Below is a sample of 10 questions from a new list of pilot questions for the Naturalization test. It is supposed to be written on the level of a 10th grade civics student. Go ahead, test yourself, but don’t cheat…the answers are at the bottom of the test. Our bet is that a bunch of us “good citizens” don’t know enough, or haven’t bothered to learn enough about our country, its history and government, to get all of these correct. By the way, a score of 60% is all that is required.
Test yourself as a citizen
How many amendments does the U.S. Constitution have? What is an amendment, anyway? And what year was the Constitution drafted?
Those are among 144 questions developed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that figure to amend, or change, the naturalization exam for prospective citizens.
(The Constitution, by the way, was drafted in 1787 and contains 27 amendments, the first 10 of which are known as the Bill of Rights, to answer another of the pilot questions).
On Thursday, Immigration Services began administering the questions to a total of 5,000 volunteer citizenship applicants in 10 cities around the country, including one in the Northwest (Yakima, Wash.).
Each volunteer will be given 10 of the questions. A passing score is just six, which makes you wonder if maybe the bar is too low on what amounts to a 10th-grade civics exam. And beyond that, anyone who misses even one question has the option of immediately switching to the current exam, which is considered simpler and easier.
It also, however, is considered lacking in a variety of ways, including the areas of standardized content, protocol and scoring mechanisms, which is why a revamping is under way.
Too lengthy to reproduce here, a complete list of the pilot questions is available at http://www.uscis.gov. In the meantime, if you’re interested in seeing how citizenship worthy you are, below are 10 questions from the list.
If you score the requisite six or better, congratulations. If you don’t, take it as a hint that maybe you could know a bit more about the country you’re lucky to call home.
Good luck; answers appear below:
1. Who becomes president if both the president and vice president can no longer serve?
2. Who is the chief justice of the U.S.?
3. What is the current federal minimum wage in the U.S.?
4. What are “inalienable rights”?
5. Name a responsibility that is only for U.S. citizens.
6. Name the group of essays that supported passage of the U.S. Constitution.
7. Name one of the writers of those essays.
8. What country sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.?
9. What did Susan B. Anthony do?
10. Who was president during World War I?
___________________________________________________________________________________
(Answers: 1, Speaker of the House; 2, John Roberts; 3, $5.15; 4, those rights you are born with; 5, Voting, or serving on a jury; 6, the Federalist Papers; 7, James Monroe, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton; 8, France; 9, fought for women’s rights; 10, Woodrow Wilson.