I was feeling pretty smug for a Canadian, then I saw that most Canadian dopers outscored me. Now I’m proud of them, but a little embarrassed for me.
The “who said what in which documents” questions were my doom, but I also thought the just war question was questionable.
I was genuinely surprised that Social Security cost more than interest on the debt.
I would have done much worse if this had been a short answer questions test instead of multiple choice. A lot of times, you can find the right answer, even when you have no idea a priori, just by elimination and a little tangential knowledge.
I scored a 51 / 60 for 85%. I’m not at all ashamed of that mark, but I was dismayed to find that I went wrong on all the ones I guessed about (where I had narrowed it down to 2 choices), which was the case for 5 of the 9 I got wrong.
For #34, I didn’t remember what Washington’s farewell address had in it, but remembered Eisenhower’s speech about “humanity on a cross of iron” and figured it was one of the two.
For #26, I knew by elimination it was either Hume or Locke’s political thought (it wasn’t Plato’s “Philosopher King” nor Machiavelli, and Hegel comes too late in history), and picked the wrong one.
For #42, I knew that Kennedy both imposed a blockade and financed a failed invasion of anti-Castro Cubans at the Bay of Pigs, but didn’t know which came first.
And for #58, on what happens when the Fed buys bonds (instead of issuing them), only B and D made any sense at all to me, though I wasn’t sure how to determine the mechanism for choosing between the two. (I have never taken Economics.)
And on #60, I figured it was either Social Security or debt payments (Treasury bonds) as the biggest chunk of the Federal payout over the last 20 years, and figured the Soc Security problem would only really hit the top in the next 20 years when the Baby Boomers started cashing it in. (Which means it’s really, really a problem if it’s already the top spot, doesn’t it?)
I mean, what are the odds of going 0 for 5 on 50/50 guesses? (OK, I can do the math for that one: 1/32, or 3.125%). Oh, well!
No worries love, I’m headed over to that exact same 66.67% bench myself right now and I’d be delighted if you’d walk with me. I mightn’t be a Civics machine, but I have good manners.
Yeah, I had one of those asshole teachers in 8th grade in 1983. Your teacher’s name wasn’t Mr. Perry, was it?
We called him Little Hitler. He was really mean to everyone and I was terrified of him. One day, he found a girl writing a note to her boyfriend in class. He grabbed the note, held it up in the air and read it in front of everyone while the girl was trying desperately to jump up and grab it out of his hands. He was giggling the entire time.
I was always a solid B+ student, but I failed the entire year of history that year, which was when most of the things on this test were taught.
THAT is why I only got 50%. Wow. Should I have the moderators ban me now? I’m clearly out of my league here.
I learned this in AP US History my junior year in high school. It was on a bunch of practice tests, too. We were never told the reasoning behind it, just what the term meant.
One of the great results of capitalism and a free market economy. I would blame the media hype for thinking otherwise. However, I won’t discount that the gap between rich and poor is widening.
All things being equal, a purchase of bonds by the Fed will cause an increase in demand for the price of bonds. The price of bonds and the interest rate have an inverse relationship. Therefore, with the price of bonds rising, interest rates will fall. Lower interest rates sparks demand from borrowers.
Ones I missed:
Question #1 - D. 1601-1700
Question #9 - B. was a stalemate.
Question #13 - B. the nature and control of Reconstruction.
Question #34 - B. President Washington’s Farewell Address.
Question #35 - A. discouraged new colonies in the Western hemisphere.
Question #54 - D. can be reversed by government spending more than it taxes.
Question #58 - B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.
Question #60 - B. social security.
I would have bet money #60 was miltary. Huh.
The “Just War” answer comes originally from Aquinas, who wrote that only a sovereign can declare a just war:
83.33% The only ones I feel bad for missing was the founding of Jamestown, and when women got the vote. The econ questions killed me, but I’m not surprised by that. I did better than I’d expected with the political philosophy stuff.
