Don't Know Much About History . . .
And Let's Not Even Mention Biology
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Culture — Comments (131) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Students at many of the country's most prestigious colleges and universities are graduating with less knowledge of American history, government, and economics than they had as incoming freshmen, with Harvard University seniors scoring a "D+" average on a 60-question multiple-choice exam about civic literacy.
According to a report released yesterday by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the average college senior at the 50 colleges and universities polled did not earn a passing grade.
Here's the quiz. I scored a 56/60. Fellow RedState Contributors scored between a 56 and a 58 as of this writing. Megan McArdle beat us all like a drum. But really, scoring well on this quiz shouldn't be that hard. And if it is, the state of pedagogy when it comes to American history is in far worse shape than I thought even in my most pessimistic moods.
« Hating James Dobson: To Heck With His Qualifications, He's a Meanie — Comments (14) | Ideology and globalism. — Comments (17) »
Don't Know Much About History . . . 131 Comments (0 topical, 131 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I got a 55/60. For the record, I am a student at UPenn - all this proves is that Penn is totally better than Harvard.
I'm so proud of myself. And this proves that the University of Memphis is better than UPenn State :)
"I'll demand a recount"
-WFB
HTML Help Central for Red Staters
Reality: Thompson/Romney Dream: Santorum/Watts.
At least W&L was third on the list. This finally proves that we're better than UVa.
You know, I fail to believe that Washington and Lee students are that dumb. (I'm a freshman there in case you didn't know.) What probably happened is that they administered the survey on a Thursday and everyone was hung over from the Wednesday night parties.
I serve on the faculty in the earth sciences department at a top-20 research university. This school was not among the 50 listed. I am dismayed to report that neither the undergraduates nor the graduate students at my school would perform well on this test.
Geologists are naturally social creatures, so despite my professional distance from the subject matter, I have had the opportunity to engage quite a number of students in discussion about politics, history, economics, and so forth over the last several years. I would be surprised if very many of them could have answered more than 60% of the questions correctly.
As for myself, I earned a bachelor's degree in history from a top-5 university in the early '90s. I scored a 59 out of 60. At first I thought that that should reflect well upon my alma mater. However, as I thought about the substance of the quiz I realized that I would not have been able to answer more than a handful of those questions had I relied solely on the content of the courses I took during my undergraduate education. The answers to every one of those questions should come readily to mind for any graduate of an American university. In fact, most of those should be second nature for all high school graduates. I should take no pride in scoring as well as I did. That simply serves as evidence supporting the hypothesis that I have at least the minimal civic literacy that should be expected of every citizen of this nation.
My alma mater required every student to suffer through a three-course sequence that was supposed to introduce us to the fundamentals of western culture. Plato and Edmund Burke are the only authors that appeared both in that course and in this test. Though the US has unquestionably been the dominant force in western civilization for decades, not to mention the country in which nearly every student in the course grew up we learned essentially nothing about its history and institutions.
My father and I are both college professors. Both of us are products of public primary and secondary education. We both got degrees from supposedly fine universities and we both have come to the same conclusion: education is something one gets in spite of American schools not because of them. I realize that there are some phenomenal individual teachers out there, but the bottom line is that we need to look seriously at how to wrest education away from the government at the primary and secondary levels and from the vacuous left at the university level. Failure to do so will simply lead to more and more legislation of the sort we see all too often already in which up is declared to be down because those who legislate never learned any sense of direction other than left or right.
The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense. -G.K. Chesterton
Not bad for a country boy from Georgia with a high school education who's been drinking bloody marys since ten AM today.
In Vino Veritas
The infamous bond question got me, and I overthought the definition of "payable" in #60 and guessed debt service instead of Social Security. But I tip my cap to Megan getting all of them.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
Amusing, and depressing as all get out.
Moe
PS: I'd have been lost on the economic questions pre-RedState, mind you.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
Me three. Too bad they don't publish the average scores by question.
I got 55.
But in my defense I am a bit drunk right now and missed at least 2 questions, in retrospect, that I am I quite certain I would not normally miss.
