Who's Smarter? You or your Elected Official?

[mattchuck2]

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

Here's the quiz

 

[ski_resort_observer]

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

Here's the quiz

Nothing new here. A few years ago they did something similar and people had much greater success in naming the Simpsons than our elected leaders.

Thomas Jefferson in one of his famous letters right before the DOI wrote, " for our democracy to be successful we need a learned citizenery". We have failed badly on that. I have advocated for years that people should have to pass a simple test to be able to vote. Not a very popular idea especially from those who are clueless.

One ironic thing nowadays is the one group that has a good handle on civic knowledge are the foreigners who have taken the tests to become a US citizen.

 

[drjeff]

72.73% (24 out of 33)for me. Mainly details of what are in certain letters/addresses is what got me

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Please keep politics out of this forum..

 

[bvibert]

This is not politics, but rather a discussion on civic knowledge.

I actually scored better than I thought I would, 21 out of 33 - 63.64%. I couldn't imagine anyone knowing less about this stuff than I do...

 

[wa-loaf]

Mainly details of what are in certain letters/addresses is what got me

Same prob here, but I got 27 of 33 for 81.82%. I should run for president!

 

[Marc]

31 of 33

 

[wa-loaf]

31 of 33

Damn, my plans for world domination are foiled again!

 

[Marc]

That stupid socrates, thomas aquinas one got me, as did the lincoln-douglas debate. I should've known that one though, I was just having a brain fart.

 

[drjeff]

That stupid socrates, thomas aquinas one got me, as did the lincoln-douglas debate. I should've known that one though, I was just having a brain fart.

Socrates I nailed, of course the fact that he was the topic of a HUGE reasearch paper that I delivered in high school literally 20 years ago to the day (only way I remember this is that I hated the class, hated public speaking at the time, hated the topic and had to give the presentation on my birthday [2 days from now]) it all left a lasting impression on me! Now if only I could remember the rest of my civics as well I'd be all set!

 

[Paul]

You answered 27 out of 33 correctly — 81.82 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 78.1%
Average score: 78.1%

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.

I did as well as Herr Deutschlander

 

[ctenidae]

That stupid socrates, thomas aquinas one got me, as did the lincoln-douglas debate. I should've known that one though, I was just having a brain fart.

You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 %

Socrates, and of the people by the people. Stupid Lincoln.

 

[Dr Skimeister]

31/33....foiled by Socrates and no national religion....

 

[YardSaleDad]

32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I got 100%.........Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie.....oops....wrong survey :lol:

 

[ctenidae]

Wow- news flash:

Finding 4:
Television—Including TV News—Dumbs America Down

 

[Mildcat]

72.73% (24 out of 33)for me. Mainly details of what are in certain letters/addresses is what got me

We had the same score. Hey Everybody, I'm as smart as Dr Jeff! :razz:

Ok, so I'm not as smart as Dr. Jeff but I can still razz him for getting the same score as me. :razz:

 

[Marc]

I hate civics.

 

[drjeff]

I hate civics.

I'm not a fan of Honda's in general :lol:

 

[BeanoNYC]

100% (I teach this stuff though)