Question: What was the main issue in the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858?
Your Answer: Is slavery morally wrong?
Correct Answer: Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
Question: In 1935 and 1936 the Supreme Court declared that important parts of the New Deal were unconstitutional. President Roosevelt responded by threatening to:
Your Answer: impeach several Supreme Court justices
Correct Answer: appoint additional Supreme Court justices who shared his views
I suppose I'll accept 31/33 for before 7:30am and before coffee as passing results but I'm not happy about it.
30/33 - 90.91%. I'm honestly surprised the average was only 49% - I would honestly expect that to be lower if the participants were truly random.
Also, this is terrifying (from here):
Officeholders and non-officeholders find it equally difficult to identify the three branches of government. Only 49% of each group can name the legislative, executive, and judicial.
I got 30/33 but honestly I don't think this is all that great a measure of one's "civic literacy" to be honest. A lot of these questions focus on people/places/facts and not on application of knowledge. Honestly what does knowing about sputnik have to do with my civic literacy? That's not one of the ones I missed, and while yes it's a historic world event that helped to ignite the space race, it doesn't have a whole lot to do with the Bill of Rights.
I missed the 4 questions on Puritans, Flood Control, federal stimulus policy in a recession, and free market vs. central planning. I think if I were actually awake, I'd have done better.
I think something like this weighted more toward public policy matters of the day should be a test for voting. 10 non-multiple choice questions from a pool of 100. You get to cast as many ballots as you get right answers.