History of Measurement

 

Civil Service Examinations

 

Chinese Civil Service Examinations

2200 B.C. Chinese emperors examined their key officials every 3 yrs.

       Examples include:

1115 B.C.

Test competency in 6 arts (writing, arithmetic, music, archery, horsemanship, and ceremonial rites)

202 B.C.-200

Competency in 5 domains (agriculture, civil law, military affairs, revenue, and geography of the empire)

1300 

3 exams in 3 years.
Year 1 (District testing)
Year 2 (Provincial testing)
Year 3 (Imperial capital, Peking)

History is depicted in China's Examination Hell, 1976

 

French and British civil service examination

16th-century

Europe began examination

1850  

British followed

 

U.S. Civil Service Examination

 

1868

Attempts made by Senator Charles Sumner of MA and representative Thomas Jenckes of RI

1871-75

President U.S. Grant establish a civil service board

1883

A Civil Service Commission was formerly established

University examination

Oral exams

Middle Ages  

Oral examinations by European Universities

1219

Law school of Bologna had oral exams

1827  

Sorbonne University

1636   

Oxford (oral exams for B.A. and M.A.)

  

Written exams

mid-1400

Louvain University

rigorosi (honors), transibiles (satisfactory), gratiosi (charity passes), and failures.

1540 

St. Ignatius of Loyola (placement and evaluation tests).

1803

Oxford introduced written exams which have been introduced at Cambridge some years earlier.

 

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