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why ... I dream of things that never were and ask why not. - Robert Kennedy
I'm with you at 55. And I too looked back and went "duh" on a couple of them. I really went back and forth between Soc Sec and Military spending on #60... and picked wrong.
______________________________________
Bobby Jindal Saves Louisiana
that really bother me were 1, 10, and 19. Definitely a bit alcohol induced as there is simply no excuse for getting the Lincoln-Douglas debate question. It is one of the easiest questions. No. 1 I should have got as well although I think that 1607 is pretty darn close to 1500-1600. :)
19 I just didn't see the right answer.
#36 I got wrong because I have never read Locke.
#58 I got wrong because none of the answers seemed to make sense to me.
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why ... I dream of things that never were and ask why not. - Robert Kennedy
as a reason for your disagreement with just about every post on this board. Number 19 and fill in the blank for number 36 also seem to figure prominently.
Is this a behavioral problem or a medical condition?
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
I didn't get the memo that said today was take potshots at Flyerhawk Day.
I'll have to break out my nice pair of sneakers for the occasion.
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why ... I dream of things that never were and ask why not. - Robert Kennedy
Lob it over the plate, don't complain when people swing for the rafters.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
OK. I didn't realize that.
Not sure what that has to do with Streiff taking shots at me.
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why ... I dream of things that never were and ask why not. - Robert Kennedy
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
Sure. You can take on Soprano nicknames. :)
There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why ... I dream of things that never were and ask why not. - Robert Kennedy
I wonder (seriously) how the Kos crowd would perform. My feeling is that they'd come in significantly lower than the Red Staters.
But I am a liberal and a Democrat, and I scored 55.
Interesting how so many, including me, chose national debt on #60.
than "gee, a lot of people believe some wrong stuff"?
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
... and kicking myself for not getting 59. My self-induced dsylexia made me read "Andrew Johnson" as "Andrew Jackson", even though "Radical Republicans" in the same question should should have slapped some sense into me.
I didn't take any American history in college, though econ courses helped on a few questions, so that proves Myrtle Beach High (SC public school) beats a bunch of universities, ha!
... and I had a double vodka gimlet a while ago. I hereby amend my dyslexia excuse, I was seeing double when I read "Johnson" as "Jackson"
eh, I didn't really take my time with it either. I missed the Social Security one, thought like Dan did.
___________________________________
Two thirds of the world is covered by water,
the other third is covered by Champ Bailey.
I guess that explains why I was stuk in irak for a year.
In reality, if I hadn't been in a hurry to prove I could finish the test in 5 minutes(which I did), I would have actually read the ones I got wrong. Who knows?
That was an interesting test. The difficulty or lack thereof ranged greatly. The question about George Washington was definitely the easiest though I do not which one is hardest. Some of these scores are definitely impressive though any College grad should really get no less than 80 percent right.
"The nine most dangerous words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'"
Ronald Reagan
Not bad, and I am sure the best (and probably only) score in my zip code.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
Social Security means that you pay a large amount of money to ensure that people richer than you are can enjoy a very comfortable retirement. If you ever want to retire yourself, make your own arrangements. The only thing left in the box for you will be some debts.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
I think 53 is pretty decent. Now its time to hit up wikipedia to find out what judicial review is.
Took most of my hits on the old ones such as the philosopher questions and once again putting Jamestown 100 years too early.
I expected to get 59 or 60, but in my defense, I didn't miss a single question about American History, which is what I'm supposed to know anyway. I missed questions 53, 58, and 60. I think number 53 is more or less open to interpretation because it all depends on what your definition of "public good" is. I was just plain wrong on number 58. And on number 60 I chose option C, "interest on the national debt." The correct answer was "social security." I will point out that we do spend an awful lot of money on interest for the national debt. We spend $406 billion, to be exact, but not as much as Social Security, which will cost more than $600 billion this year.[1] On the other hand ... Social Security isn't part of the Federal Budget's general fund. It's administered by a separate board of trustees, so it's really not part of the Federal Budget at all.
So, I'm giving myself at least a 58 instead of a 57. (If only I could do that for real-life tests)
[1] http://www.federalbudget.com/
A precedent embalms a principle.
- Disraeli
The question referred to the term from economics.
