Americans Fail Civics Test

The Bulletin ^ | 11/20/2008 | Michael P. Tremoglie

[jmcenanly]

At least 52% of them.

[CE2949BB]

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

I suck. :(

[Monsieur Poirot]

Scored 100% Honestly, though, if not for the multiple choice format, would have missed 3 or 4.

[villagerjoel]

You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

[patj]

bump

[Anonymous Political Junky]

I got the same Damn, I knew I would miss a couple but missing three gave me a score of 90.2%. Maybe all of us should be running the country!

[Scotswife]

hmmm....I said to decrease taxes and decrease spending and missed it.

I missed the one about Douglas vs. Lincoln too.

It’s been so long since my school days I don’t even remember if I was taught that one or not.

Taking a few trips to Gettysburgh with the kids helped me out though.

[proud American in Canada]

I missed four questions, mostly on economic issues, but, STUPIDLY, I missed the CinC question!!! I didn’t name the President! Dumb. :(

I blame it on not having had a coffee yet this a.m. and being too eager to finish and see what my score was. :)

Thanks for posting the test!

[sodpoodle]

Missed 4 questions - would have missed more before becoming a FReeper.

Thank you FReerepublic for educating this member!!!!

[rvoitier]

Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent.

* 30 percent of elected officials do not know that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence; and 20 percent falsely believe that the Electoral College "was established to supervise the first presidential debates."

OUTRAGE!

[7thson]

I went to the website and took the five question test. 100 percent right. Then I went to the American Civics org website and took the 33 question test. 84 percent correct. I missed most on finances which I fail to see what that has to do with civics. Also question # 17 - what was Sputnik - I fail to see what that has to do with American civics.

I listened to Mark Levin talking about this. As he is reading the article he catches a misspelling by the writer. Amazing! The writer is discussing how poorly Americans know their basic history and he and his editor let pass a misspelled word in a national magazine.

[Islander7]

You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 77.2%
Average score since November 20, 2008: 77.2%

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Think I’ll email this to a few former friends who drank the Kool Aid.

[Issaquahking]

This is not Breaking news. Would like to see it in Front Page News, where everyone gets a shot at it, and where it belongs.

[AussieJoe]

I only scored 75.76% (8 incorrect answers) but hey, I’m not even American.

Thanks for posting it, interesting article. I think if our local population did a similar test we’d have equally poor results.

[Dead Corpse]

#30 is wrong. If you decrease taxes and increase spending, all yo udo is end up with more public debt. Not a good thing.

Cut both, line out extra-Constitutional government programs, and the economy would take off like a rocket.

[Catholic Iowan]

Missed three.

[School of Rational Thought]

The Bulletin is a great newspaper.

People should at least read it online.

[Islander7]

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.



No wonder we are in such deep doo doo!

[laotzu]

I missed 3; got a 90.91%.

We Freepers are seriously screwing up the average on this thing.

[JimRed]

Also question # 17 - what was Sputnik - I fail to see what that has to do with American civics.

Well, it WAS the kick in the butt that America needed to get us serious about the space program.