Lessons in Victorian times
Most lessons in Victorian times and at the beginning of the twentieth century involved the teacher speaking and the children listening and writing down what the teacher said. Children had to learn a lot of things by heart. They would often answer a teacher's questions by chanting together what they had learnt.
Two different types of geography were studied at schools in Victorian times and at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Physical geography: the study of the land, seas, climate and other natural features of the landscape.
Political geography: children learnt to identify different countries on a map or a globe and they learnt information about the countries such as the names of the capital cities, the size of population and the industries each country had.
A scholarship exam - geography
Girls who wanted a scholarship place, that is a free place, at Manchester High School for Girls had to pass an entrance exam. This is the geography part of the entrance exam. You can see from the exam paper that they were expected to know a lot of detailed information. Although the exam dates from 1915, it is similar to the kind of exam taken by children in Victorian times. The girls would have been about 11 years old when they took this exam.
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Manchester High School for Girls
Junior Scholarship Examination 1915
GEOGRAPHY
Two questions MUST be attempted and not more than FIVE
Make a sketch map showing the position of the Dardanelles and the adjoining seas and countries. Mark the position of Constantinople.
Give as clearly as possible the position of Alsace - Lorraine, Liege, the Marne, the Carpathians, Antwerp.
Name the different races inhabiting South Africa and state the principle occupations in the country.
Either write a description of the landscape of Australia or draw a sketch map showing the physical features.
Either describe a journey across Canada by the Canadian Pacific railway or a journey from Moscow to Vladivostock. Name the chief products of the regions which the railway crosses.
Write a short explanation of each of the following and give an example of each: an estuary; a plateau; a river basin; a fjord.
From which parts of the world do we receive either tea or sugar? Why are the districts you have named especially suitable for this plant?
Name the chief seaports on the east coast of Great Britain. Give the chief imports and exports of any three.
Which parts of the British Isles a) are hottest in Summer; b) have the most rain? Give reasons for your answers.
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Tasks
The children who had to answer the questions in the exam paper needed to know a lot of information about geography. In which question or questions did the children have to do the following:
draw a map of an area
identify the location of a place
describe what the landscape of a country was like
know the products which were produced in certain areas
understand the meaning of geographical terms
know what the weather of an area was like