Civic Literacy Test.

[ATB]

Apparently Americans don't know their Civics. 

So here's a test.

Seventy-one percent of Americans fail the test, with an overall average score of 49%.

How'd you do?

I scored 27/33 for an 81.82%.

Spoiler for Hiden:

One the questions about government by the people for the people crossed me up as I would have said the correct answer, but I wasn't sure if he was quoting from a previous document, so I botched it.

As for the claim, I would bet that most would fail- along the lines of who's smarter than a 5th grader- because most adults don't have to directly access the information in their day to day lives upon graduation from an educational setting and/or from the respective grade where it is taught.  Seriously- which of us goes around engaging folks about the Federalist Papers?

[CSL]

30/33

[Razgon]

hard questions, actually - there were quite a few, where I thought the answer wasnt a given, but assumed, but here's my score

You answered 15 out of 33 correctly — 45.45

[Victoria Raverna]

You answered 24 out of 33 correctly — 72.73 %. I guess I'm just good at guessing when I don't know the answer. I never failed a multiple choice quiz.

[Zarkon]

78.89%

[Razgon]

could be fun to give the danish equivalent of this one - its one every immigrant wanting to live in Denmark has to take ;-)

its in danish only, though...strangely enough

[Blackadar]

31/33

I missed the Puritan question and the centralized planning one.

[Chaz]

I also got 27/33.  They totally give the answer to one of them in another question.

[raydude]

28/33

[Crux]

72.73%. Not bad for a non-citizen who has no plans to become one!

[Brendan]

32/33 - missed the centralized planning one (though I'd argue only because I didn't read closely enough).

could be fun to give the danish equivalent of this one - its one every immigrant wanting to live in Denmark has to take ;-)

its in danish only, though...strangely enough

I guess that implies that question 1 is "Do you speak Danish"?

[Razgon]

32/33 - missed the centralized planning one (though I'd argue only because I didn't read closely enough).

could be fun to give the danish equivalent of this one - its one every immigrant wanting to live in Denmark has to take ;-)

its in danish only, though...strangely enough

I guess that implies that question 1 is "Do you speak Danish"?

figured out my mistake - the ones I was thinking about was the "popular" ones from the newsmedia here in denmark, which is basically just about half of the questions the test is comprised off, transferred to electronic medium for again, popular purposes, and NOT the actual test. There isnt any requirement that you have to speak danish BEFORE you want to become a citizen here :-)

[Beer Goggles]

25 out of 33 correctly — 75.76 %

Some of them were a little strange for what I thought would be common sense (har har) test.  It would also helped that I have read the questions more carefully.

[Harkonis]

hard questions, actually - there were quite a few, where I thought the answer wasnt a given, but assumed, but here's my score

You answered 15 out of 33 correctly — 45.45

Heh, you get a pass since most of them don't apply to you directly

I was pretty disappointed in myself with

You answered 25 out of 33 correctly — 75.76 %

[wonderpug]

26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 %

I guess that's right about the average they listed but I'm disappointed I didn't do better.  I could've gotten 2 or 3 more if I hadn't second guessed myself and flip-flopped to the wrong choice, but I'm holding the last 8 years of George W. responsible for me reflexively choosing the president for the "who declares war" question.

[msteelers]

27 out of 33. I did good up until the questions in the last couple questions.

[Shinjin]

I did so-so

You answered 27 out of 33 correctly — 81.82 %

[Exodor]

30-33

Missed the "of the people, for the people" one, the FDR Supreme Court question and and the stupid ancient philosopher question.

[ATB]

but I'm holding the last 8 years of George W. responsible for me reflexively choosing the president for the "who declares war" question.

BURN! Take that GWB!

[wonderpug]

but I'm holding the last 8 years of George W. responsible for me reflexively choosing the president for the "who declares war" question.

BURN! Take that GWB!

Oh he's hurting.  He just unfriended me from both Facebook and Myspace.

[Harkonis]

but I'm holding the last 8 years of George W. responsible for me reflexively choosing the president for the "who declares war" question.

BURN! Take that GWB!

Oh he's hurting.  He just unfriended me from both Facebook and Myspace.

I think he also removed you from the Xbox Live friends list since he finally accepted my invite.

[Bcarle]

You answered 22 out of 33 correctly — 66.67 % 

I guess I should have slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night - then I might of done better. 

[tiktokman]

29/33

[naednek]

You answered 26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 78.9%
Average score since November 20, 2008: 78.9%


Which is amazing to me, since I typically fell asleep during history classes

[YellowKing]

27/33. I'm happy with that. The ones I missed were mostly the weird conceptual ones, and not the ones based on US History.

