Take a civics test.

[thundley4]

Playinghardball (568 posts)           Wed Jun-01-11 12:01 AM
Original message
Wanna try a little civics test?
   
Edited on Wed Jun-01-11 12:13 AM by Playinghardball
This test is not an easy one.

The website reports that The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%

http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692

I answered 28 out of 33 correctly — 84.85%

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1206743

Here's my score.

You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.

You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.

Incorrect Answers
Question: International trade and specialization most often lead to which of the following?
Your Answer: a decrease in a nation’s economic growth in the long term
Correct Answer: an increase in a nation’s productivity

 

And I'd just a dumb redneck that only graduated high school.

[LC EFA]

Well - I got 30 / 33 and I'm a filthy foreigner.

[docstew]

I took it and got 31/33.  Then I saw a link on results page that intrigued me.  It was a table showing the "knowledge gap" between citizens and elected officials:


Elected Officials Score Lower than the General Public

THE ISI CIVIC LITERACY survey was not designed to test the civic knowledge of elected officials, but it did discover evidence of an interesting pattern that may merit further exploration.

Are You Smarter Than a Politician?
OF THE 2,508 PEOPLE surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions. This table shows the “knowledge gap” for each question: the difference between the percentage of common citizens who answered correctly and the percentage of officeholders who answered correctly.
THEME OF QUESTION                 CITIZENS                      ELECTED POLITICIANS                             KNOWLEDGE GAP
1.   U.S. – Soviet Tension in 1962   70.09%                            56.51%                                             -13.58%
2.   Declaration of Independence   83.09                                     69.78                                               -13.31
3.   Sputnik                            74.1                                     62.82                                            -11.28
4.   Definition of Free Enterprise    41.45                                32.08                                                     -9.37
5.   M. L. King’s “I Have a Dream”     80.5                               71.5                                                       -9
6.   Electoral College                     65.88                             57.31                                              -8.57
7.   Scopes “Monkey Trial”             67.76                             59.21                                              -8.55
8.   Susan B. Anthony                     80.84                             72.98                                              -7.86
9.   Power to Declare War              53.6                             45.82                                              -7.78
10.   Business Profit                     49.11                             41.38                                              -7.73
11.   International Trade             37.47                              30.45                                              -7.02
12.   FDR’s Government Programs     66.63                               59.73                                               -6.9
13.   Abortion                             50.77                                43.94                                               -6.83
14.   Federal Branches and Foreign Policy   54.71                               48.39                                               -6.32
15.   First Amendment Freedoms      79.58                               73.32                                               -6.26
16.   Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas   29.49                                23.29                                                -6.2
17.   FDR and the Supreme Court       25.07                                19.24                                                -5.83
18.   Taxes and Government Spending   27.7                                22.12                                                -5.58
19.   Free Markets vs. Centralized Planning   16.25                        10.71                                                 -5.54
20.   Action Prohibited by the Bill of Rights   26.41                         21.24                                                 -5.17
21.   Commander in Chief             79.04                                 74.46                                                 -4.58
22.   Anti-Federalists and the Constitution   38.22                         33.82                                                  -4.4
23.   Source of phrase “a wall of separation”   18.92                          15.07                                                  -3.85
24.   Policy Tool of the Federal Reserve           43.12                          40.48                                                  -2.64
25.   Powers of the Federal Government           75.01                          72.69                                                 -2.32
26.   World War II Enemies                       68.76                          66.58                                                 -2.18
27.   The Puritans                                19.1                           17.32                                          -1.78
28.   Definition of a Progressive Tax        51.26                          49.97                                                  -1.29
29.   Three Branches of Government        49.65                          49.32                                                   -0.33
30.   Definition of a Public Good                  27.6                          28.03                                                    0.43
31.   Gettysburg Address                         21.06                          22.95                                                    1.89
32.   Fiscal Policy for Economic Stimulus         36.07                          39.93                                                    3.86
33.   Lincoln–Douglas Debates                 19.06                          23.62                                                     4.56

The very people who purport to be smarter and better able to decide how to run the lives of Americans score worse on average than those same Americans.  Maybe that's part of the problem...

[franksolich]

    *

      You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

Incorrect Answers

    *

      Question: If taxes equal government spending, then:
          Your Answer: government debt is zero
          Correct Answer: tax per person equals government spending per person on average

I was still half-asleep when I took it.

