Civic Literacy quiz

[malclave]

I saw a news report on this last night... there's a 60-question civics quiz that was given to 14,000 college students, with disappointing results. Harvard seniors, apparently, scored the best with an average of just below 70%.

For those interested, the quiz can be found at http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx .

I must admit to being disappointed with my own score... 47/60, or 78%.

 

[Elrohir]

I saw that yesterday. I got a 90% on it. Decent, but not as good as I was hoping.

But yeah, it's pretty embarrassing that Harvard graduates are scoring so low. It isn't as simplistic test, but you still expect more.

 

[Japanrocks12]

I got an 85% lot of econ stuff I haven't seen yet

51/60

 

[shortguy]

58 of 60. Not bad, though I might've gotten another if I hadn't read "Andrew Jackson" for "Andrew Johnson."

 

[Izipo]

I got 43/60, 71.67% !
Not bad for a Frenchman... Better than a Harvard senior apparently.

 

[Shadylookin]

55/60 for me. I didn't think it was that hard, not sure what some of those had to do with american civics.

 

[angrybellsprout]

I missed some damn easy questions...

You answered 52 out of 60 correctly — 86.67 %

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

56 of 60 = 93.33%


Wrong Answers:
Question #19 - C. philosopher kings.
Question #27 - D. Man trusts his ability to know in order to reject his ability to know.
Question #39 - D. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.
Question #58 - B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.

I never read the Republic, had no idea what question 27 was about, never heard of de Tocqueville, and have little knowledge of the Federal Reserve. Other than that it was easy.

 

[shortguy]

I didn't think #27 made much sense either, and #19 just seems wrong. I seem to remember Plato's model form of government being more of an oligarchy than a monarchy.

 

[angrybellsprout]

I didn't think #27 made much sense either, and #19 just seems wrong. I seem to remember Plato's model form of government being more of an oligarchy than a monarchy.

The entire point of the Republic was to prop up the Philosopher King.

That the philosopher has a moral obligation to serve as the ruler over the tards that dont know any better.

 

[DaveShack]

I got 49/60, not bad given there were about 10 questions that I had never even heard of the subject. Missed a couple of obvious ones too.

 

[Irish Caesar]

I missed three of them--should have gone with my gut on one of them; should have thought more on the second; don't know why the third was asked at all.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

You answered 56 out of 60 correctly — 93.33 % Also, was anyone annoyed with the wording of question 57?

The price of movie tickets has increased. According to the law of demand, what is likely to be the result?

A. Theaters will sell fewer tickets.

umm.. No, it's not. >: (

 

[North King]

56/60 (93%). I do enjoy outscoring college seniors.

Question #23 - B. Marbury v. Madison.
Question #33 - C. To receive ambassadors.
Question #36 - D. The authority of a legitimate sovereign.
Question #53 - B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it.

 

[Elrohir]

You answered 56 out of 60 correctly — 93.33 % Also, was anyone annoyed with the wording of question 57?



umm.. No, it's not. >: (

As price goes up, demand goes down. (All things being equal, of course) Doesn't it seem likely, then, that they would sell fewer tickets, because fewer people want to go to the movies?

 

[QuoVadisNation]

I pretty much concluded that an increase in ticket prices doesn't make it automatically likely to sell fewer tickets. Even in the law of demand, the increase doesn't always have to be beyond the demand threshold. So any increase doesn't automatically mean, or makes it likely, that less tickets will be sold. There can be an increase in ticket prices by two cents; does that mean less sold tickets? The question was just worded badly, I think.

 

[Elrohir]

I pretty much concluded that an increase in ticket prices doesn't make it automatically likely to sell fewer tickets. Even in the law of demand, the increase doesn't always have to be beyond the demand threshold. So any increase doesn't automatically mean, or makes it likely, that less tickets will be sold. There can be an increase of ticket prices by two cents; does that mean less sold tickets? The question was just worded badly, I think.

You're right, in reality not all things would be equal, and you probably couldn't predict what would happen, at least not in the case of one particular movie theater. I think the question, though, was just meant to see if the test taker understood the basics of the relationship between supply and demand.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

You're right, in reality not all things would be equal, and you probably couldn't predict what would happen, at least not in the case of one particular movie theater. I think the question, though, was just meant to see if the test taker understood the basics of the relationship between supply and demand.

This is true; I just thought about it too much. x_x

 

[JollyRoger]

55 out of 60. A couple of lucky guesses offset by a couple of silly mistakes. After I took the quiz but before I checked my score, I thought I was going to miss 8 to 10.

 

[PrincepsAmerica]

56/60

Every highschool student should be required to pass a test exactly like this before graduating.