4. GCSE

Sorry - was reading before rushing off to the beach! Take two:

1. O level maths
2. GCSE French (foundation level possibly)
3. Common Entrance
4. A level French - total guess since I didn't do French A level

I'm guessing these are GCSE level. Or O level, though the French seems too easy (but the maths doesn't!)

There's a huge difference between the levels of the 2 French exams. The first one seems very basic; the second sounds like O level. I suppose we will just have to wait patiently for Cortina come back and put us out of our misery.

1. GCE O level - 1958 - it actually says no logarithms or slide rules are allowed but didn't put that it as I thought would be easier to date it.

Questions were from paper 1 - 2 hours. Quite a lot of - what I think are difficult - questions to answer in the time allowed. There were at least 2 if not 3 papers and all challenging I thought.

1. CE 1956. I think the French composition part is reasonably challenging - unless you knew roughly which questions to expect in advance? Would you be expected to write an essay in accurate French in response to a random question now?

1. CE 1955 Latin

1. O level French - 1981 - I thought this was moderately hard. I think you were penalised quite heavily for incorrect spelling/grammar (in French) when answering the comprehension questions. This would have been one of few quite rigorous papers. The translation passage is fairly tough. When I took French O'level in the final years of the exam we could answer comprehension questions on the French passage in English. Indeed, I avoided writing too much in French where possible - it was very easy to lose marks for silly mistakes. Rather ridiculous you could get a good O'level pass whilst adopting this strategy!

You were all much more accurate than me in your guesses!

NB: In CE marks were deducted for poor handwriting, bad English and poor spelling and grammar.

Amazing!

I actually SAT my French O level in 1981! (Girlie swot - got an A)

Brilliant idea Cortina and lots of fun - Thanks :0

The only real surprise is the CE French. It didn't look any harder than our year 7 end of year French exam. A 35 word composition is hardly anything and I would have assumed that children in private school would have been learning French for a few years before CE. Your mention of calculators before the maths exam was a bit of a red herring which made it hard to date, though I am suprised candidates were not allowed to use logarithms.

Oooh I was quite accurate, I knew the cu.cm thing had to make the maths an old paper but totally misjudged the level. Surprised that it was an old-school o-level, it all seemed quite easy in fact I actually did the density one for fun but I love a bit of maths especially science-y problems and I suppose I did A-level and work in a lab so use those sort of skills regularly.

The French seemed fairly hard to me but then I am shit at languages

I hope there are more posts like this, thanks Cortina

In the current sylabus you don't have to translate into latin until A levels, I'm shocked that that was CE!

Hmm thought I posted last night on this thread but it appears not!

at the Olevel French 1981, I took it in 1980! Was it really that hard??? GCSE much much much easier than that No way are they asked to translate anything.

I think I guessed CE for the Latin adn other French, but think the Latin is quite tough, English to Latin (prose) was not an element of O level when I did it, I don't think even A level actually (didn't do that) tho I did have to do Greek prose ie Eng-Greek for my Greek A-level aaarrrgh. That was in 1982 btw just to give context.

Sorry it's a bit off topic but looking at these, does that mean that CE is harder than GCSEs/A levels?!

Thar French seems much harder than I remember. Took O'level in 1977 and got a D.
The Maths seems easier than 1977.

Cortina, are you sure you have the first question in the maths paper copied out correctly? Shouldn't it be 'find the factors of px - qx - p + q' ? That's much easier...