[CeeKay]

You answered 26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 %

most of those were just guesses.  do I really think knowing any of that stuff is important to me and will come up in day to day living?  nope.

[Ironrod]

You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 %

[VynlSol]

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

[Moliere]

You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %

I thought the abortion question might have been a trick so I didn't pick Roe V Wade.

The question about what the government will most likely do in an economic recession seemed pretty subjective. I picked what I wish they would do: lower taxes and lower spending.

[Razgon]

really...?? ARe you people being completely truthfull, or do you just not want to look like stupido'es like me?  I mean, I pride myself on being a knowledgable person, and while I of course wouldnt know as much about the US and its internal workings and constitution, I'm a pretty well read and well.eh...movied? person, who knows quite a bit of trivial knowledge - and still you all get that high scores??

could be of course, that I'm just that stupid ;-)

[Isgrimnur]

Face!

You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 78.6%
Average score since November 20, 2008: 78.6%

Missed:
7)   What was the source of the following phrase: “Government of the people, for the people, by the people”?

[wonderpug]

really...?? ARe you people being completely truthfull, or do you just not want to look like stupido'es like me?  I mean, I pride myself on being a knowledgable person, and while I of course wouldnt know as much about the US and its internal workings and constitution, I'm a pretty well read and well.eh...movied? person, who knows quite a bit of trivial knowledge - and still you all get that high scores??

could be of course, that I'm just that stupid ;-)

I'm curious which ones you got wrong.  A close family friend from Japan just took (and passed) her citizenship test and it was quite interesting to see what stuff was new to her despite her having lived in the US for 15 years or so.

Wish I could collapse it behind a spoiler tag, but here's the quiz text for discussion's sake.

1)   Which of the following are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence?
A. life, liberty, and property
B. honor, liberty, and peace
C. liberty, health, and community
D. life, respect, and equal protection
E. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

2)   In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed a series of government programs that became known as:
A. the Great Society
B. the Square Deal
C. the New Deal
D. the New Frontier
E. supply-side economics

3)   What are the three branches of government?
A. executive, legislative, judicial
B. executive, legislative, military
C. bureaucratic, military, industry
D. federal, state, local

4)   What was the main issue in the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858?
A. Is slavery morally wrong?
B. Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
C. Do Southern states have the constitutional right to leave the union?
D. Are free African Americans citizens of the United States?

5)   The United States Electoral College:
A. trains those aspiring for higher political office
B. was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates
C. is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
D. is a constitutionally mandated assembly that elects the president
E. was ruled undemocratic by the Supreme Court

6)   The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:
A. prayer in public school
B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
C. the ownership of guns by private individuals
D. establishing an official religion for the United States
E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill

7)   What was the source of the following phrase: “Government of the people, for the people, by the people”?
A. the speech “I Have a Dream”
B. Declaration of Independence
C. U.S. Constitution
D. Gettysburg Address

8)   In 1935 and 1936 the Supreme Court declared that important parts of the New Deal were unconstitutional. President Roosevelt responded by threatening to:
A. impeach several Supreme Court justices
B. eliminate the Supreme Court
C. appoint additional Supreme Court justices who shared his views
D. override the Supreme Court’s decisions by gaining three-quarter majorities in both houses of Congress

9)   Under Our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
A. Make treaties
B. Levy income taxes
C. Maintain prisons
D. Natural Disaster Aid

10)   Name one right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.
A. Right to bear arms
B. Due process
C. Religion
D. Right to counsel

11)   What impact did the Anti-Federalists have on the United States Constitution?
A. their arguments helped lead to the adoption of the Bill of Rights
B. their arguments helped lead to the abolition of the slave trade
C. their influence ensured that the federal government would maintain a standing army
D. their influence ensured that the federal government would have the power to tax

12)   Which of the following statements is true about abortion?
A. it was legal in most states in the 1960s
B. the Supreme Court struck down most legal restrictions on it in Roe v. Wade
C. the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that underage women must notify their parents of an impending abortion
D. the National Organization for Women has lobbied for legal restrictions on it
E. it is currently legal only in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the life of the mother

13)   Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:
A. all moral and political truth is relative to one’s time and place
B. moral ideas are best explained as material accidents or byproducts of evolution
C. values originating in one’s conscience cannot be judged by others
D. Christianity is the only true religion and should rule the state
E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason

14)   The Puritans:
A. opposed all wars on moral grounds
B. stressed the sinfulness of all humanity
C. believed in complete religious freedom
D. colonized Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young
E. were Catholic missionaries escaping religious persecution

