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So you'd like to be a clerk at the Bank of England in 1906?

cafcfan
cafcfan Posts: 11,198
edited April 2014 in Fun, Jokes & Captions
This is one of the test papers you had to complete in order to be offered a job - there were others:

1. Define the geographical expressions Archipelago, Equator, Estuary and Isthmus. What is meant when a place is stated to be in Latitude 40º North and Longitude 20º East?

2. In what counties of the United Kingdom are the following cities and towns respectively situated, viz:- Bradford, Carlisle, Dundee, Grimsby, Hastings, Hull, Paisley, Reading, Tralee and Winchester?

3. Name in order the seas and straits which a vessel would traverse in sailing from Dover to Sebastopal.

4. Describe the positions of the following mountains:- The Alps, The Andes, The Caucasus, The Himalayas and The Pyrenees.

5. Where are the following islands and to what countries do they severally belong, viz:- Ceylon, Iceland, Madagascar, Malta and Trinidad?

6. Draw a map of Africa and show the positions of Alexandria, Algiers, Abyssinia, Cape Town and Nigeria.

7. State in their proper order from North to South, the countries of South America bordering the Pacific Ocean.

8. Trace the course of the following rivers: The Loire, The Mississippi, The Rhine, The Seine and The Vistula.

Can I just Google that? :-)

Comments

  • golfaddick
    golfaddick Posts: 33,616
    and they say that the recent exams for school leavers haven't been dumbed down. I went to a grammar school & i'd struggle with some of those questions - I'd imagine that many 15-18 yr olds wouldn't have a clue.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,211
    These days they employ just about anyone at the Bank of England
  • DaveMehmet
    DaveMehmet Posts: 21,590
    edited April 2014
    Number 4 is easy.. Pointing up into the sky.

  • Addickted
    Addickted Posts: 19,456
    Was this just for those wanting to work in the Currency Exchange?
  • Stig
    Stig Posts: 29,021
    Thankfully in this day and age we have more appropriate testing methods (for the most part).
  • Valiantphil
    Valiantphil Posts: 6,409
    Stig said:

    Thankfully in this day and age we have more appropriate testing methods (for the most part).

    Which consists of "can you press Ctrl, Alt and delete all at once ?"
  • se9addick
    se9addick Posts: 32,030

    These days they employ just about anyone at the Bank of England

    Bloody Canadians
  • and they say that the recent exams for school leavers haven't been dumbed down. I went to a grammar school & i'd struggle with some of those questions - I'd imagine that many 15-18 yr olds wouldn't have a clue.

    To be fair, this isn't a school exam... and the difficulty of the questions says nothing about how easy people may have found it. As in, you've said that current 15-18 year olds wouldn't have a clue - these questions don't prove that 15-18 year olds back then did.
  • Oggy Red
    Oggy Red Posts: 44,954

    and they say that the recent exams for school leavers haven't been dumbed down. I went to a grammar school & i'd struggle with some of those questions - I'd imagine that many 15-18 yr olds wouldn't have a clue.

    To be fair, this isn't a school exam... and the difficulty of the questions says nothing about how easy people may have found it. As in, you've said that current 15-18 year olds wouldn't have a clue - these questions don't prove that 15-18 year olds back then did.
    Remember, around 1906 the school leaving age was 12, I believe.

    Many kids younger than that missed long periods of schooling because their parents needed them to work to vitally supplement the meagre family income.

    Any child beyond the age of 12 continued their education only because of family privilege and means.


  • Blinkant
    Blinkant Posts: 598

    These days they employ just about anyone at the Bank of England


    They employed me a few years back and I'm a idiot.... Job for life if you get in there though

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  • creepyaddick
    creepyaddick Posts: 6,152
    Blinkant said:

    These days they employ just about anyone at the Bank of England


    They employed me a few years back and I'm a idiot.... Job for life if you get in there though

    An idiot ;)
  • LargeAddick
    LargeAddick Posts: 32,555
    edited April 2014
    .
  • Absurdistan
    Absurdistan Posts: 8,024
    No wonder the Pound has been going south for more than a century.
    Seems they were more interested in explorers (geography) than economists and mathematicians.
  • dizzee
    dizzee Posts: 5,616
    Sounds more like a test to become a geography teacher.
  • Chunes
    Chunes Posts: 17,346

    I went to a grammar school & i'd struggle with some of those questions

    oo err, went to a grammar school did you?
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,780

    These days they employ just about anyone at the Bank of England

    Even Canadians!
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,780

    Stig said:

    Thankfully in this day and age we have more appropriate testing methods (for the most part).

    Which consists of "can you press Ctrl, Alt and delete all at once ?"
    Answer: why would I want to? I've got a Mac.