Dismal Scores for Civics Test

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on November 23, 2008 at 8:59 am


The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) administered a 33 question basic civics test to 2,500 randomly-selected people. Included were some who identified themselves as “elected officials”, although the story does not say how many elected officials there were, or what offices they held. The elected officials scored only 44% on the 33-question test, compared to a 49% average score for the rest of the respondents. One of the questions was “name two countries that were our enemies during World War II.”

Sixty-nine percent of respondents correctly identified Germany and Japan. Among the incorrect answers were Britain, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and Spain.

Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to “supervise the first televised presidential debates.”

In fact, the system of choosing the US president via an indirect electoral college vote dates back some 220 years, to the US Constitution.

Link -Thanks, Geekazoid!

You can take the test yourself. Link -Thanks, AJ!


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28 comments to "Dismal Scores for Civics Test"

  1. AJ
    November 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Here's the quiz:
    http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

  2. Matt Blank
    November 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 am

    Wow I got an 88% but there are some hard questions. The Puritan one made me LOL about Utah...

  3. PimpDaddyFlex
    November 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    24 out of 33... :(

  4. Jules
    November 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    I got 90.81%, I didn't find it that hard, but I have been studying it recently. It's sad how much of this basic civic knowledge our elected officials don't bother to know.

  5. Emmie
    November 23rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm

    I'm 16 years old and taking A.P. U.S. History (APUSH for short! ;) ), and I got a 69.70%. So close to passing.

  6. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    November 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    78.79%. Not bad for a Canadian who's been out of school for more than a decade.

  7. laly
    November 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    @ Neatoramawontsendmeapassword

    Amazing! As a Canadian who’s been out of school for more than three decades I got the same score.

    "You answered 26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 %

    Average score for this quiz during November: 77.6%
    Average score: 77.6%"

  8. Ali S.
    November 23rd, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    @ Neatoramawontsendmeapassword

    Conspiracy!

  9. Tempscire
    November 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm

    Woohoo, 93.94%. Had to really think to remember some of those things, though (but on the other hand, it's only been a couple years since I took a government class).

  10. Tisha
    November 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm

    27 out of 30 - 81.82%.

    It would be fascinating to me to see how scores break down among liberals and conservatives...

  11. Aea
    November 23rd, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

    Fiscal Conservative, Social Liberal

    Answers to Your Missed Questions:

    Question #7 - D. Gettysburg Address
    Question #14 - B. stressed the sinfulness of all humanity
    Question #17 - D. manmade satellite

    Gah, can't believe I missed #14 & #17, went through too fast :P

  12. Skipweasel
    November 23rd, 2008 at 6:28 pm

    84% and I'm not American! It reckoned I'd missed a few questions that I'm fairly sure I answered - oh well.

  13. Miss Cellania
    November 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm

    90%. I had hoped to score higher.

  14. DOJ
    November 23rd, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    I'm not sure what some of those questions have to with civics

  15. Aye Chihuahua
    November 23rd, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

    Not too shabby I guess.

    Missed #27.

  16. MightyCow
    November 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    The one about the President having the power to declare war is a trick - even our current President thinks he has that power.

  17. Justin
    November 23rd, 2008 at 11:42 pm

    84.85% I felt good about that score till I saw all of you who got 90%+ :(

    I missed:

    #4, #7, #15, #27, and #33

    I felt like a bunch of the economic questions were poorly worded and confusing.

    Anyways I don't feel all that bad that the average score was a 49%. While some of the questions were laughably easy, there were a lot of tricky ones out there too. This is coming from a guy who actually studies this stuff in college.

  18. Justin
    November 23rd, 2008 at 11:47 pm

    Weird, I'm comparing the results from the survey and they changed the order of the questions in the online one. It is making it difficult to compare.

  19. Justin
    November 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 pm

    Oh I see what they did. They are ordering it based on Knowledge gap. (sorry for the triple post)

  20. vero4902
    November 24th, 2008 at 8:05 am

    84.85%... I'm surprised I did that well!

  21. Jeff D
    November 24th, 2008 at 8:51 am

    The test is totally biased toward conservative economic policy. The first handful of questions are fun, but those at the end are blatantly Republican...

  22. Polx
    November 24th, 2008 at 11:18 am

    66.67%

    And I'm a Scot.

  23. Scooter
    November 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    Aea, it's funny the questions you got wrong were some of the ones i though were the easy ones. having said that i only got 75. Economics are not my strong point.

  24. susan
    November 24th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    What the U.S. Constitution says is "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . ." The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly characterized the authority of the state legislatures over the manner of awarding their electoral votes as "plenary" and "exclusive."

    Neither of the two most important features of the current system of electing the President (namely, that the voters may vote and the winner-take-all rule) are in the U.S. Constitution. Neither was the choice of the Founders when they went back to their states to organize the nation's first presidential election.

    In 1789, in the nation's first election, the people had no vote for President in most states, it was necessary to own a substantial amount of property in order to vote, and only 3 states used the winner-take-all rule (awarding all of a state's electoral vote to the candidate who gets the most votes in the state). Since then, as a result of changes in state laws, the people have the right to vote for presidential electors in 100% of the states, there are no property requirements for voting in any state, and the winner-take-all rule is used by 48 of the 50 states.

    The normal process of effecting change in the method of electing the President is specified the U.S. Constitution, namely action by the state legislatures. This is how the current system was created, and this is the built-in method that the Constitution provides for making changes.

  25. susan
    November 24th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).

    Every vote would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections.

    The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).

    The bill is currently endorsed by 1,181 state legislators — 439 sponsors (in 47 states) and an additional 742 legislators who have cast recorded votes in favor of the bill.

    The National Popular Vote bill has passed 21 state legislative chambers, including one house in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, and Washington, and both houses in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. These four states possess 50 electoral votes — 19% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.

    See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com

  26. Thebes
    November 25th, 2008 at 2:48 am

    90.81%

    And its been 20 years since I've had a civics class. I am amazed at American ignorance of the basics of our society, and appalled by the reported scores of our elected officials.

  27. Rocky Rook
    November 25th, 2008 at 9:59 pm

    Interesting.

  28. zenwhenicanbe2
    August 10th, 2009 at 10:59 am

    I got 76%...


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