Friday, November 21, 2008

Civics test: 90%

Ouch! I’m disappointed that I got three answers wrong on a new 33-question civics test created by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, giving me a score of 90.1%.

Still, that’s better than 49% mean score of the 2500 people test-takers nationwide. In fact, it’s way better than every single category sampled:

GroupScore
Income > $100K55
Democrat45
Republican55
Age 18-2447
Age 45-6452
Doctorate72
Undergraduate57

The study's authors somehow convinced 164 elected officials to take the test, and their average score was 44% – five points lower than the general public.

These questions are pretty basic: multiple choice answers to questions about the First Amendment, the purpose of the Federal Reserve Bank, names for the three branches of government. Yes, some of them were a little tricky, but I don't think you can be an informed voter if you don't know this stuff.

Take the 5-minute test yourself and let me know how you did:

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

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I missed 4 questions...hmmmm. 87% is not what I'd aspire to. Susie

Anonymous said...

78.8%. Missed some basic ones. Ouch. Richard, what's the average score amongst bloggers?