I’m sooooo ready for my green card…

I don’t even understand the questions…

That’s a real political test ! ! !

*anyone who doesn’t know what this is clearly has never Christmas Treed anything, and is one of those annoying, self-righteous, overachieving douche bags.

As commentators have pointed out it reads like a high school exam and many of the questions don’t turn on understanding the principles, but on giving the text book answer. As an historian and lawyer, I know that understanding of history is not shown by memorizing facts but in understanding trends and forces. It is the major flaw in the way history is taught through high school – more an exercise in memorizing trivia, than in true understanding. I would argue any true test of historical knowledge should be an essay exam. So, if people don’t know all the facts, it really doesn’t show much to me. For instance, if people know that the Douglas/Lincoln debate put Lincoln on the political map and was a debate about issues surrounding the slavery question, does it really matter if you don’t know the exact question of slavery was being debated?

Many of the economic questions were not factual, but rather matters about which reasonable persons could disagree. Again, this is like a high school exam looking to get back what was taught in class.

Certainly also, some poorly worded questions, and an easily recognizable libertarian lean throughout. For me, if people got questions wrong because they don’t understand the difference between powers the federal government exercises constitutionally and those which are textually in the Constitution, that doesn’t bother me so much. In fact, I’d be more concerned if people thought that the federal government could not do anything not specifically authorized by the Constitution. Perhaps, there should be a question about what the federal government can do pursuant to the spending power? Or pursuant to the power to regulate commerce?

I got all the answers right, but I am not dismayed if others got some, or even, quite a few of the answers wrong. If there are elected officials who understand current policy issues, use good judgment, but didn’t get a high score on this, I’m okay with the results. If my mayor can think of innovative ways to provide more city services or is adept at inspiring citizens to get involve, why should it matter if he/she can’t recall that FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court?

On the other hand, it certainly shows something about the lack of general knowledge for so many people to get really low scores on this exam.