American Law and History

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

Do you think you know American law and history pretty well? Take this survey to find out. I got 77% the first time through. It's tougher than you think.

 

http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692

[Randy W]

Wow - I'm impressed! I don't think I've EVER done this well on a history or law test - "You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %"

[Amaro]

Heh, not as smart as you. I got a 54.55%

 

Nice work Randy!! It seemed like a lot of those answers would have been common sense if your t.v was on msnbc all day lol!

Edited February 21, 2012 by Amaro (see edit history)

[warpedbored]

74% here

[DennisLeiqin]

You answered 21 out of 33 correctly — 63.64 %

[knloregon]

88% --- I thought the issues of the Lincoln/Douglas debates were broader than the spread of slavery to new territories...

[honeybun]

You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %

 

SPOILER ALERT (don't read below if you didn't take the quiz yet!!):

The ones I missed were about where certain phrases came from, "wall of separation" and "by the people, for the people." Also changed my original answer about Puritans to the wrong one (I thought the correct answer must have some political relevance -- to me, it didn't) and I didn't think Roosevelt would openly threaten to add Supreme Court justices who shared his views.

 

I think a better test of our knowledge would have been an open ended test (though we would have to score it ourselves, it wouldn't be as fun, and they wouldn't have all this cool data on what we know). For a bunch of the Qs I wasn't sure, but used process of elimination and other strategies to pick the most likely one.

 

Did anyone else see this??:

"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."

 

What is wrong with either our system or this test? In my opinion either one or the other has a problem.

Edited February 21, 2012 by honeybun (see edit history)

[Yuanyang]

Read and weep boys:

 

32 out of 33 or 96.97%

 

What's interesting is the table of comparison between citizens and elected officials as mentioned above. (Don't look until after you completed the test.)

Edited February 22, 2012 by Yuanyang (see edit history)

[hankster]

You answered 25 out of 33 correctly — 75.76 %

 

I knew gov. of the people, by the people for the people was Gettysburg address, but I answered Constitution

[tsap seui]

My oh my, I must be Vietnamese, I got a zero out of 33.....no, even the Vietnamese are smarter than that, maybe I am a Cambodian after the Khemer killing fields where the country kids came in and killed all the teachers. Anyhow I missed every single question....but it's okay, I can fly a helicopter to your aid and take you to a hospital, I can build you a house from running the backhoe to dig the footers, frame the house up, put a roof on it, plumb it and run all the electrical wires, then do all the finish carpentry, painting and set all the plumbing fixtures...and pass the code on the plumbing, carpentry, and electrical inspections.

 

But know when who came to where and whom said what when....nah, I'd starve to death if I had to know that shit to live. Hell, I couldn't even pass the test for American citizenship.

 

I'm dumber then a bass tryin' to eat a plastic dayglo worm....and proud of it too!!! YEEEEEHAWWW, I'm so dadgum dumb I even joined up to be an officer and fly a durn helicopter for the Army in that thar Vietnam.....that is beyond dumb....but, but....in 7 more dayz my kind Uncle Sam is sending my bank account another tax free $4,500, n' I don't even know who is prezdent so's I kin thank him, or her.

 

tsap seui

stupider than 2 boxes of rocks but somehow very happy

[Mick]

84.85 percent.

[DennisLeiqin]

I should try it again sober.

[Kyle]

I should try it again sober.

 

[Doug]

I had to just guess on about 5 of them, or eleminate and guess best I could.

http://i41.tinypic.com/i5816w.jpg

[dan1984]

You answered 24 out of 33 correctly — 72.73 %

 

Definitely gonna pick up a history book the next time I'm looking for something to read.....