WASHINGTON (AFP) — 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.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics.

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Guessed on 1, misread an answer on another, got both wrong :/ . Guess that's what I get for being a foreigner.

BTW: The federal government does have the power to levy a direct (income) tax since 1913 and Amendment XVI (an 'incorrect' answer to question #9). I suspect that (c)-the power to maintain prisons - is also technically correct, although that one is not explicitly in the constitution.

"You answered 33 out of 33 correctly — 100.00 %"

I get a gold star for the day!

I thought there was no right answer to the last one, and the "public good" thing... eh well, it's a definition of terms question.

Everyone should know though that the ISI is a right-wing institution, organized to combat the leftist presence at universities. ISI hates pretty much anything that's happened in political philosophy or the humanities in general since about 1860. I stumbled across one of their "college guidebooks" at 16, and wound up applying to Chicago (and not applying to Berkeley) based mainly on their say-so. Didn't actually go to Chicago, but I might have actually gone to Berkeley if I'd applied. Bastards.

Oh, and they pretty much hate any literature that wasn't written by a white guy who's been dead more than a hundred years too. I'm very positive on European history and literature, but these guys revere their own ethnos to the point of obsession.

Got a 90%.

Many of the latter questions seemed like Chicago University orthodoxy - which is being rejected by the Wall Street titans who take the TARP money.

30 out of 33. same damn a- as always.

I won't go into details, but I definitely thought some questions were pushed (like in push polling). I would be nice to see a similar list that was more honorable.

I got 73%, but I always question test questions which causes me to return odd results.

81.82 %

Tina and I can go have a beer and commiserate our standing in relation to the rest of the gang.

I knew my answer to the last question was wrong - but I thought they were using the terms "debt" for "deficit". But they weren't.... *%@#$!

A B+ student. If I'd done worse I'd be in congress.

Guess I should run for congress.

I did inhale.

Missed the Gettysburg Address one and the last question (tax per person equals spending per person). I don't think that the final "right answer" is right either.

And those last couple of questions were not civics at all--definite agenda spotted! :)

I missed the Doulgas/Lincoln debate question and the Gettysburg quote--which I damn well should have known. Last one I missed was 33. I didn't like the answers to this one, at all.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

This chart is just outright scary. Our leaders don't know jack shit. Literally.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

if a bit humbling i got 78.89%

32/33

not too bad for a 2-year degree in 'general Studies' (mainly Music and Computers)

Can't believe I fergot the subject of the Lincoln-Douglas debates...I managed to wade through Sandburg's Lincoln Bio, years ago...

I found I suck at economic theory as bad now as when I was in school...and that I disagree with a couple of the answers...sometimes experience shows theory to be incorrect...

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

31/33 or 93.94%. Yay. I had really good teachers in school; and my parents read to me before & after I could read on my own.
I thank God all of the time for all of them. They gave me a love of learning & of good literature, & love of the use of language as art and to inform.

"All I know is just what I read in the newspapers." - Will Rogers

Although as already noted, on some of them I answered what they clearly wanted, rather than what I would consider correct.

I agree with the Push Poll notion on the economics questions. On those questions I had to think in their terms to puzzle out a possible right answer. I was very pleasantly surprised that I got them all.

It's right wing all right. I didn't agree with them on 33, where you have to make all kinds of assumptions to get their answer, whereas the first option requires that you assume only that there's no time frame involved.

But only because I thought too hard on the ones that tried to say "A implied B". On the historic and constitutional ones, I didn't need to guess.

I missed #9 but I still think I'm as right as they are. The sixteenth amendment is part of the Constitution.

Chalo