GREAT BOOKS ACADEMY PLACEMENT TEST

Please note: completing this placement test is not necessary in order to enroll with the Great Books Academy.  It is made available as a convenience, desired by some.

You may wish to take only one, a few, or all of these tests. You may discover your starting level with the Academy will vary in each course - that is, you may do well, for example, in 7th grade math and not above 5th grade in grammar. That is fine and very normal. We encourage homeschoolers to begin where they are, in each course selected. Which courses you decide to take, and at what levels, is up to you.

You may grade or evaluate the test results yourself, or you may send them to us for evaluation and our suggestions. We hope you find these helpful. Please let us know if you have any questions (GBAmailbox@aol.com). 

 

 

 

Nursery - 5th Grades: We recommend beginning the placement testing with the grade level that normally matches the child's age.  For example, if the child is 8, then get the art book listed in the 3rd grade.  For 6-8th grades, start with the 6th grade Art in Focus course. 

 

 

Please have your child answer these questions orally or in writing. 

1^st Grade

1.       If you face north, what direction is on your left?

2.       Why do we use special words to tell directions?

3.       Name two things found on water and two things found on land.

4.       Describe an ocean.

2^nd Grade

5.       How can a map be helpful?

6.       How many oceans does Earth have?  Name them.

7.       Water is one of the most important natural resources.  How do people use water?

8.       Why would someone use a map of a national park?

3^rd Grade

9.       What is the purpose of the map key?

10.   Give 3 examples of Earth’s different landforms.

11.   In what state is San Francisco located?  What ocean is just west of San Francisco?

12.   People traveling west killed huge numbers of buffalo.  Soon there were very few buffalo left.  How did this affect how the Native Americans and the people on the trails got along?

4^th Grade

13.   What direction is between north and east on a compass rose?

14.   Why was the Richter scale created?

15.   What is happening to the air when a tornado occurs?

16.   Why might a farmer grow corn to feed his or her cattle, rather than selling the corn for food for people?

5^th Grade

17.   Describe what you can see on a globe that you could not see looking at Earth from space.

18.   How is trade beneficial to people?

19.   Why are map scales important?

20.   How many states are there in the United States today?  How many states formed the original United States in 1790?

6^th Grade

21.   How many minutes equal one degree?

22.   In ancient times, why were rivers important to trade among civilizations?

23.   Why do you think people thought it was necessary to standardize time around Earth?

24.   Why is mapping the ocean floor a fairly recent phenomenon?

 

 

Foreign Languages: We recommend starting with the first level of Latin or Greek and testing from these.

 

 

Geography: Since this courses follows our history program, we recommend choosing the same grade level.  For example, if you take 3rd grade Ancient Egypt, then also take 3rd grade Ancient Egypt geography as they were developed to correspond.

 

 

Please have your child answer these questions orally or in writing. 

1st Grade

1. What terrible secret was buried in Shi Huangdi's tomb?

2. Did nomads make lizard stew?

3. What happened to Anansi the Spider in the Village of the Plantains?

4. How did a six-year-old become the last emperor of Rome?

5. Who were the Nomads?

6. Why did Rome fall?

 2nd Grade

1.      What happened between the brothers Cain and Able?

2.      What happened to the Egyptians when the Lord parted the Red Sea?

3.      How do David and Jonathan renew their covenant?

4.      Would you call Joash a good king?  Why or why not?

3rd Grade

5.      What are mummies and how are they made?

6.      Describe the Great Pyramid of Giza.

7.      Name and describe the two types of writings the Egyptians have?

8.      Why did God send each of the Ten Plagues to the Egyptians?

4th Grade

9.      What are myths and legends and how do they differ from one another?

10.    How dod Odysseus and his friends escape from teh cave of the giant Cyclops?

11.  How did Aristides contribute to the rebuilding of the city and other public works?

12.  How would you describe Philip of Macedonia?

5th Grade

13.  Why did the Romans declare war against each other?

14.  How did the Second Punic War begin?

15.  Describe the Colosseum. 

16.  How were the Christian believers treated under Diocletian?

6th Grade

17.  How is civilization distinguished from barbarism?

18.  Where did the term “Middle Ages” originate?  Why is it inaccurate?

19.  What was the Black Death?  How did it help to bring the High Middle Ages to an end?

7th Grade

21.  What motivated Columbus to sail to the “Indies” and why was he motivated to sail west in order to get there?

22.  What was the Baroque?  What did it symbolize?

23.  Who were the founders of Communism?  What are the principles of Communism?

24.  What was the Inquisition?

8^th Grade

25. What is the Constitution?
26. Can you write a paragraph about what each of the presidents did?
27. Name the most important US documents.  