You are right on social security. (I was classified as getting that one right, but technically you are right and the quiz is wrong. Still, in the quizmaster's defence, the 'separate board' thing is pure sleight of hand).
Where I really annoyed myself was on Tom Paine. I have read Common Sense, but foolishly confused it with Rights of Man and indeed with the writings of Edmund Burke.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
You confused Tom Paine with Edmund Burke? And you call yourself a conservative! Shame! (just kidding)
A precedent embalms a principle.
- Disraeli
But I should maybe clarify. I confused the titles not a summary of the message.
Though Burke and Paine had largely the same view on the American Revolution, where they parted was on the French Revolution, and Burke was right, as Paine should really have learned in prison.
And you call yourself a conservative!
Actually, I tend to call myself a libertarian, or hawkish libertarian, in a US context. In Britain I am a Liberal Unionist, but that is a historic reference as the Liberal Unionist Party merged with the Conservatives 100 years ago. I am now a member of the Conservative & Unionist Party.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
The quiz answer is correct that Social Security is "The Federal government’s largest pay out", not subject to any ambiguity of terminology.
You would have a point if the quiz had asked about "the Federal Budget." Then for purposes of the question we could say in the government budget process, Social Security doesn't count as part of "the budget", so it can't the largest expenditure in that "budget".
However the wording of the question "The Federal government’s largest pay out" is clearly talking about actual economic actions, and the Social Security accounting fiction doesn't say anything about redefining the generic term "pay outs".
Pretty good for an old man who just woke up. The ones that I missed were fair questions and I should not have missed them. Can't blame the misses on anything but not reading the questions carefully.
but I'm going to claim 56 because I KNOW the Lincoln-Douglass debates were over slavery so I must not have checked to make sure I clicked the correct button since my results showed Prohibition. Should have been 57 but at the last second I changed the Plato answer away from Philosopher-King. Doh!
Even though I'm a Penn State grad, the real credit goes to my high school, as I took not a single history course in college. Yes I had some Econ classes there, but even that was mostly covered in high school.
Flubbed 19, 27, 36 & 58.
Feel kinda dumb about missing the first three ...
George W. Bush: He's A Folder ... Not A Fighter.
I misread "Andrew Jackson" for "Andrew Johnson" and so I got the wrong period in history. And I didn't stop to think that there were no Republicans when Jackson was President. D'oh!
I missed the Monroe Doctrine question fair and square.
By the way, if you missed the Federal Reserve question, that one was really quite subtle. My first reaction to it was "none of these answers is right." They gave "increasing the volume of commercial lending" as the right answer to the question "What happens when the Fed buys bonds," but that's really an indirect effect, and not necessarily the case either.
though, you are much more informed on these issues than I am.
And, to throw in a gratuitous compliment here, I enjoy reading your posts on the financial markets, and learn a lot from them.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
Why clutter their minds with the good stuff?
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
I got it right, but only because four of the answers couldn't possibly be right, and one of them was not impossible.
By definition, the Fed creates high-powered money whenever it buys anything. The obvious correct answer to the question is "increase the money supply," but that wasn't one of the choices.
I think I answered "reduce the money supply" because I knew it would affect the money supply and figured there was some angle I was missing in how they described the transaction.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
Not bad for someone with formal ED limited to a community college Associate in Electronics. Really kicking myself on a couple of those I missed - in my defense though, I had just awoke and had no coffee yet... yea, that's it - it was my coffe makers fault... er, maybe not.
I did well, but as a son of VA, I don't want to own to which question I missed first....
Not bad, considering the ones I missed were about authors of whom I have not directly read. I got most of what I know from Channel 13 and School House Rock, and lately the History Channel. So there!
That I beat Harvard civics majors reinforces my theory, which holds that Harvard has been resting on its laurels for SO LONG now, that her reputation can no longer be upheld by her student body. Harvard spends way too much time purchasing its professorial talent from abroad, rather than creating it here at home as it used to do. More is the pity.
Res Ipsa Loquitir!
Thus spake Chemical Sam
I see I got the lowest score reported so far. But what do you want? I still beat Harvard. Plus, I'd like to see all you political types answer a 60-question test on chemistry.
