Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The ISI Civics Quiz

First of all, we suuuuuuck:
More than 2,500 randomly selected Americans took ISI’s basic 33 question test on civic literacy and more than 1,700 people failed, with the average score 49 percent, or an “F.” Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent and only 0.8 percent (or 21) of all surveyed earned an “A.” Even more startling is the fact that over twice as many people know Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol than know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Second of all, I'm pissed because I missed one--but I have an excuse! First of all, I didn't know the answer. But what really matters is: I guessed correctly, but then rejected the guess because of a weird grammatical point. So it's not my fault! This quiz sucks and I'm not playing anymore.

Here's the quiz, but don't forget that grammar excuse is mine.

(Incidentally, it was #29 that I missed--or "missed"--but I can't stress enough how I actually could have gotten it right under certain real and relevant, though non-actual, conditions... Man, I knew the answer I gave was lame, too!)

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I guess I suck more than you, I missed 3. But I did get #29 right. :-)

4:10 PM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

30 out of 33 here.

How the hell should I know what Roosevelt did in response to his New Deal being declared unconstitutional?

I'd be pretty embarassed if I didn't know some of those though...like 1, 3, 6, 29, or something.

4:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can't believe I got points off for saying that Canada and Mexico were our enemies in WWII. Anyone who doesn't think that wasn't paying enough attention.

And I got #29 wrong, too. WTF?

6:03 PM  
Blogger tehr0x0r said...

I got 2 wrong but I did get 29! I know this much about the Puritans, they didn't get along with the King so well! Also #27 just confused me, oh well.

7:09 PM  
Blogger Jim Bales said...

#29 just sucks.

A pox on it!

(What do you mean, "sour grapes"?)

8:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

32/33. Should have read #32 and choices more slowly. Saw 'raise and lower income taxes' and went for it, thinking of 'raise and lower interest rates'.

10:07 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

On the bright side, we all seem to be above the US average...

11:14 PM  
Blogger lovable liberal said...

I missed 29, too. I, too, had it right to start and changed my answer. Noooo! Have I really forgotten Test-taking 101?

3:05 PM  
Blogger Tracie said...

You answered 33 out of 33 correctly — 100.00 %

Sweet.

Reading about how little elected officials know makes me more than a little sad. It kind of reminds me of this.

3:26 PM  
Blogger Tracie said...

Weird, my link didn't work.

Hopefully it will this time.

If not, it was the Stephen Colbert interview of Lynn Westmoreland in which he could only name three of the Ten Commandments (that he wanted to legally display in courthouses).

3:37 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

You win, you bastard!

8:16 PM  

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