# Civic Literacy Test - Mentioned in USA Today **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078 "2008-04-12T21:04:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/121 "2008-04-21T07:15:24Z")
You answered 56 out of 60 correctly — 93.33 % Not ashamed of that at all. All four wrong were econ q’s from the last 10 q’s. And I also though Q 60 was military. B.A. in PoliSci Hanover College 1984. ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/122 "2008-04-21T10:14:41Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] …ETA: Longest answer: Read Democracy in American, available [here](http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html). I’ve found it to be one of the more readable works from that time frame. [/QUOTE] Thanks for the link! I’ve been meaning to read this for a while. I’m one of the 76%ers too. Should have known better on a couple of them, but some were items I’d either never learned or long ago forgotten. Of course, some of my right answers were educated guesses… ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/123 "2008-04-21T12:33:16Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Is [this](http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp) the test? This one is 1895 and Kansas, but it’s in several forms on the Internet. If so, it is an Urban Legend, at least in terms of it being proof of declining educational standards. [/QUOTE] That particular test isn’t familiar to me, but it is certainly equivalent to what I remember. And I certainly agree that such tests, just like the one posted by the OP, do not measure intelligence or learning. All such tests are either factoid tests or at best skills testing. As the commentary in your link pointed out, just remembering some fact or rule doesn’t by itself mean much. That isn’t to say such tests are bad, but they are only useful in measuring how much information a student absorbed in a class. If the student was well-taught in class by a teacher that was able to teach the student how to think and reason, then testing the ancillary information that was also presented is a good way to determine how awake the student was. But one should not mistake the ancillary information as the point of the class. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/124 "2008-04-21T15:39:04Z")
81.67%, or 49 out of 60. Pretty good for someone who’s government class was literally just a 100 question citizenship test and a test on the Constitution, both open book. (I had to take the class, but it wouldn’t fit in my schedule, so it was an independent study.) ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/125 "2008-04-22T01:16:35Z")
85%, but I’ve been out of college for over 25 years and never studied Locke. Oh well… ---
**Author:** ![counsel\_wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/65b543/32.png) [@counsel\_wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/counsel_wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/126 "2008-04-22T01:46:57Z")
76.67% Not an American, never taken a course in American history, economics, philosophy or politics beyond the general interest level of self education. Most of my missed questions were about the facts and particulars of American history (Question 7, 10 and others of that type). ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/127 "2008-04-22T02:51:23Z")
90% - not bad for a non-American. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/128 "2008-04-22T08:20:56Z")
Mine was better than I thought it would be in comparison to Harvard seniors. My score was 73.33. The last civics class I had was in 1957-58. And the electric shock therapy removed all traces of what’s-his-name’s economics class. But I don’t think that I _ever_ knew the answers to the ones that I missed – with the exception of two or three. But I get pissed at that headline about how we are failing our kids because they score so low. What would happen if we put the blame on them for a while? Do college kids really have to be spoon fed everything? I’m really impressed with the scores I see here – or, rather, the scores that I _believe_ here. After a while, you get a feel for someone’s intelligence even though they may disagree with you. I’m especially impressed with those show-offs to the north of us. Go Canucks! (Seriously!) It’s after three a.m. I’m 64, well-medicated, and at the bottom of the night’s liquid refreshment. But I can still do better on a civics test than the average Harvard senior. I can’t tell you how good for the soul that is. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/129 "2008-04-22T11:13:20Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] But I get pissed at that headline about how we are failing our kids because they score so low. What would happen if we put the blame on them for a while? Do college kids really have to be spoon fed everything? [/QUOTE] Well, my WAG is that _we’re_ failing them because we deem their lack of knowledge acceptable enough to still hand out diplomas. We’re failing them because we aren’t teaching them well enough (or at all) for the information to be absorbed. Of course, none of this indicates how productive an employee you’re going to be, but it is sad that so many foreigners have better knowledge of American civics than our college students do. I do wonder how much test fatigue is reflected in those scores though. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/130 "2008-04-22T14:47:39Z")
52/60 - 86.67% - not bad for a Brit. ---
**Author:** ![mattm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@mattm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/131 "2009-01-12T01:07:02Z")
You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 % Answers to Your Missed Questions: Question #10 - C. Religion - Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person Well, I confused the 1st and 3rd amendments, and assumed no gov’t debt to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/132 "2009-01-12T01:20:25Z")
Note: this thread is 9 months old. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/133 "2009-01-12T02:02:09Z")
I got 93%, but my test was only 33 questions. Where’s this 60-question test y’all found? ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/134 "2009-01-12T02:19:24Z")
I got 100% on the 33 question test – but I admit some of them were educated guesses. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/135 "2009-01-12T02:36:49Z")
32/33. Missed the one about Socrates, Aristotle, et al… ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/136 "2009-01-12T02:49:58Z")
The questions are different from the first time. Weird. I got 100% this time, although I’m not sure I agree with number thirty. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/137 "2009-01-12T02:52:38Z")
94%, I thought I’d probably score about average amongst the masses here. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/138 "2009-01-12T02:56:30Z")
This is not the same quiz people seem to be talking about in the OP, which was posted April '08 and apparently had 60 questions and was hard. It’s an easier 33 question quiz. ---
**Author:** ![Clovernook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Clovernook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clovernook)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/139 "2009-01-12T02:59:14Z")
96.97% I missed Question 7 (“government of the people, by the people, and for the people”). ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078/140 "2009-01-12T04:08:48Z")
Wow, I thought myself pretty ignorant, but I got a 90.91%. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civic-literacy-test-mentioned-in-usa-today/445078.md?page=8)