Monday, November 24, 2008

Are You Smarter Than A Politician?

Here is a news item you may not have seen last week.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – 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).

No surprise there. Public schools have stopped teaching civics. An ignorant populace is easier to control. But I'm surprised even the political ruling class failed this test.

I got two questions wrong, for a score of 93.94%. I guess I'm overqualified to be a politician -- or an average citizen.

9 comments:

Crookedpaw said...

Out of curiosity, I had a go at the quiz.Got 54.24%.

Is that good for a non-American?

Lone Ranger said...

Immigrants must score 80% on an immigration test. So, I think they'd throw you back.

Trader Rick said...

I missed three. But two of the three, I disagreed with their answer--I think the answer was a matter of opinion...:) But that's just me and my infallible history of always being right, most of the time.

Mark said...

I missed 4. I'm not good at economics.

Mark said...

Missed the one about the Puritans, too. I thought they were all about religious freedom. How silly of me.

Jean said...

I missed 5.

Joe said...

I ran this test on my blog a while back.

I did a 91%, some did better, some not as well, but none really bay.

As did Trader Rick and Mark, I disagreed with a couple of their answers.

Trader Rick said...

The Puritans were a pretty intolerant bunch when it came to anybody thinking out of the box...

Tonto said...

I got an 86%. I missed 4 I think. I have to admit the ones I got wrong...I really didn't know. I was guessing anyway.

At least I scored high enough to get into the country.