Actually, if you can find one, please, let me know.
I would no way get 48 on a test about chemistry.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
Although if a test like this is found, I will give it a shot. See whether being married to an engineer has gotten anything into my head via osmosis.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
If you'll take one either the theory computability or electronic circuits.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Shoot, I was an English major anyway.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
Then I started looking at what I'd have to answer next. Once I realized that the fizzing sound were my brain cells suiciding out of pure shame, I decided to bail.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I didn't have most of those physics concepts until upper-level undergrad. Regretably, I haven't worked them hands-on since before the glorious new millenium. Let's just say that test reminded me to remain humble. It's remarkable how perishable the skills involved in analytical science really are.
It relies too much on jargon and specifics that one type of chemist might not know. Also, it uses the English mispellings of common American words.
The bulk of the history questions they give are NOT college level, they are high school, even middle school level questions. Chemistry was my worst science although I've had it. In the first twelve or so questions I looked at, none of them fell into that level of knowledge. So I popped over to the physics exam, which I had four semesters of in college. Again, too many of the questions are above high school level knowledge.
and 52 of 60 on the US history test - not bad for having taken neither subject since my junior in high school.
"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
Ronald Reagan
What a devilish test. Of course while I may have forgotten my chemistry I haven't forgotten how to take a test.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
And might I point out that an entirely randomly answered test would yield a 15 of 60 (on average).
It's war -- so when can we start shooting back at the enemy Democrats?
Really disgusted with myself for not checking; knew a couple yet clicked wrong button, ie Washington and Puritans. Yet, a score is a score. Incidentally I remember (painfully) the day in 1969 when I showed my advisor at a commuter college the 796 score on GRE in economics; his response was, "Funny, I didnt think you were that smart."
I was 12 when I finished 8th grade and 16 when I finished high school. Mother sat me at kitchen table to say, "Let's talk about college. You can go anywhere you like as long as you live at home, pay for it yourself, work for your father." Each of which I did. While if I had it all to do over, would love to have gone to an Ivy, not at all impossible that there were advantages to having done things the way I did.
To be fair about it, life has brought me a better educ and oppty's than my parents or grandparents. Pleased to report my eldest is an Ivy grad and a Naval officer; the second is at a state univ, and the third will do just fine when she is old enough.
Incidentally, does anyone have an idea of how many direct ancestors each of us had ~ 500 years ago when Columbus was first pulling up on shores here? Ie, great, great etc grandparents 500 years ago?
I am sure that the scientists here will have calculated two to the 20th (assuming 25 years to the generation) and will know the answer in moments.
Scanning the comments and came across your question just now. I suspect that many of my fellow scientists use the following fact to answer such questions as yours very quickly: 2 to the 10th power is basically 1000 (actually, 1024). This allows one to very quickly scale up to very large powers of 2 without actually needing to do very many calculations. Thus 2 to the 20th is roughly 1,000,000, 2 to the 30th is roughly 1,000,000,000 and so forth. Most quick calculations depend on a handful of such stupid number tricks filed away in one's noggin.
Having said that, I suspect a lot of lines cross one another as you build a person's family tree going back 500 years. I know nothing about the dynamics of this particular problem, and it has probably been modeled by a geek with different specific interests than mine, but a reasonable upper limit on the question you pose is probably about a million, assuming we take your 25 year generation estimate as gospel. Of course, most women had children before age 20 for most of the time we are considering, but they also generally lost a significant fraction of all their children, so I don't really know what a good generation interval would be.
The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense. -G.K. Chesterton
I missed a finance question fair and square but this made my head hurt:
Which statement is a common argument against the claim that “man cannot know things”?
Not bad for a blue collar kid, a product of the rural South and a second tier state university.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
That is hardly a common argument. I have never heard it before.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
All wrong in economics.
Man cannot know things? To say that, you would have to know something about man. But.....
It's like:
I am a skeptic.
I doubt everything.
I don't have a driver's license, and a few years back I thought I'd try to get one. In New York, that means a written test. You can take classes to prep for the test but I didn't have time for that. My secretary at the time passed the test just by cramming from the manual so I said, this can't be that hard.
