Could you pass a US citizenship test?
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Could you pass a US citizenship test?
Active test on The Christian Science Monitor. Very long, 96 multiple choice questions, you need a while to complete it.
I missed 5 questions. (Actually, 6, but I don't count the one where my mouse double-clicked...who doesn't know the father of our country?)
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@CoyneTheDup I got 9 correct from the first 10, but 2 of them were lucky guesses
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Got 97%, guess I could be a citizen if I wasn't already.
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Wait, you only need to be able to answer 58 of those? I'd say it's pretty hard not to get 80%+ unless you have no education whatsoever.
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Missed 12, and one of those was a misclick.
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@asdf said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
I'd say it's pretty hard not to get 80%+ unless you
havefollowed no education whatsoever in the United States.FTFY. Why would you expect me to know who Susan B. Anthony is or was? Or the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now (whenever “now” is — oh, 2011, it seems).
Some of these questions make me wonder, though:
Is the intention to weed out the stupid?
I still managed to get 76/96, though some of those were correct guesses.
As an interesting comparison, some years ago I took a test of the kind that immigrants to the Netherlands must take these days to prove they’re assimilating correctly into Dutch society (whatever that may mean in practice), and scored markedly less well on it than I seem to do on that American test just now — despite having lived in this country all my life. We had a few other native Dutch people take the test just to see how well they did, and all of them had difficulty scoring high enough to be allowed to stay …
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@Gurth The site noted that the average for people who took the test was 83%. If a perfect non-skewed binomial is assumed, that would suggest scores down to 66%, which would all be passing. Be interesting to know the number of failures.
I didn't think of the 2011 thing, but evidently the test was somehow updated, because I recall it listed/accepted Rep. Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House, even though he just achieved that post (October 29, 2015).
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@CoyneTheDup said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
who doesn't know the father of our country?
I got that one wrong through not having been indoctrinated there, but still managed 86%.
Got an easy 100% on the practice questions for the Australian test.
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@Gurth You are aware of the fact that I am neither a US citizen nor went to school in the US?
Why would you expect me to know who Susan B. Anthony is or was?
Yeah, didn't know that one either.
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78 out of 96 (81%) so I'm under the average but over the passing grade, which considering I'm British with no leanings to become American is mildly surprising.
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@Arantor said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
mildly surprising
It's a test that the stupid are supposed to be able to pass with practice. For all your fondness for working with PHP, you're not stupid so you should be able to do reasonably at it.
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@asdf said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
didn't know that one either
I knew she got on a dollar. No clue what for.
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LOL. Favorite questions:
What were we concerned about during the Cold War? Climate change! Brillant distractor.
How many Justices are on the Supreme Court? Ooo...trick question! Glad that 8 wasn't a choice.
Also, 100%.
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@Gurth What is the answer to that one? Presumably it's giving up loyalty to other countries.
Why then is the US so obsessed with Polish-Americans, and Irish-Americans, and all the rest of the ridiculous 'heritage' claims?
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@coldandtired said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Why then is the US so obsessed with Polish-Americans, and Irish-Americans, and all the rest of the ridiculous 'heritage' claims?
Don't forget that every village with a few inhabitants of German heritage has a "German" "Oktoberfest".
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@Gurth said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Some of these questions make me wonder, though
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@Gurth said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Is the intention to weed out the stupid?
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@asdf said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Yeah, didn't know that one either.
The women's sufferage movement didn't just happen in the US.
If you don't know why Susan B. Anthony is famous, at least in a 3-word description on multiple choice test way, that's actually pretty shameful.
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@blek Isn't the 1900s typically the period 1900-1910? I don't think any of those wars fall in that period?
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@PleegWat It's like The Price Is Right, you try to get as close as possible without going over.
So the Civil War is the answer.
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@PleegWat said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
@blek Isn't the 1900s typically the period 1900-1910? I don't think any of those wars fall in that period?
No, it's 1900-1999.
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@CoyneTheDup So I missed only four, but that's not getting me a Green Card, is it.
//Grumpy
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Also who the h*** is "Hilary" Clinton, I've only heard of a "Hillary" . . . hilarious.
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@Lawrence said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
who the h*** is "Hilary" Clinton
Bill's great great granddaughter, named for the famous pop star Hilary Duff, travelling back in time to mess with politics and prevent the rise of Trump.
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@blakeyrat said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
The women's sufferage movement didn't just happen in the US.
Quite so. That's probably why my mind has Cowan and Pankhurst as its exemplars rather than Anthony.
@blakeyrat said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
If you don't know why Susan B. Anthony is famous, at least in a 3-word description on multiple choice test way, that's actually pretty shameful.
I knew she was notable only because I'd heard of the Susan B. Anthony dollar, and the option of her having been the first woman elected to the House of Representatives struck me as plausible. I don't think that's a particularly shameful guess.
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@coldandtired said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
What is the answer to that one? Presumably it's giving up loyalty to other countries.
It is, but my point is that you can arrive at that simply by common sense applied to a very basic knowledge of what the USA purports to stand for — not any real knowledge of US laws.
@coldandtired said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Why then is the US so obsessed with Polish-Americans, and Irish-Americans, and all the rest of the ridiculous 'heritage' claims?
That’s (I think) not “the US” as a whole, but individual people in it who have this obsession.
@PleegWat said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Isn't the 1900s typically the period 1900-1910?
In Dutch, yes. In English, it means 1900–1999 — thus, almost-but-not-quite the 20th century.
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Just using general knowledge and watching Ami movies and series got me 80%. Can I become president now?
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@flabdablet said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
No clue what for.
One of the more famous suffragettes.
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Of the ten I got wrong, one was a mis-click and two others were because I had a dumbass attack and didn't notice the 'all of the above' option on the list.