15)   The phrase that in America there should be a “wall of separation” between church and state appears in:
A. George Washington’s Farewell Address
B. the Mayflower Compact
C. the Constitution
D. the Declaration of Independence
E. Thomas Jefferson’s letters

16)   In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
A. argued for the abolition of slavery
B. advocated black separatism
C. morally defended affirmative action
D. expressed his hopes for racial justice and brotherhood
E. proposed that several of America’s founding ideas were discriminatory

17)   Sputnik was the name given to the first:
A. telecommunications system
B. animal to travel to space
C. hydrogen bomb
D. manmade satellite

18)   Susan B. Anthony was a leader of the movement to
A. guarantee women the right to vote in national elections
B. guarantee former slaves the right to vote
C. ensure that harsher laws against criminals were passed
D. reduce the authority of the Constitution of the United States

19)   The Scopes “Monkey Trial” was about:
A. freedom of the press
B. teaching evolution in the schools
C. prayer in the schools
D. education in private schools

20)   Who is the commander in chief of the U.S. military?
A. Secretary of the army
B. Secretary of state
C. President
D. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

21)   Name two countries that were our enemies during World War II.
A. Canada and Mexico
B. Germany and Japan
C. England and Spain
D. China and Russia

22)   What part of the government has the power to declare war?
A. Congress
B. the president
C. the Supreme Court
D. the Joint Chiefs of Staff

23)   In October 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union came close to war over the issue of Soviet:
A. control of East Berlin
B. missiles in Cuba
C. support of the Ho Chi Minh regime in Viet Nam
D. military support of the Marxist regime in Afghanistan

24)   In the area of United States foreign policy, Congress shares power with the:
A. president
B. Supreme Court
C. state governments
D. United Nations

25)   Free enterprise or capitalism exists insofar as:
A. experts managing the nation’s commerce are appointed by elected officials
B. individual citizens create, exchange, and control goods and resources
C. charity, philanthropy, and volunteering decrease
D. demand and supply are decided through majority vote
E. government implements policies that favor businesses over consumers

26)   Business profit is:
A. cost minus revenue
B. assets minus liabilities
C. revenue minus expenses
D. selling price of a stock minus its purchase price
E. earnings minus assets

27)   Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:
A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
B. markets rely upon coercion, whereas government relies upon voluntary compliance with the law
C. more tax revenue can be generated from free enterprise
D. property rights and contracts are best enforced by the market system
E. government planners are too cautious in spending taxpayers’ money

28)   A progressive tax:
A. encourages more investment from those with higher incomes
B. is illustrated by a 6% sales tax
C. requires those with higher incomes to pay a higher ratio of taxes to income
D. requires every income class to pay the same ratio of taxes to income
E. earmarks revenues for poverty reduction

29)   A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because:
A. citizens value it as much as bread and medicine
B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
C. government construction contracts increase employment
D. insurance companies cannot afford to replace all houses after a flood
E. government pays for its construction, not citizens

30)   Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending

31)   International trade and specialization most often lead to which of the following?
A. an increase in a nation’s productivity
B. a decrease in a nation’s economic growth in the long term
C. an increase in a nation’s import tariffs
D. a decrease in a nation’s standard of living

32)   Which of the following is a policy tool of the Federal Reserve?
A. raising or lowering income taxes
B. increasing or decreasing unemployment benefits
C. buying or selling government securities
D. increasing or decreasing government spending

33)   If taxes equal government spending, then:
A. government debt is zero
B. printing money no longer causes inflation
C. government is not helping anybody
D. tax per person equals government spending per person
E. tax loopholes and special-interest spending are absent

[Gratch]

Ouch...66.67%.   

Some of those questions were about stuff I haven't thought about for a long time, probably since classes back in high school 15+ years ago.   I definitely need to brush up on some areas.

[Mr. Fed]

32/33

Read the one about taxes = spending too quickly.

[kratz]

       

You answered 27 out of 33 correctly — 81.82 %

I'm a little embarassed.  Some of the questions had nuances that seemed tricky to me... but oh well.

[Creepy_Smell]

You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 %

I did better than I thought though semiguessed on a few. I normally do bad on these since I forget stuff if I haven't used (thought about) it in a while.

[drifter]

You answered 27 out of 33 correctly — 81.82 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 77.2%
Average score since November 20, 2008: 77.2%

[WalkingFumble]

You answered 26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 %

i didnt do as bad as i thought i would

[Ralph-Wiggum]

30/33. Two of the ones I missed were about Lincoln. D'oh.

[SkyLander]

You answered 26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 77.2%
Average score: 77.2%