Come the day of the test, and of course I hadn't even had time to get the manual, much less read it. I aced the test, though.
Half of the questions were a variation on "Is it a good idea to drink and drive?" The other half were easy to answer by process of elimination.
I had one lucky guess: the legal blood-alcohol limit in NYS.
So I was given a shiny new New York State learner's permit. Have I had time since then to take the lessons and the classes? Of course not. My permit lapsed. I still own cars but someone else has to drive me around.
...one of the questions was "If you see a person in the crosswalk, what do you do?" Simplistic, sure, but this is Maryland. There are people who don't know the answer, and God help us, they all have licenses. Not to mention, live within 10 miles of me.
Anyway, three questions later was "If you see a blind person in the crosswalk, what do you do?" How I managed to resist the temptation to shout out "Well, hell, I guess in that case it's time for RAMMING SPEED!" in the middle of the examination room I'll never know.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
1. There are questions about global warming because, you see, it is not about safety, but about agreeing with the government's environmental policies.
2. There is a question about mobile phone use. The correct answer is 'find a suitable place to stop' and one of the alternatives is 'find an unsuitable place to stop'. Presumably to rule out everyone who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'unsuitable'.
3. Another question asks 'what is the only type of vehicle permitted to use a bus lane?' It fails to add, 'come on. Think about it. The clue is in the name'.
4. And how about this one: "what is the only permissable use for the right hand lane of a motorway?" (Think left hand lane of a highway). The alternatives included: "stopping to change your tyre" and "positioning yourself for a U-turn".
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
I had to take the DC driver's test a few years ago. It was 50 multiple choice questions, lot of pic, and you needed 70% to pass.
I did 35 questions and turned my test in.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
Not too bad for the AM
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
A just war leads to a just peace and freedom. An unjust peace leads to death.
Nice job Red State people
You give me hope that not everyone in our wonderful nation is a complete idiot :)
Anyone around 50 should be proud in my opinion because those questions weren't exactly the easiest for someone just having fun.
-----------------------------------------------
Notice to All - I am an independent who has voted for Senator Bayh (Democrat) and Senator Lugar (Republican) along with over 60% of my state. You may take what I say with a grain of salt at your own party'
But it should have been 58. I missed #6 ("Life, Liberty and Pursuit of etc. appears where?"), even though I have blogged about the topic specifically and in detail.
Doh.
--
Gone 2500 years, still not PC.
to someone who is not only from a culturally more distant country than the UK, but who died two and a half millennia ago.
Ouch, that hurts.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
In my defense as a U S History teacher - My husband was taking the test and asked me to butt out, but I helped anyway. The questions we missed were all argued over and were more of a compromise than a consensus (proving once again the value of compromise).
Now I am supposed to subject my fellow teachers to this test and measure their levels accordingly.
Thanks RedState, this was a lot of fun!
Soldier's Mom - Golfer's Wife - Home alone a lot
I bow to your very impressive results! I got a 52. Too bad there were no questions on the history of I/T... :-)
...when they see me they'll say, "There goes Loren Wallace,
the greatest thing to ever climb into a race car."
Wasn't my best effort, and all but one of my wrong answers were ones that I went back and changed from my first guess... oops!
"I don't understand why the same newspaper commentators who bemoan the terrible education given to poor people are always so eager to have those poor people get out and vote." - P.J. O'Rourke
I got nervous at question 4 but trudged through and got a crappy score of 40. I hope that won't effect my user priveledges or registration here. I'm a bit embarrassed but impressed by all of you (though I'm not surprised). Which is why I usually keep my mouth shut and eyes open when reading RS. I was a theology major anyways.
This quiz reminds me of a woman I knew in LA. (Not that this is an argument against charter schools). She was sending her daugher to a charter school in West LA (Beverly Hills adjacent) btw and at some point we got into a discussion about the curriculum. A friend of mine at the time had been working for a company that sold lifelike dolls of the American presidents. I mentioned that I probably could get a few sent to her daughter's school and class. She laughed at this and replied "oh no honey, she wont be learning about any of "those people" at school. That kind of history isn't important."
