This quiz of basic American Civic Literacy is a sobering test of how much US citizens know about their government.
71% of Americans failed the test (less than 60% right). Less than 1% of the test takers scored above 90. How well do you know how our government was established and functions?
I’m proud to say that I missed only one question (32/33, or about 97%), but I’m sure I wouldn’t have done nearly as well if I hadn’t been teaching a US Citizenship class for the past 5 years.
The statistics show pretty similar grades among liberals and conservatives, men and women. The biggest difference is between low and high income. People making over $75,000/year averaged 55%, while those making less than $30,000/year averaged 40%. However, both those grades are failing. Whites averaged a little better than other races, men a little better than women, Republicans a little better than Democrats. But every group failed the test.
What does this mean for our country? How can we trust voters to make reasonable choices? And politicians didn’t do even as well as the average American. How can we trust them to run our government?
How well do you understand our government? Are you “civically literate”?
13 responses so far ↓
1 Richard // Dec 1, 2008 at 9:24 am
Interesting test. I got 30 out of 33, or 90.91% correct. I misread one question or I would have had 31., missed one because I just made a poor choice in my answer, and missed one because I really had no idea.
2 Robin // Dec 1, 2008 at 9:34 am
I missed 4 and got an 87.88%. Not too bad.
3 Don // Dec 1, 2008 at 10:01 am
I got 28 out of 33 or 84.85% I would have gotten 100% except I made a poor choice on 5 of my answers. 😉
4 Donna // Dec 1, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Obviously, social studies is not my forte. I barely passed. (72.73%)
5 Mom // Dec 1, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Well, I passed, too, but that’s all I’m saying. My score was just under Donna’s. My excuse is that it is midnight, and I didn’t have a nap today
6 Daryl // Dec 2, 2008 at 10:13 am
We all did well above average. As I said, if I hadn’t been teaching this I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. There’s nothing like teaching a subject to learn it.
Mom, next time you vote, just make sure you have a nap and do it before midnight. 😉
7 Eric // Dec 2, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I got an abysmal 57%. That’s why I don’t play politics.
8 Richard // Dec 3, 2008 at 9:13 am
OK. So, I admit that saying I made a poor choice sounds stupid, and what I really meant was that I think there was more than one right answer to a question. I just didn’t choose the one they thought was the most correct. It wasn’t like I had no idea what the question was about, or that I do not understand the issue.
The question was this:
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
I only read as far as the first answer and selected it since it is true that if spending equals taxes that government debt will be zero. They wanted answer D), which is also true. Of course, for A) to be correct the government would have to never spend more than it receives in taxes, an unlikely situation.
Actually, when you think about it, if D) is the correct answer, the question is really a math question and has nothing to do with civics.
9 Daryl // Dec 3, 2008 at 12:07 pm
The reason I didn’t choose A) for that question is if there is already an existing debt, then taxes equal to spending will not eliminate that debt, just keep it the same.
I missed:
27) Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:
The right answer was:
A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
I think I chose:
C. more tax revenue can be generated from free enterprise
which is probably true, but I guess not the best answer.
10 Daryl // Dec 3, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Eric,
You still did better than the average American (49%). In fact you were somewhere around the 70th percentile, so don’t feel too bad.
11 Don // Dec 3, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I didn’t record which ones I missed although I did get 27 and 33 right. Some of the questions seemed less about knowledge of civics and more about esoteric ideas.
I also viewed 33 as a math question and applied the same logic as Daryl.
12 Eric // Dec 5, 2008 at 11:35 am
Meh~ Social studies and Government was never really my thing in school either. I studied Architecture and even went to JTAP (Junior Taliesin Apprenticeship Program) for a year. Got to meet Charles Montooth and others that worked under FLW. BTW, can’t wait to go to AZ and see Taliesin West…
13 Derek // Dec 11, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I got 29/33 or 87.88%
I think i did moderately okay because of my previous competition government class. Some of them I had no idea; I’m not sure how Plato and Aristotle etc. relate to civics, but luckily i got it right on a guess.