Civics test

[AFbombloader]

Recently, there were reports about the status of college students and their knowledge of American History/Civics. The results were not good. Here is a copy of the report.

"The average college senior knows astoundingly little about America’s history, government, international relations and market economy, earning an “F” on the American civic literacy exam with a score of 54.2%. Harvard seniors did best, but their overall average was 69.6%, a disappointing D+."

:link:http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/content/failing_america_9-18-07.pdf

Lets see if we are smarter! Take a few minutes to take the test. It is 60 questions and will give you a score.

:link:http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx


I took the test and scored a 73.33%.

AF:salute:

[diuretic]

86.67%


You answered 52 out of 60 correctly — 86.67 %

Answers to Your Missed Questions:
Question #14 - C. 1901-1925
Question #31 - A. Edmund Burke argued that society consists of a union of past, present, and future generations.
Question #33 - C. To receive ambassadors.
Question #34 - B. President Washington's Farewell Address.
Question #39 - D. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.
Question #53 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it.
Question #58 - B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.
Question #60 - B. social security.

[avatar4321]

oh this. took it the other day. scored a 88-89%. Made a few stupid mistakes. misread a couple questions. it was rather annoying.

[Nukeman]

Did a quick run through on this test just now. Got an 85% missed 9 questions not too bad considering I've been out of school for almost 17 years....

[Mr. P]

Well I committed one of the test taking no, no's. I changed some answers that of course were right to start with, but this 8th grade drop out STILL scored better than a Harvard senior! That is f'king sad.

[5stringJeff]

You answered 55 out of 60 correctly — 91.67 %
Average score for this quiz during September: 74.1%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 74.1%

[LOki]

<blockquote>You answered 56 out of 60 correctly — 93.33 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 70.0%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.0%

Answers to Your Missed Questions:

Question #14 - C. 1901-1925
Question #43 - A. A state that seeks to expand its power generates resistance by other states.
Question #55 - E. increased for the lower and middle classes and increased most for the upper class.
Question #58 - B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.</blockquote>Well, crap. Time to hit the books.

[darin]

ugh.

You answered 36 out of 60 correctly — 60.00 % Slightly better than the reported score of the "average college senior". Course, I've never BEEN a college senior, so...yeah.

[Kathianne]

I hate economics:

You answered 51 out of 60 correctly — 85.00 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 70.0%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.0%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.

[red states rule]

You answered 49 out of 60 correctly — 81.67 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 70.0%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.0%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.

[Hobbit]

You answered 56 out of 60 correctly — 93.33 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 69.9%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 69.9%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.

If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.
You can consult the following table to see how freshmen and seniors scored on each question as part of the survey administration.

Where to from here?
Answers to Your Missed Questions:
Question #31 - A. Edmund Burke argued that society consists of a union of past, present, and future generations.
Question #33 - C. To receive ambassadors.
Question #53 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it.
Question #58 - B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.

[Little-Acorn]

88.33%.

A great find!

[Roadrunner]

You answered 48 out of 60 correctly — 80.00 %

[flaja]

My score was 90%, but only under protest. Some of the questions don't really have any immediate bearing on American civics and some of the questions had ambiguous answers or answers that are just matters of opinion.

I missed #19, 27, 36, 43, 50 and 53.

Question 3: the answer should more properly be Republic; there are certain aspects of the federal government that are blatantly undemocratic and this is how the Framers wanted it because they almost to a man feared democracy.

Question 4: The correct answer is a matter of opinion. As a military commander Washington was lucky more than he was prudent and he was a do-nothing president who didn’t have a good understanding of what his role as president was supposed to be. He would only veto legislation that he personally believed was unconstitutional. So not only did he fail to display any leadership he also usurped the authority of the Supreme Court.

Question 5: Yorktown was the last major battle in the American Revolution, but military operations did not totally cease until the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.

Question 6: Several years ago I read a few books on the Constitutional Convention. I don’t remember which author it was, but one of them commented that in 1787 the Framers of the Constitution believed that the pursuit of happiness was the pursuit of property. At the time America had a small population. The country was land rich but very short on labor. Any freeman who was willing to work could soon have as much happiness as he could ever use.

Question 9: Define stalemate. The U.S. was not strong enough to sustain an invasion of Canada and Britain couldn’t maintain an invasion of the U.S. But at the same time the U.S. Navy was 2nd to none. The British had to learn that the Constitution class ships were good enough and American sailors were good enough (the best in the world by reputation) that British ships could not travel singly. I thoroughly believe that one of the long term effects of the War of 1812 was that is gave the British a healthy respect for the U.S. Navy- which came in handy during the Rebellion.

Question 15: The correct answer is likely none of the above. I cannot verify where I heard it, but supposedly at one time abortion was technically legal in most (all?) states for the simple reason that statutory law did not prohibit it. It was only with medical advances that abortion became common place and thus a subject for legislatures to address.

Question 16: Ignores the fact that desegregation was in the courts long after the Brown decision. It has been only in the last 10 years that my local public school district was released from court supervision meant to insure desegregation. Brown said segregation was wrong, but I don’t think Brown provided any legal remedy.

Question 19: The first one I did not answer correctly; it has been over 20 years since I read any of Republic, and I don’t see how it has any great amount of bearing on the U.S. political system. Our system is based on the English system and the English had their system up and running long before the Renaissance, when Plato would have been readily available in Western Europe for the first time.

Question 27: Huh? It sounds like some nonsense that the Germans would come up with on their way to Mein Kampf. It is supposed to sound intellectual, but really is just mumbo-jumbo.

Question 29: I had to guess. For some reason it is customary in certain circles to equate Christianity with pre-Christian Greek philosophy. But man cannot serve both God and mammon.

Question 30: The Bill of Rights also expressly prohibits any prayer that is written by the government since this would be establishing a religion.

Question 31: I only knew this one because I have read some of Burke’s material. I never studied Burke in school. However, internet libertarians would be well served by reading Burke. Then they’d know what conservatism is.

Question 36: This is a religious question. I’ve never seen it discussed on a political context and don’t have a clue about the correct political answer.

Question 38: Aren’t there juntas that are not military? Why else would you hear the term military junta in the news media? If a junta is always a military government, why do you have to specify military?

Question 39: What fool idiot made the claim the democracy leads to a well-ordered government in the U.S.?

Question 41: F. The Democrat Party and G. All of the above.

Question 42: F. Badly

Question 43: The balance of power has never been limited to balancing a sea power with a land power. At one time or another Britain (a sea power) and France (little power at all) were allied against Germany and Austria, neither of which were major sea powers. But then Austria has been allied with various powers as it tried to counter France, Russia and Prussia so you had one land power trying to balance other land powers. The balance of power has had as much to with countering large states with small ones, Catholic ones with Protestant ones as it has land ones with sea ones.

Question 53: This question is pure liberalism. Only a fool would think he is indirectly paying for anything that the government buys. Even if you don’t pay the taxes in question you suffer the effects of lost economic activity that result because the government confiscates people’s money to buy things.

Question 56: F. Because the businesses in one country can take advantage of businesses in the other country by exploiting cheap labor and government subsidies in their own country while taking advantage of lax trade policies created by the government in the other country. Only a fool would claim that Americans benefit from our prolonged and severe trade deficit with Red China.