Nor shall we make passing the history test one, either. Although our economics guys might consider us wimps for that. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
*That was the one where I stopped at #4.
I dropped a course on Modern Latin American History a while back because of garbage like that (the prof. thought that facts, and causation were unimportant).
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
I was thinking I might get all 60, but I missed the bond question, the Monroe Doctrine (I remember it now, the question seemed strangely worded to me), and one other. I was a Government and Politics major and my college courses definitely helped me out. I would have done far worse than I did today, although still better than the average college graduate (D+).
I'm not surprised whatsoever by the results. The average college graduate takes probably one traditional history or political science courses. By traditional I mean any course that doesn't have the words "transgender, race, feminism, cinema, sex, Marx, multicultural, or environmental" in it. Every college student should take some courses on foreign cultures, such as anthropology or history of (insert region of the world) and learn how different races and the sexes interacted throughout history, but most of the courses with the words I listed are frankly bulls***.
With two really dumb mistakes...
--
We would also like to know your advice for somebody like my daughter, who's going to graduate in two years, advice that you would give a young person.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Advice for a young person. Study history.
44, hated history classes and have since then learned the importance of it!
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you. Washington Elected Elite
Golly gee, I wouldn't have missed 14 out of 16 I missed if I weren't drinking either. Drinking instead of going to class that is.
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you. Washington Elected Elite
and my fellow team leader scored 54... a couple Staff Sergeants beat the snot out of Harvard.
Not bad for a graduate of the University of Nebraska. I give more credit to my high school education and reading National Review.
51. High school and Marine Corps education. School of hard knocks too. Also, the mighty Amazon Prime membership. (No shipping on books).
Do think there were two more I should/could have had correct.
Well what can you do? Guess I'll have to buy more books. Tragedy that.
absentee
57 out of 60. I don't do as well with philosophy and theory as I do with actual events.
These sort of "surveys" always seem facetious to me.
If the goal is to gauge the effectiveness of higher education in meeting its customers (students) needs, then why not restrict the sample to students actually majoring in history, economics, and/or political science? And quiz each set according to their fields of study? Let's see if those set members are actually getting something for their money, instead of mixing it up with, e.g., math, engineering, and biology students.
If the goal is to gauge the intelligence of 18-21 year olds, then IQ tests are a more accurate measurement.
All the cited results tell me is that young people don't know facts about those topic areas for which they have no interest and are not spending their time and money to learn about. Wow, that's astonishing!
I knew many of the answers on this test off the top of my head so I saved time by not reading the alternatives :-). But answering the rest of the questions was just process-of-elimination. Very few of the questions had closely-matched (and thus tricky) alternatives. This would have been a much harder test if it weren't multiple-choice. So I'm also doubtful that this is measuring anything very important.
Scored a 124 on iqtest.com but this history/civics test made me feel like a real idiot when I compared my score to the others on this board. Oh well. Perhaps the fact that I spent a total of two weeks in high school has something to do with it :o) [GED obtained in 1990] Self-educated since then.
www.scottbomb.com
Click here to donate to the Fred Thompson campaign.
Thank you for your interest in the test at IQTest.com.
Your general IQ score is: 139
FYI, you have to give them your email address to get your results. They say they don't share it but want to sell you some IQ package.
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you. Washington Elected Elite
Along with our scores, we should have posted our educational background (some did that already)...I have a BS in Comp Sci, so almost all of my college work was math, science and computing. I probably could have scored a point or two higher if I had taken it the year I graduated from HS. I took exactly two history classes in college: 1) American History, which was required to graduate, and 2) Missouri history, which I took as an elective because the description in the catalog sounded interesting (and it was). I took zero econ classes, even though I signed up for one 3 times and dropped it every time...
Everything I Know about History and Econ, I Learned At RedState
...when they see me they'll say, "There goes Loren Wallace,
the greatest thing to ever climb into a race car."
But then again I've never read any Burke, Locke, Tocqueville, Plato...
www.scottbomb.com
Click here to donate to the Fred Thompson campaign.
I'm not sure I understand the point of the quiz.
They are trying to prove that higher education doesn't teach Americans about American History?
