As anyone who does get 100 percent on a U.S. citizenship test knows, the answer to that question is “no.”
Although at the moment, that seems particularly unfair to me.
Yes, you guessed it! I just took a citizenship test I saw promoted on the Christian Science Monitor site, and I crushed it — got all 96 questions right! (I did it while eating lunch, by the way, not when I should have been working).
And yeah, I know I shouldn’t be gloating at the expense of yearning, wannabe Americans who have to sweat over this test, but, hey — I am humiliated almost every week by the Slate News Quiz, which not only asks esoteric questions but is timed (timed tests always rattle me), so I need these little boosts now and again. (And yeah, I know we’ve done the citizenship thing here before, but I found it fun to take it again — and, you know, crush it again.)
If you take it, you will find it’s pretty easy for anyone who keeps up with this blog. In fact, a little too simplistic now and then. For instance, note the question below. None of the answers is precisely right, since the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t, in the strictest sense, “free the slaves.” As Lincoln well understood, it took the 13th Amendment to do that. But it’s pretty obvious that the simple answer that is sort of right beats out the others, which are all totally wrong.
So don’t be afraid. Take the test. I’m sure I’ll be far from the only 100 percent…
Related Posts
I missed seven but I’m not going to flog myself too much. Interestingly, the only question I really blew was the one about selective service registration. I didn’t think registration was still continuing. The rest were either answered too quickly or misread. At least that’s my excuse… 😉
Missed just one–the one about “a right only for US Citizens”. Saw an answer that looked right before I read all the choices.
I’m not sure that knowing where the oceans are located is a test of citizenship.
And George Washington called Henry Laurens “the father of our country”, but he wasn’t one of the answer choices.
Yeah, the answer is ALWAYS the “conventional wisdom” answer — as with the Emancipation Proclamation question. I figured that out in the first few questions, and followed that rule of thumb throughout.
As for knowing where the oceans are in relation to the nation — that’s important, in case the new citizen has to leave the country for some reason. You want them to be able to find their way back.
But yeah, those were the two dumbest “duh” questions…
The whole discussion the second amendment in the gun posts got me thinking about the worst supreme court rulings. Here are a few candidates:
District of Columbia vs. Heller – A mess of a tortured word salad decided 5-4. This was an obvious attempt to wish away the militia clause of the 2nd amendment. The dissenters arguments were simple, coherent and persuasive.
Citizens United – Corporations are people? Really?
Gore v Bush – Re-wrote the constitution so that states were not necessarily the place where the method of counting and certifying votes. Completely arbitrary.
Dred Scott vs Sandford – The gold standard of horrible judicial reasoning. It probably helped bring on the Civil War. Most scholars would agree this is the worst ever decision.
But my favorite for it’s total disregard for the constitution: Glossip v Gross – The majority essentially repealed the 8th amendment.
I dissent. Here are the top five (Hi-Fidelity style) worst decisions, in order:
1. Dred Scott (African Americans aren’t citizens)
2. Plessy (separate but equal)
3. Korematsu (Japanese internment)
4. Kelo (gov’t can take your property if they can think of a better use)
5. Wickard (can’t grow your own wheat)
I have no problem with being barred from growing my own wheat, as long as I am paid for not growing it, as Major Major’s father was with alfalfa.
In any event, I’m allergic to it, and several members of my family have celiac disease. So I see very little point in growing wheat. (So maybe I should recuse myself when it comes to this case.)
I would put Griswold v. Connecticut (the absurd discovery of an absolute right to privacy in the Constitution) at No. 4, maybe even at No. 3. And of course, its ugly child Roe would make the list — if all Roe did was turn our process of choosing Supreme Court justices into a circus and distort our presidential elections (both of which it certainly has done), it would still make the list.
2 wrong (one due to answering too quickly).
No high school senior should be allowed to graduate without scoring at least 90% on this test.
Durn! Got 4 wrong–all of them “how many” questions.
I was worried that it was going to ask me how many representatives in the House (since it had asked how many Senators), which for some reason I’ve had trouble retaining my whole life.
And of course it did. But in multiple-choice format, it was easy to see which was the right one. I can recognize it; I just have trouble coming up with the number cold. Don’t know why…