 

For 9th-12th Grades (history is included in the Great Books course):  To profit most from the readings and discussions a student needs to begin with the first year, the Greek year, of the program. It could be argued, in fact, that the Greek year is the most important one since it is the foundation upon which the other years build. If you haven't read and discussed the Greeks it is difficult to appreciate and understand the Romans and all else that follows. The four years are a cohesive whole.

 

PHONICS: Nursery: The child will learn to recognize the ABCs.  Preschool: The child learns to recognize the ABCs and their sounds.  Simple letter forming begins.  Kindergaten: The child continues to learn the ABC sounds.  The child learns how to write the ABCs and simple words.  The child learns to read simple short vowel words.  1st Grade: The child learns to read short and long vowel words and to write as well.  Grammar is introduced in the 1st grade with sentences and simple paragraphs. 

Shurley Grammar Placement Test (includes grammar and writing)

1^st Grade

1.       Write a sentence using the adjective brown.

2.       Write a sentence using the adverb quietly.

3.       Use a noun in a sentence and underline the noun.

4.       Use a verb in a sentence and underline the verb.

 

2^nd Grade

5.       Write a declarative sentence.

6.       Write an interrogative sentence.

7.       What are the adjective questions?

8.       What are the adverb questions?

3^rd Grade

9.       How do you make a plural noun that ends in s possessive?

10.   How do you make a singular noun possessive?

11.   Write the contractions for the following words: can not, are not, will not, and we will.

12.   Write the contractions for the following words:  have not, did not, would not, and they will.

4^th Grade.

13.   Write an exclamatory sentence.

14.   Write an imperative sentence.

15.   Steve said may I borrow your pencil. (Write the sentence correctly.)

16.   Write the following words in plural form:  mouse, foot, fly, peach, church, and toy.

5^th Grade

17.   The kitchen curtains blew softly in the spring wind yesterday. (Tell how each word is used by writing the part of speech above the word.)

18.   The dolphins in the marine show are very intelligent animals. (Tell how each word is used by writing the part of speech above the word.

19.   will the plane from Columbus ohio be here soon susan asked the ticket agent  (Put capital letters and punctuation marks as needed.)

20.   my dad said i am taking you to lake henderson on friday for a fishing trip  (Put capital letters and punctuation marks as needed.)

6^th Grade

21.   Yesterday we did not search for their lost cat in the field behind our house. (Tell how each word is used by writing the part of speech above the word.)

22.   After school the energetic coach gave the team a very vigorous workout. (Tell how each word is used by writing the part of speech above the word.)

23.   Yes mr j c smith our neighbor took billy brent and shawn fishing on lake charles (Put capital letters and punctuation marks as needed.)

24.   is the plane from dallas texas due in one hour jerry asked the man at the gate (Put capital letters and punctuation marks as needed.)

7^th Grade

25.   Several plump robins searched diligently for juicy worms in my back yard. (Identify the part of speech and write the abbreviation above the word.)

26.   After an exciting election John Conner named Sarah Warren chairman of the committee. (Identify the part of speech and write the abbreviation above the word.)

27.   Four very excited fans were irate after the referee’s call! (Identify the part of speech and write the abbreviation above the word.)

28.   Identify each pronoun as indefinite or personal (I, P) and as singular or plural (S, P):  we, everybody, she, both, each, they, either, and it.

8^th Grade

29.   Many outstanding runners jogged fast in the marathon up the mountain. (Identify the part of speech and write the abbreviation above the word.)

30.   Eleven extremely tired offensive players were happy with their game. (Identify the part of speech and write the abbreviation above the word.)

31.   At the meeting Mr. Donald named Kelly Brace editor of the school paper. (Identify the part of speech and write the abbreviation above the word.)

32.   Identify each pronoun as indefinite or personal (I,P) and as singular or plural (S,P):  you, someone, him, many, some, us, and no one.