What if the student never takes a course on American History?
Despite not fully understanding their point I do strongly believe all Americans should be able to get at least a 75% on this test. The reason freshman do so well is, these themes should be covered in grade school. A high school graduate should perform the best on the quiz because all the information should be the freshest in their mind. By the time they reach voting age they should know all this information. If they don't, maybe they shouldn't be voting.
"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."
-General George S. Patton
than an incoming freshman has lived. Proximity to being exposed to the knowledge isn't the issue, it is having studied it at all to begin with. The bulk of the test wasn't obscure stuff, it was basic. AND they helped you out by making it multiple choice with obviously bogus answers. I had to stop and think when they were asking dates (thank you Abraham for that "four score and seven years ago" line) and which component of the Federal Budget was largest (I figured debt and SS were running neck and neck, but which was actually bigger?). They included just enough tough questions to keep most of us from getting swelled heads.
Disappointing, but a couple of the economics questions threw me. I'm a miserable failure compared to a lot of you.
But then I'm an engineer. :)
I didn't think I'd get out of the 30's, so I'm happy with this.
I knew little about historical battles, authors and papers, and the philosopher type people. Nor do I particularly care, to be honest.
-IJ
Not bad for a dumb Marine with only a high school education I suppose...Although to be honest I guessed on 5 or 6 questions correctly so my score could have easily been lower.
My American history classes in HS didn't cover these subjects at all. Thanks to the history channel, and bloggers who are smarter than me for a decent score!
Founder and contributor to The Minority Report and Senior writer for The Hinzsight Report
I got the same score and have the same education background, High School and Marine Corps. (although I did take AP history and poli sci classes in high school).
Was your high school eduction public as well?
I guess my wife is right. All Marines are the same.
absentee
...No AP classes for me though.
Founder and contributor to The Minority Report and Senior writer for The Hinzsight Report
Founder and contributor to The Minority Report and Senior writer for The Hinzsight Report
Not bad for a squint.
It's war -- so when can we start shooting back at the enemy Democrats?
I missed question 23... I answered A: The Constitution... Of course I do have a degree in History...
58 out of 60! My undergrad history degree came in handy.
I knew I should have paid attention in those college economics classes!
Anyone want to write up a little quiz on Judicial Noms now?
Mostly missed on the economic theory questions.
curse my cursed publik educashun...
most of what I got right I learned AFTER said education.
This is important, not because it measures how "smart" someone is (it doesn't), but how much one knows about the things that made us what we are, as a nation.
How can our children know who they are, as Americans, if they don't know how we got here? The ideas and events that formed us?
curse them sweetie-pie teachers...worrying if we were being "sensitive" enough...what about the facts?
we hates them, precious....
but the sun was in my eyes.
"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility." Teddy Roosevelt 1903
I misread one of the questions though.
The other two were date questions where I was one degree off.
Question 27 ruined the shutout. However, there were plenty of questions on classic political theory that I never covered in a BS in PoliSci and a year of grad school in PoliSci. I managed to get them right by what I've absorbed over the years.
I can see why the college kids didn't do well; a lot of this stuff isn't well taught at the high school level and precious little is added at the college level.
This information should be taught well at the high school level. This is information that shouldn't be absorbed by the few of us who are intelligent enough to know what is important. This is information that I believe all voters should have a strong understanding of. How can we know where we want to go, if we don't even know where we have been? That is really my only point. They should give this quiz to high school seniors about to graduate and enter the voting age. To prove that high schools should teach more American history and less gym or home Ec. Not that I don't miss dodge ball.
"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."
-General George S. Patton
Boy was I dumb answering the question about The Republic and I misread the one about the Wealth of Nations in the opposite sense!! Running this business must be getting to me...and dyslexia is a horrible disease. ;)
I was also one off on a date question. The other three of the missed ones are directly attributable to cobwebs hanging in places in my brain where knowledge is supposed to be.
I don't like it that I missed any but it was fun, particularly when they were that obvious.
fun, I scored a 51/60 (or 85%, 10 points higher than the average). not too bad considering how quickly I sped through it. probably could have gotten a couple more had I been more careful.