Civics lesson

[james_davis_nicoll]

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.

I got 33 of 33 questions right.

Take the test yourself

Nicked from autopope.

In unrelated news, Chinese man learns that real pandas are less cuddly than they look. Happily, aside from emotional damage the panda was unharmed.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

The macroeconomic questions didn't seem appropriate, as economists are arguing about them even as I type. The question about the Fed was and similar focused questions about the Treasury, IRS, etc. should have been included.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

The recession question was "what are governments likely to do", not "what is best". And AFAIK increasing spending, with or without cutting taxes, is in fact standard policy.

The Fed question was pretty specific; more people hear about manipulating interest rates than about bond sales. And the last question was a trick, relying on one remembering the difference between debt and deficit. Or having good test-taking skills, like reading all the possible answers and using the set as cues to the best answer, a la "A's good, B's bad, wait C's good too... oh, A's tricky, okay C".

[connactic.livejournal.com]

I picked the wrong answer on 33 as I misread the correct reply. I knew that the one I picked (no debt) was not correct but it seemed less wrong than the others at the time.

as for bias, the question about canon Western philosophers was kind of a tip-off as well.

My final score was 31/33 - I managed to fatfinger 'life, liberty and property' on the first question.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, on that question I was thinking "Cut taxes, raise taxes? On WHO? And is a Republican or a Democrat in the White House?"

After a while I figured out all the econ questions basically wanted me to parrot late-20th-century neoliberal (right-of-center) economic consensus, so I did that and got a perfect score.