Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Citizenship Test

The link below are questions for becoming a Citizen of the United States.  There are 96 questions.  See how many you can answer correctly.

U.S. Citizenship Test (Christian Science Monitor)

Most of the questions are good, knowing about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and branches of Federal government.  I'm not sure about the geography questions.  Which state borders Mexico?  Which ocean is off the East Coast of the United States?   But these are quibbles.

How many questions did you get correct?  I'm curious how many people know the answer for Benjamin Franklin.  And if most Americans know who is next in line for the Presidency if the President and Vice-President are no long qualified.  The answer to that last one might scare some people.

I was able to correctly answer 95% correctly.  I missed questions 69, 34, 27, 23, and 3.  I'm disappointed I didn't answer correctly the question: "Why did the Colonists fight the British?"

Knowing the answers to all of the questions won't make someone a better citizen or get them involved in local politics.  But I'm wondering why the passing percentage is 60%?  This means that a 'new Citizen' could have missed up to 38 questions.  Canada also has a passing percentage of 60%, but they only have 20 questions which means you can miss only 8 (Canadian Citizenship Test - A Brief Overview).  Britain has a passing percentage of 75% (U.K. Citizenship Test: Too hard for most Britains).

The current U.S. test was first used in 2008.  Immigration Officials Unveil Redesigned U.S. Citizenship Test

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