The test is here. I scored 93.94%.
Evidently, most people–including, I assume those unfortunate Obama voters who didn’t know who controls Congress–didn’t do so well.
Kevin Drum notes that everyone did badly, but Baby Boomers did somewhat better.
Other ISI findings, by the way, include these: the more education you have, the better you do; it doesn’t matter much what kind of university you went to, whether you go to church, or what your politics are; watching lots of TV is bad for your score; and reading lots of history is good for your score.
Bragging rights: I got a perfect score.
But then again, I read lots of history and watch little TV, so ISI says I should do well.
100%.
Unfortunately, I missed 4. One of them I had right and then talked myself into a wrong answer.
Not terrible, but not good enough.
You answered 33 out of 33 correctly — 100.00 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 78.0%
Average score: 78.0%
You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.
If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.
You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.
The table referenced is very interesting, which states:
Of course, this is hardly a scientific sample, but it is amusing.
My husband missed 4 (I missed 2). We don’t watch a huge amount of TV, but what we do watch is not what I would call particularly enlightened. But what we do tend to watch are game shows like Jeopardy! which may actually help on tests like this. It’s only a guess. I do read a lot of history, but then, we read a lot anyway.
I missed 2. It’s not surprising that all of us wonky politics geeks that read this site should do well.
I raced through the test and missed two questions that were more opinion than factual. Most dealt with matters I learned before I was 16 and assumed was general knowledge. I appear to have been wrong in this.
I don’t remember being taught basic economics or the workings of the capitalist system in high school, which is a real shame. Perhaps a lot of other schools didn’t teach it either, and it would explain why so many people don’t understand the way businesses run.
I suspect that most American citizens know little about the basic workings of government and less about basic economics.
How many know the names of their state legislators or have even had any contact with them?
How many can answer this basic question about practical economics: “You have just paid $100 for a basket of food items at a supermarket. How much of that was profit for the store?” How many answers would be within an order of magnitude of being correct?
What about those ‘payday loans’ in which you borrow $100 on Saturday and give a check for $110 dated a week later. What interest rate appplied? How many will say 10% rather than 520%?
How many individuals lease cars that they can’t afford to buy?