[franksolich]

I can pretty much guarantee that one of the questions the primitive answered incorrectly dealt with the origin of "separation of church and state;" they always get that one wrong.

[Karin]

I got a 87.88%, 4 wrong.  The table after the test shows the percents of the others.  Depressing to see how poorly people answered on free markets/business type questions. 

[Ralph Wiggum]

Depressing to see how poorly people answered on free markets/business type questions. 

Lots of DUmmies in the world out there.

[Celtic Rose]

30 out of 33. 

[Rebel]

    You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 %

    If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.

    You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.

[Rebel]

Richardo Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Wed Jun-01-11 12:15 AM

Response to Original message

11. It's not a civics test - it's thinly disguised "free markets" propaganda
   
(I got 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 % anyway)

The Board of the ISI includes two Regnerys, a Coors and Edwin Meese, among other neo-con notables and Reagan-era hangers-on. :eyes:

http://www.isi.org/about/our_leadership/trustees.html

This nation was FOUNDED on free markets, you fruitbat. If you don't like how this nation was founded, kindly GTFO.

[Carl]

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

[NHSparky]

Took it a while back.  Aced it.

[JohnnyReb]

Me and tenth grade son got.....

You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.

You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.
Incorrect Answers
Question: If taxes equal government spending, then:
Your Answer: government debt is zero
Correct Answer: tax per person equals government spending per person on average

We only had to discuss the one we missed...we decided it was a trick question... ...and we guessed wrong.

[franksolich]

Me and tenth grade son got.....

We only had to discuss the one we missed...we decided it was a trick question... ...and we guessed wrong.

Damn, John, sir, are you sure we're not twins or something?

That was the only one I got wrong, too.

It was near the end of the test, I was only half-awake, and suffering from test fatigue.

I decided there was a trick in there somewhere, but didn't want to bother finding it.

[Ballygrl]

Call me cynical, but I think people at the DU cheated on the test and actually looked up the answers.

[FiddyBeowulf]

You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 %

   Question: What was the source of the following phrase: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”?
        Your Answer: Declaration of Independence
        Correct Answer: Gettysburg Address

    Question: If taxes equal government spending, then:
        Your Answer: government debt is zero
        Correct Answer: tax per person equals government spending per person on average

It seems a lot of people get this one. Looking at it now I guess I should have spent a bit more time reading the question and choice of answers. It seems obvious to me now.

I have no excuse for getting the Gettysburg Address wrong.

[jukin]

You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

      Question: What was the main issue in the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858?
          Your Answer: Do Southern states have the constitutional right to leave the union?
          Correct Answer: Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?

I have to admit there are a lot of questions that liberals and leftist professors (but I repeat myself) would miss but align perfectly with their warped sense of reality.

[delilahmused]

You answered 33 out of 33 correctly — 100.00 %

    If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.

    You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.

Caveat: We spent the last 2 years studying US government and civics so much of this I had to review over and over and over making lesson plans and quizzes.

Cindie

[thundley4]

Caveat: We spent the last 2 years studying US government and civics so much of this I had to review over and over and over making lesson plans and quizzes.

Cindie

I had a one semester Civics class my senior year in high school over 30 years ago. I missed only one question and don't think I'm overly smart. That makes me scared of the majority of people that vote.

[Freeper]

27 out of 33.

One of them was,
Which of the following fiscal policy combinations has the federal government most often followed to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
    Your Answer: decreasing both taxes and spending

I misread the question and was thinking about what should be done not what has been done.

[JohnnyReb]

Damn, John, sir, are you sure we're not twins or something?

That was the only one I got wrong, too.

It was near the end of the test, I was only half-awake, and suffering from test fatigue.

I decided there was a trick in there somewhere, but didn't want to bother finding it.

Well Frank, son would have gotten 3 or 4 wrong but I over rode him on those BUT he was right on the one we got wrong. The discussion between us was based on an assumption that the debt was/would be zero. That was once he was right and I was wrong.

[compaqxp]

You answered 34 out of 33 correctly — 103.3%

I've done better then everyone.

 

[diesel driver]

You answered 34 out of 33 correctly — 103.3%

I've done better then everyone.

 

Must be that "new math" I've been hearing about. 

It's the same math Lord Zero uses in the country's budgets.