 

9th Grade: Describe each of the following in three sentences:

prewriting

revising

proofreading

audience

drafting

editing

mapping

narrative paragraph

descriptive paragraph

expository paragraph

persuasive essay

10th Grade: Describe each of the following in three sentences:

style

writer's notebook

outlining

publishing

brainstorming

clustering

peer editing

purpose

Write a narrative essay.

11th Grade: Complete the following research paper without looking up these seven basic writing/research steps.

Imagine that you are a writer on assignment for TravelSmart, a travel news television program. Write a "Best Bets" report for a three-minute segment about one major tourist attraction in your state. The attraction may be a park, a museum, an event, or something special you feel tourists should see. Try to find a news "hook" for the report; an annual festival; an exciting restoration of a historic site; a seasonal event such as a Harvest Fair; or the opening of a new attraction, such as a museum or the world's biggest water slide. Since this is a "Best Bets" report, the segment should include the kinds of facts that will encourage vacationing families to visit. Know and use the following steps to complete your work. STEP 1: Initial Search; STEP 2: Focus Your Search; STEP 3: Define Your Audience; STEP 4: Brainstorm Ideas; STEP 5: Organize Your Ideas and Write Your Rough Draft; STEP 7: Publish Your Work

12th Grade: Complete the following biographical sketch paper without looking up these seven basic writing/research steps.

Write a two-page biographical sketch about one scientist you admire. Begin by looking into the lives of several different twentieth-century scientists. Take notes on what they have worked on, where they worked, honors and awards they received, and other material. STEP 1: Initial Search; STEP 2: Focus Your Search; STEP 3: Define Your Audience; STEP 4: Brainstorm Ideas; STEP 5: Organize Your Ideas and Write Your Rough Draft; STEP 7: Publish Your Work

Vocabulit and Spelling Placement Test

Give the definition and part of speech for each word below.  Write a sentence using each of the following words.

4th Grade:

curious

interfere

compliment

nape

restore

single

afford

misery

5th Grade:

admirable

envious

opponent

venomous

acquired

fatigue

dense

intensify

6th Grade

conceal

prolong

caution

disperse

theory

transmit

fruitful

testimony

7th Grade:

admonish

innocent

execute

mediocre

destination

preservation

boast

devious

8th Grade:

pulverize

compel

precise

transitional

contradictory

fatigue

anxious

solidify

9th Grade:

epigram

derisive

facsimile

expunge

archetype

necropolis

amorphous

hematothermal

10th Grade:

antagonist

dank

induce

interminable

tenant

valiant

burnish

gingerly

11th Grade:

sanctum

genial

sullen

incontinent

incline

impetuous

stagnating

cringe

12th Grade:

axiom

juxtapose

temerity

coruscate

ontological

scintillate

eon

quintessential

 

 

 

Good Books - Nursery-8th Grades:  Excellent literature – the classics – is the backbone of our elementary education.  It integrates all the other subjects, is the most enjoyable and develops learners for more than any other subject, being an aggregate of them all.  If you do nothing else but give your children access to the Good Books, you will have much to congratulate yourself for in the later years.  We have the Good Books divided into grades Nursery-8th grade to give the parents a rough idea of the age level of the books.  However, the books are really "ageless" in that they can be read and enjoyed at almost any age. The suggested reading levels are guidelines only and are not meant to be chiseled in stone. Individual children vary in their reading ability regardless of their grade level; some will need easier books and some more challenging.  If you are new to our program, you may wish for your child to read from the list 2-3 grades lower than he/she is entering.  The books are really wonderful and worth the time in reading.  One of the things that makes a good book “good” is its timeless quality, and its ability to cross age barriers from preschool children to great-grandparents. Please do not think that simply because a wonderful book like Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne, for example, is categorized in preschool, that it could not be enjoyed by younger and older children. That is the beauty of the truly good and wonderful books. The following is taken from John Senior's book, Death of Christian Culture.

"The Great Books movement of the last generation has not failed as much as fizzled, not because of any defect in the books - 'the best that has been thought and said,' in Matthew Arnold's phrase - but like good champagne in plastic bottles, they went flat.

