Wow, another 19 out of 20, guessed Buddhism instead of Christianity. Though a lot of the geography questions I would have missed before my two quarters of history last year with a teacher who thought geography was orgasmically fun to teach. I got very little geography in high school, North and South America, Western Europe, and Australia, and that’s about it.
I vote for frightened. I got 19-20 (I missed that religion question, too. I could have sworn there were more Buddhists than Christians in the world.)
I mean, that damn test was too easy. There was only one resource question, one climate question, one map-reading question, two current events questions, and the whole damn thing was multiple choice.
I think a better test would have had more questions about climate and resources, more map-reading questions, and had students identify countries just from a map – the hell with multiple guess.
20/20 heh, ol’ woolly is now officially endorsed by the National Geographic as being as smart as any Doper and a whole lot smarter than the average American. … now if only I could get a bit damm respect from you lot. 
As for France :
In primary schools, geography begins to be taught at 7 (That would be the US second grade, I believe?). This is basic stuff : draw a plan of the classroom, read a map, aerial pictures, main geographical features of the country (moutain ranges, main rivers,…), filling blank maps with names, etc…I don’t think anything is taught about foreign countries, though I could be wrong.
There are geography courses during all the secondary education. They are mandatory. A peculiarity is that geography and history are grouped and always taught by the same teachers. So, the time dedicaced to geography can vary. I would say 1 or 2 hours/ week.
From 11 to 14 (that would be middle-school???) geography teaching was more dedicaced to one part of the world and one aspect of geography. For instance, I remember for some reason that at 12 (that would be 6th grade???) we were taught mostly about climates and about Africa.
I don’t remember how was organized the teaching of geography from 15 to 18 (that would be high school?). The teaching of human and economical geography (I doubt I’m using the correct words, here…I mean populations, migrations, productions and industries, etc…) was stressed, and also, some specific important countries were studied.
I remember that for the high school final exam (that’s an exam organized at the national level, and succeding at it is mandatory to enter at the university), for the geography test, the subject I picked was the Japanese industry. We were provided with a blank map with the main japanese towns, IIRC, and had to fill the map with the main industries and productions and to write an essay about it . There was a choice between two subject, and the second one was about the USA, or North-America, I’m not sure, and more oriented toward physical geography. I remember I was quite happy because I had particulary studied Japan, betting that one of the two subjects would be about this country.
The “weight” of the geography test was, IIRC, 2 on a total of something like 25 or 30. So it accounted for perhaps 7% of the overall result.
I must say that I now remember essentially nothing about Japan. So, having studied something with the goal of succeding at an exam is no guarantee that the infos won’t be quickly erased from your brain.
Ukraine and Byelorussia (now Belarus).
It’s quite obvious from your posts that you’re still hooked about history and geography…
May I ask what his your job? Or at least if it is related to these matters?
I’m proud to say my eighth grade daughter just got 19 right. She only missed locating Sweden. That’s okay though. Two percent of Sweden couldn’t find itself either. 
I missed two of the map questions. I’m not trying to hand out excuses, but I really did have a hard time seeing the numbers. On the US location question (I got it right) I did a double-take because what I thought was one number wasn’t even listed.
20/20. They should’ve surveyed me
Sigh…and how many of these kids who couldn’t find their own country are waving the flag and clamoring for Saddam’s head? mm?
I always thought that Leno’s street interviews where he asked people who Dick Cheney or someone was were always staged but maybe I’m wrong.
Not even remotely :D. The only part of my education that relates to my workplace is some basic chemistry and some of the microbiology. I am a snivel servant - Specifically a Journeyman Water Reclamation Plant Operator, a job that hovers in that nebulous limbo between blue and white-collar ( the biggest part of the job is lab tech-type stuff, water chemistry, and process analysis w/ fequent computerized tweakings - but we do do a little mechanical grunt work as well ). Swell job really ( well-paid with excellent benefits and minimal stress ), but a bit slow and boring at times, so I was a perpetual university student for nearly 14 years ( shamelessly abusing the system ) as a “hobby”. Plus I read a lot on the job ;).
Hence my frequent ( at times inadvertent ) imitations of Cliff Claven :p.
- Tamerlane
I missed the religion question.
No it isn’t. Trust me.
The religion question is not rigged. Why would you even say that?
When people in a religion have been commanded, “Now go unto all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” and they have had enormous influence on the westernization of the world, it is not at all surprising that you might find their adherents everywhere and in a majority among religious people.
Rather than wallow in sour grapes over missing the question, let’s rejoice that our ignorance is lessened. This is what we would expect from people with regards to the rest of the test.
Phew! 20/20.
Those results make me embarrassed to be British. I thought we were better than that. Never forget that the average IQ is 100, I guess.
The US results do, however, give credence to this assertion from the UK Tourism Minister:
Mind you, I have a pet theory that most of one’s knowledge of the world is derived not from education, but from the media. Since it is now easy to avoid the news altogether in countries with large numbers of specialty TV channels, I would expect the results to be lower. There might be some correlation here.
Sad that so many of those percents for Americans were so low. Of course I got a 19 out of 20 so I shouldn’t laugh. (I was one of those that thought Islam was the largest religion)
What does it say about me that I became bored and gave up after the fifth question?
20/20, none by elimination. Proves I’m not an American. Perhaps I should cite this NG survey when I post in other threads that Canada should not arbitrarily follow the USA’s lead in international affairs.
So, when did I emigrate?
(I’m not sure why you’re continuing your other complaint; Condi Rice was able to explain to George where Canada was located by the third or fourth week of his presidency–and he only needs reminders about once every couple of months.)
I could at least find Sweden without resorting to elimination…
I blew the religion question, and had an off-by-one error on the US population. I had to do some elimination near the end, too.
From the highlights page (among other interesting info):
"Americans who reported that they accessed the Internet within the last 30 days scored 65 percent higher than those who did not. "
Which means that the internet makes you smarter! But… but… if I only got 90%, then without the internet I’m a total idiot! I’ve gotta get a redundant connection in here fast! breath! breath!
No wait, would mean that I should be able to spell breathe :smack:, and that spam, irc putzes, 3733t sp33k, and Nigerian rip-offs wouldn’t exist.
nm then.