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Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
https://www.worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=46586		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Groucho [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:55 am ]
Post subject:  Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
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 test: http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

How well can you do? I got 31 out of 33 (93.94%) (I missed questions 27 and 33 -- I never took economy courses in school and am still confused about some of it)
Author:  bABA [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
60.61 %

as expected, all my answers that are incorrect were something i wouldn't know anyway as they were completely US centric.

which also suggests that the 60% contains a bit of process of elimination guess work as well.
Author:  Groucho [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
loyalfromlondon wrote:
60.61 %

as expected, all my answers that are incorrect were something i wouldn't know anyway as they were completely US centric.

which also suggests that the 60% contains a bit of process of elimination guess work as well.


Yeah, but the point is still that you did better than the average American legislator!

I mean, I would expect a 50% response from most people -- the questions were hard. I got a lot right because of my Political Science degree and educational background. I'm sure if I took a test about medicine, I'd do terrible.

The point though is that you would expect and hope that legislators, who deal with these things every day, would do better, wouldn't you? I mean, that's like doctors only getting 50% on a test about medicine.
Author:  bABA [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
oh definetely

i think what i was trying to say was that a lot of correct answers of mine at least were probably just educated guesses .. not that i really knew what the answer was. if anything though, it probably tells i'm better at guessing than they are !!!
Author:  Timayd [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
30 out of 33.
Author:  Argos [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
You answered 23 out of 33 correctly — 69.70 %
Author:  Floydboy [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
Dang, I was doing so well until I got towards the end of the questions. I answered 29/33 and missed # 29,30,31 & 33. Looking at them I should have gotten 30 for sure, but the others confused me a bit.
Author:  Rev [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
You answered 22 out of 33 correctly — 66.67 %

:disgust:
Author:  Groucho [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 3:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
Rev wrote:
You answered 22 out of 33 correctly — 66.67 %

:disgust:


Still better than average

I'd be willing to bet that the people who frequent this board are above average in intelligence anyway...
Author:  Jim Halpert [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
29 out of 33
Author:  BacktotheFuture [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
28 out of 33, 84.5 %
Author:  Krem [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
Quote:
Among the questions asked of some 2,500 people who were randomly selected to take the test, including "self-identified elected officials," was one which asked respondents to "name two countries that were our enemies during World War II."


So, just to be clear: these were "self-identified" elected officials, the number of which is never given (could be two part-time municipal controllers, for all we know).

As much as we all love to rip on Congress, these weren't Congressmen that they polled.

I scored 29 out of 33.
Author:  Chippy [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
19/33

One less than Loyal.
Author:  Beeblebrox [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
29 of 33. I got all of the economic ones right but I missed 4 history questions.
Author:  Tyler [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
90.91%

Fuck I'm good.
Author:  Caius [ Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
30/33. I missed 7, 29, and 33.

However: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:

What does that have to do with Civil Literacy? I got the right answer, but think the question irrelevant.
Author:  Corpse [ Tue Nov 25, 2008 5:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
24/33

Missed most of the economy related questions.
Author:  gardenia.11/14.... [ Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
The old saw, professors and engineers never get elected...
and many pol's answer questions like they think the hoi-poi would say..
Author:  nghtvsn [ Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %

Average score for this quiz during November: 77.9%
Average score: 77.9%

I missed the philosophy question, the Puritan question and #27 and #33 a couple economic questions.

Overall, I did pretty good. I wish the schools would put more focus into civics/govt again.
Author:  Jedi Master Carr [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 5:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
28/33 the economic questions screwed me up.
Author:  Mannyisthebest [ Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Are You Smarter than a Legislator?
I got 26/33 and I am not American and I did not know a lot of the specific things.
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