To change the figure, the seeds are good but the cultural soil has been depleted; the seminal ideas of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine and St. Thomas thrive only in an imaginative ground saturated with fables, fairy tales, stories, rhymes, and adventures: the thousand books of Grimm, Anderson, Stevenson, Dickens, Scott, Dumas and the rest.

Taking all that was best of the Greco-Roman world into itself, Western tradition has given us the thousand good books as a preparation for the great ones - and for all studies in the arts and sciences. Without them all studies are inhumane. The brutal athlete and the foppish aesthete suffer vices opposed to the virtue of Newman's gentleman. Anyone working at college, whether in the pure arts and sciences or the practical ones, will discover he has made a quantum leap when he gets even a small amount of cultural ground under him: he will grow up like an undernourished plant suddenly fertilized and watered.

Of course, the distinction between great and good is not absolute. Great implies a certain magnitude; one might say War and Peace and Les Miserables are great because of their length, or The Critique of Pure Reason because of its difficulty. Great books call for philosophical reflection; good books are popular, appealing especially to the imagination. But obviously some authors are both great and good, and their works may be read more than once from the different points of view - this is true of Shakespeare and Cervantes, for example.

It is commonly agreed also that both great and good can be judged only from a distance. Contemporary works can be appreciated and enjoyed but not very properly judged; and just as a principle must stand outside what follows from it (as a point to the line), so a cultural standard must be established from some time at least as distant as our grandparents'. For us today the cutoff point is World War I, before which cars and the electric light had not yet come to dominate our lives and the experience of nature had not been distorted by speed and the destruction of shadows. There is a serious question - with arguments on both sides, surely - as to whether there can be any culture at all in a mechanized society. Whichever side one takes in that dispute, it is certainly true that we cannot understand the point at issue without an imaginative grasp of the world we have lost.

What follows is not a complete list, but it is a sufficient worksheet. Everyone will find more than enough that he hasn't read; and everything on this list is by common consent part of the ordinary cultual matter essential for an English-speaking person to grow in. Remember that the point of view throughout a course of studies such as this is that of the amateur - the ordinary person who loves and enjoys what he loves not of the expert in critical, historical or textual tecnology.

The books have been divided (sometimes dubiously because some bridge two categories) into stages of life corresponding to the classical ages of man, and in general agreement with the divisions of modern child psychology.because sight is the first of the senses and especially powerful in the early years, it is very important to secure books illustrated by artists working in the cultural tradition we are studying, both as an introduction to art and as part of the imaginative experience of the book. This is not to disparage contemporary artists, any more than the tradition itself disparages contemporary experiment - quite the contrary, one of the fruits of such a course should be the encouragement of good writing and drawing. The good work of the past is a standard, not a straight-jacket. Book illustration reached its perfection in the nineteenth century in the work of Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway, Walter Crane, Gustav Dore, George Cruikshank, "Phiz," Gordon Browne, Beatrix Potter, Sir John Tenniel, Arthur Rackham, Howard Pyle, N. C. Wyeth, and many others. The rule of thumb is to find a nineteenth-century edition or one of the facsimiles which (though not as sharp in printing) are currently available at moderate prices. The incomplete work sheet that follows may serve as a rough guide.

Literary experience begins for very young children with someone reading aloud while they look at the pictures. But they can begin to read the simplest stories which they already love at any early age."

Great Books - 9-12th Grades:

To profit most from the Great Books Program readings and discussions a student needs to begin with the first year, the Greek year, of the program. In fact, the Greek year is the most important one since it is the foundation upon which the other years build. If one hasn't read and discussed the Greek literature it is difficult to appreciate and understand the Romans and all else that follows. The four years are a cohesive whole, arranged chronologically beginning with the works of Homer. 

 

 

Please download Saxon Math's Placement Tests from the following links.

 

1. Placement Test for K-3^rd grades:

http://saxonhomeschool.harcourtachieve.com/HA/correlations/pdf/p/primaryplacement.pdf

2. Placement Test for 4-8^th grades:

http://saxonhomeschool.harcourtachieve.com/HA/correlations/pdf/h/hs_middle_placement.pdf

3. Placement Test for 9-12^th grades:

 http://saxonhomeschool.harcourtachieve.com/HA/correlations/pdf/h/hs_upper_placement.pdf