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Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.
18 comments
1 |
Bob Dillon Sun, Oct 30, 2011 6:57:15pm |
Additional Finding [link at end of test]
Elected Officials Score Lower than the General Public
THE ISI CIVIC LITERACY survey was not designed to test the civic knowledge of elected officials, but it did discover evidence of an interesting pattern that may merit further exploration.
Are You Smarter Than a Politician?
OF THE 2,508 PEOPLE surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions. This table shows the “knowledge gap” for each question: the difference between the percentage of common citizens who answered correctly and the percentage of officeholders who answered correctly.
| 3 |
CuriousLurker Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:25:23pm |
re: #2 Sionainn
93.94%
Impressive!
I scored 81.82 %. Not too bad, but I missed some stuff I should’ve known. A few others I chose by the process of elimination.
A year ago I would’ve been lucky to hit the average American score. LGF has been instrumental in changing that.
| 4 |
Mostly sane, most of the time. Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:39:57pm |
Grrrr…
Missed the last one.
The last one.
| 5 |
reine.de.tout Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:41:57pm |
re: #3 CuriousLurker
Impressive!
I scored 81.82 %. Not too bad, but I missed some stuff I should’ve known. A few others I chose by the process of elimination.
A year ago I would’ve been lucky to hit the average American score. LGF has been instrumental in changing that.
CL, that was my score as well. Two of my missed ones were ones where I waffled between two answers, one of which was the correct one. My other missed ones were just complete ignorance.
If the average American citizen scores 49% and college educators average 55%, well, hon, we did pretty damned well! I suspect most LGF readers will do much better than average.
| 6 |
Bob Dillon Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:46:40pm |
You answered 28 out of 33 correctly — 84.85 %
Like CL & RDT - some waffled and should have known misses.
| 7 |
Surabaya Stew Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:47:39pm |
32 out of 33 correct! I just missed the one about free enterprise being more efficient than government; guess this means I’m a sekret commie librul muslim who hates amerika.
///
| 9 |
CuriousLurker Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:51:40pm |
re: #8 darthstar
I got a B- too…oh well.
Gawd, I feel like such an underachiever now. Gonna go put on my dunce cap and sit in the corner… ;)
| 10 |
CuriousLurker Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:52:35pm |
re: #7 Surabaya Stew
You did great! Kudos.
| 11 |
Surabaya Stew Sun, Oct 30, 2011 8:56:38pm |
| 12 |
boxhead Sun, Oct 30, 2011 9:02:58pm |
missed 4…. going to take it again… gonna ace it.. :)
| 13 |
goddamnedfrank Sun, Oct 30, 2011 9:19:12pm |
I got 100%. Some of those questions seemed kind of bullshit / meaningless though, especially at the end when the answer was essentially just a rephrasing of the question criteria.
| 15 |
boxhead Sun, Oct 30, 2011 9:36:30pm |
re: #14 Bobibutu
Are You Smarter Than a Politician?
Depending on the politician, I’d say a fifth grader is… :(
| 16 |
Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut Mon, Oct 31, 2011 3:07:00am |
re: #13 goddamnedfrank
I got 100%. Some of those questions seemed kind of bullshit / meaningless though, especially at the end when the answer was essentially just a rephrasing of the question criteria.
Agreed. I got 90.91 % and I think I missed some for being annoyed by them. The public good question was badly written.
And the free market/central one was oversimplified; we never choose between the two extremes.
| 17 |
ThomasLite Mon, Oct 31, 2011 5:47:02am |
81.82%.
funny thing, it seems I’m not quite up to spec on US national history. wonder why, haha.
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