Missed on both SOTH and CJ, which is really funny because the correct answer for the first was IIRC the answer I picked for the second; apparently, I keep missing spot checks today.
Wait, no, the one I selected for the CJ question was Anthony Kennedy, who was indeed a justice at one time (not sure if he's still alive or if he retired or not).
Forgetting that the Dems got voted out in the majority 2010 was still pretty dumb of me; the GOP have had two SOTHes since Pelosi was in the hotseat. Really, really dumb.
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@Hanzo said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Just using general knowledge and watching Ami movies and series got me 80%. Can I become president now?
boolean eligibleForPresident = person.isCitizenByBirth() && person.age() >= 35 && person.cumulativeResidence() > 14; boolean canBePresident = eligibleForPresident && ( person.isBillionaire() || person.getBillionaireFriendsList().size() > 1);
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@ScholRLEA said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Wait, no, the one I selected for the CJ question was Anthony Kennedy, who was indeed a justice at one time (not sure if he's still alive or if he retired or not).
Justice Anthony Kennedy is still a Justice, but not the Chief Justice, who is John G Roberts, Jr. The latter was on the list, that's one of the ones I remember.
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@Gurth said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Some of these questions make me wonder, though:
Is the intention to weed out the stupid?
The intention is to give you an obvious answer, so that you see the other answers and know what you shouldn't be doing. To place the unspoken "don'ts" in front of you, because obviously some people need to see it.
Unless you made that question up... haven't taken the test yet.
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So I got a 91% by answering only by skimming, ~ a second per question.
I missed almost every "Who was President when", and I missed the stuff about territories.
Some of the questions tempted me to answer sarcastically and "get it wrong".
Like, the one power a state has, to education. "yeah.... about that..."
And who writes laws, "Supreme Court?"
LOLOLOLOL
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@CoyneTheDup Actually, a lot of these guys became rich by running for President... not always even from winning.
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@xaade said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
@CoyneTheDup Actually, a lot of these guys became rich by running for President... not always even from winning.
I know that. It's one of those sick jokes--that has a lot of uncomfortable truth. Because the truth is, you basically have to be rich/know the rich to become president. It's not just a matter of campaign financing, either; it's influence.
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Let's let everyone run, and everyone can vote for whoever.
But, how would we convince the majority of the nation to trust the President if only 13% of the nation voted for him, followed by the 99 other guys that earned 7/8s of a percent.The system we have is less about Democratic vote, and more about keeping everyone from forming a mob and running at the Whitehouse.
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@xaade said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Let's let everyone run, and everyone can vote for whoever.
But, how would we convince the majority of the nation to trust the President if only 13% of the nation voted for him, followed by the 99 other guys that earned 7/8s of a percent.Well then we'd just use one of those new-fangled plurality systems to decide which candidate should win.
I can't find it right now, but I read this article by a mathematician. He laid out five candidates with variant minority vote counts and showed how, with different plurality rules, any of the candidates could win.
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@CoyneTheDup Not really all that different than what is happening now, just with only 2 possibilities.
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@Gurth said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
@PleegWat said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Isn't the 1900s typically the period 1900-1910?
In Dutch, yes. In English, it means 1900–1999 — thus, almost-but-not-quite the 20th century.
Is there a specific way to refer to the decade 1900-1910, or does it depend on context?
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@Khudzlin "the first decade of 20th century"?
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@Khudzlin said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Is there a specific way to refer to the decade 1900-1910, or does it depend on context?
The common unambigious term I've heard is the noughties. Otherwise, yes using 1900's (or 2000's) to refer to the first 10 years relies on context.
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Not bad myself with 75% which could have been higher if I payed more attention to Assassin's Creed story.
There are some questions that leave you thinking, like:
What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States?
Wonder why the answers are not more precise. Sounds, I don't know, iffy. Like a click bait article.
Why did the colonists fight the British?
The options were like "British are evil and mean". I got that one wrong as I answered "because of high taxes"
What is one reason colonists came to America?
Freedom? Really?
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@flabdablet said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
Got an easy 100% on the practice questions for the Australian test.
... why are those questions delivered via a flash download?
serioulsy. they're shockwave flash files that are marked for downlaod....
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@accalia It's so the gubmint can install a keylogger to figure out if you're a trrrrrrrrist ;)
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@Yamikuronue said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
@Lawrence said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
who the h*** is "Hilary" Clinton
Bill's great great granddaughter,
With which mistress?
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@izzion Nobody's quite sure
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@xaade said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
But, how would we convince the majority of the nation to trust the President if only 13% of the nation voted for him, followed by the 99 other guys that earned 7/8s of a percent.
I believe the usual solution is having a second round with only the best-scoring candidates. A candidate needs 51% of votes to win.
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@PleegWat said in Could you pass a US citizenship test?:
I believe the usual solution is having a second round with only the best-scoring candidates. A candidate needs 51% of votes to win.
Not much of a guarantee if the president basically throws away every campaign promise he made.
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I prefer the system where you can vote for multiple people. Overlap wins.
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@Khudzlin That's been about them all.
I tried to relate that to someone that really likes Obama.... "You know he pretty much didn't do what he campaigned to do." At which point I get back, "He was pressured to say those things".
I tell conservatives this, and they can see it.
Then I say, Trump is pretty much doing the same thing... And then they can't see it, conservative or liberal.
I also find it funny watching videos of people assault a guy holding a Trump sign. As if beating up someone is going to do anything other than solidify their existing vote. Then also, there are probably people caught up in the protesting against Trump that could vote for him, but don't want to get the same thing done to them that they see their friends doing. Same thing for every candidate.
Very famous picture on internet. Guy with a confederate flag, and a Bernie flag...
Secret voting works like that...