Who invented school tests? Get the history of examination with — Who invented school tests.

Lopez Mary
2 min readJul 22, 2022

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Most of our time in school is spent taking tests, particularly in a country such As India. As students, we feared, didn’t like, and even hated tests. Even before we turn in a paper, we will think of all the ways we could explain to our parents why we didn’t do well on it.

who invented school tests?

Henry Fischel was the first person to think of exams, and an imperial exam was the first test ever given in China. Exams were made because Ancient China was the first to use a globally standardized test.

As students, we’ve had a strange and almost funny relationship with exams, but we’ve never asked the million-dollar question: “Who’s behind such terrifyingly traumatic forms of assessments?”

Based on what we know about history, exams were made by an American businessman and philanthropist, Henry Fischel, in the late 1800s. But some sources say that another man with the same name, Henry Fischel, came up with the idea of standardized tests. At the start and during the 20th century, the second was a religious studies teacher at Indiana University. So, that’s it! You finally know the name of the worst person to bother you.

Henry Fischel (Businessman, Philanthropist)

Exams go back to ancient times in China.

Many people think that these two men, Henry Fischel, were the first to give formal tests and exams, but the word “examination” comes from China.

Have you heard? Being a government employee in China almost 2,000 years ago was a big deal, and the only option to get into this elite group was to pass tests by Emperor Zhang of Hen.

The Cambridge Evaluations

Cambridge’s exam hall

Cambridge is among the most well-known places to get an education worldwide. Something which most people know and agree on. But there’s also something that most people don’t know about exams and this old university.

At the end of the 1800s, schools in England went to Cambridge and Oxford universities and asked for a standard test that all male students in England could take. It was in 1858 when only boys could take exams.

The first Cambridge tests were given on December 14, 1958. They were given locally in schools, churches, and other places where educators could take them comfortably. The subjects were much like the ones we study now, like English, math, geographic location, history, Celtic, German, French, politics, etc.

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Lopez Mary
Lopez Mary

Written by Lopez Mary

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