Are you smarter than a (American) politician?

[Misty]

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

Apparently, the average score for an American on this test is 49%. Even scarier, the average for politicians is 44%. How well will Smogon do?

Score: 88% (4 wrong)
Age: 22
Country: US

 

[Scrubs]

I suck at politics

Score: 30.30 (a bunch)
Age: 15
Country: US

meh

 

[Caelum]

O-o. 44% is really bad :/
I guess I'll do same format as you. We should make people take this before they can vote ^__^.

Score: 91% (3 wrong)
Age: 18
Country: US

 

[Olie]

Score: 72.7%
Age: 17
Country: Canada

 

[Ancien Régime]

You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 78.1%
Average score: 78.1%

cool

 

[DM]

You answered 24 out of 33 correctly — 72.73 %

I'm happy with the outcome. There was just some questions there that I've never learned about, but now I know.

 

[Goodbar]

You answered 22 out of 33 correctly — 66.67 %

I missed a couple obvious ones too on accident, I probably could have got a 25-6 if I had paid more attention, overall the economics part hurt me more because I've never taken an economics class. To think I scored higher than the average politician is scary.

 

[Luduan]

You answered 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 %

 

[Kinneas]

Score: 51.52%
Age: 18
Country: UK

I think I did all right...

 

[sandman]

You answered 18 out of 33 correctly — 54.55 %

 

[McGrrr]

The secret of the demagogue is to appear as stupid as your audience so that they believe they are as intelligent as you (one might argue that Bush junior perfected this).

Knowledge does not make one intelligent. The ability to apply knowledge makes one intelligent, and politicians are intelligent enough to play/beat the game.

 

[Mario With Lasers]

Score: 60.61%
Age: 16
Country: Brazil

I'm worth 1.378 American politicians. Nice.

 

[evolutia]

Score: 57.58 %
Age: 18
Country: US

What a disheartening score.

 

[FiveKRunner]

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %
Age: 18
Country: USA

I'm going to thank my AP US History class from 3 years ago for the score.

I missed #s:
7. Government of the people question
13. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas
14. Puritans

 

[Luduan]

The secret of the demagogue is to appear as stupid as your audience so that they believe they are as intelligent as you (one might argue that Bush junior perfected this).

Knowledge does not make one intelligent. The ability to apply knowledge makes one intelligent, and politicians are intelligent enough to play/beat the game.

While I agree with the overall sentiment, it is rather hard to apply knowledge you do not have. Political ability does not make one intelligent either, so I am not sure what you are driving at. Bush II was a terrible student and an alcoholic, so I hardly think he qualifies as 'intelligent', even if he is simply hiding behind a veneer of social and linguistic ineptitude.

 

[Ambitions]

You answered 28 out of 33 correctly — 84.84 %
Age: 19
Country: USA

I went into this thinking I was going to score a 90 for sure. O well. I guess that an 84 is pretty good though.

 

[Misty]

To be fair, a lot of these questions play into certain misconceptions that most people have, and others are just downright difficult. If you're 18 or older (and, obviously, an American), a 70 is probably a good score.

 

[jagged_angel]

Score: 63.64 %
Age: 22
Nationality: British

Scary that I, a UK citizen scored higher than an average American politician on a quiz that was mostly about American politics.

 

[akuchi]

You answered 20 out of 33 correctly — 60.61 %

Needs more work..

 

[obi]

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly — 90.91 %

/edit: Age: 19
Country: US

Spoiler!






























Question #1 - E. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

I put A, life, liberty, and property.

Question #7 - D. Gettysburg Address

I picked C, Constitution, which, in retrospect, was a poor choice.

Question #11 - A. their arguments helped lead to the adoption of the Bill of Rights

I picked C, their influence ensured that the federal government would maintain a standing army.

 

[Hyra]

You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %
Age: 16
Country: US

I'm currently in Am Hist, so that helps alot.

 

[StarmanXL]

Score: 84.85 %
Age: 17
Country: U.S.

Thank goodness I paid attention in Econ and AP US History, otherwise I would have failed this test horribly. I actually thought I'd do worse.

 

[Kingdrom]

You answered 28 out of 33 correctly - 84.85 %

Age: 15
Country: US

I'm kind of surprised, I didn't take gov/econ yet, but I did well on the history part. Some of those questions are things that people may not have learned in school ~10 years ago or simply don't remember because they are rather insignificant. Why would one need to know about a statement that Socrates and Plato would agree with?

I'm not buying that American politicians got such a low score. I'm not the one to place trust in American politics, but this seems a little far-fetched to me.

 

[gorm]

i got 69.69% which i think speaks for itself



becasue it's an emoticon!

 

[X-Act]

I'm not from the US, so I'd probably get a zero if I were to attempt this quiz.