Trying to Hold Up the Ivy League's Honor
Scored 58 of 60 on the Civic's Quiz that apparently 40% of Ivy Leaguer students don't seem able to pass. Missed the Jamestown founding date and Just War Theory. Now I can be the crotchety old Princeton alum: "Well in my day..."
Jens:
Scored right between you and Megan (missed the one on the Federal Reserve). I only got the Just War Theory by luck, though, it was pretty much 50-50 and I guessed right.
September 19, 2007, 7:13 pmBarrett:
I scored 58/60 correct as well. I missed Questions #36 and #58.
Being a Political Science major and History minor as an undergraduate and a 3rd year law student helps. I'm curious to see test results broken down by major for both Freshmen and Seniors. I'd imagine there is a wide gap between history students and engineering majors.
September 19, 2007, 8:23 pmDan:
I tied you, Warren. But somehow, I don't see that as upholding ASU's honor. I didn't learn anything relevant there.
September 19, 2007, 10:51 pmdearieme:
Hell, I got 58 and I'm neither an American nor a Historian. Then again, I'm not an ignorant young pup.
September 20, 2007, 1:25 amAnonymous:
Well, I am German, so I scored only 44/60 questions (75%), which I think is still pretty good, given that I really didn't know about some things =)
And my experience of American History is not more than a recollection my high school days and what I read out of interest.
Although, I would qualify as an ignorant young pup :)
September 20, 2007, 3:51 amJames Dean:
46 out of 60 for an Australian with a high school education :)
September 20, 2007, 3:59 amDave Smith:
I got 57. I missed the Jamestown, Just War, and Junta questions.
"Big State" U BA and PH.D., both in economics.
September 20, 2007, 7:01 amZach:
54/60, BS in Computer Science from a small Midwestern public science and engineering university. In college, I took 1 poli sci class, 1 economics class and 0 history classes.
September 20, 2007, 8:55 amjeff:
I'm a college dropout who got 57 correct.
September 20, 2007, 8:57 amCaptain Midnight:
I'm also a college dropout (chemistry major), and I got 56 of 60 right. Two were just plain stupid mistakes on my part -- I knew the right answer and clicked the wrong answer anyway. Just call me a test-taking bonehead. The two I didn't know were the just war question (#36), and the Federal Reserve question (#58).
September 20, 2007, 11:11 amMark:
I got 58 out of 60 and got the same exact answers wrong as Coyote.
September 20, 2007, 5:21 pmHighway:
52 out of 60 for a civil engineer. I did badly on the philosopher ones.
September 20, 2007, 7:13 pmM. Hodak:
58/60. Just like Barrett, missed 36 and 58. Who the hell has heard of the "just war" theory?
September 20, 2007, 7:26 pmSRC:
I am thinking that we are not hearing about most peoples results in the comments, only some of the higher ones.
Would it even be fair to speculate what President Bush would score?
September 20, 2007, 10:58 pmJaycee:
I scored 75%, and I'm not a US citizen.
September 21, 2007, 2:27 amCandy:
60/60. With the exception of the econ questions (B.A. in Econ, University of Washington, 1980), I attribute my success not to my formal education, but to the past 10 or so years of independent reading, homeschooling my kids, and then having long discussions with them during their years at Hillsdale College.
September 21, 2007, 8:57 amI love this blog, by the way! I get lots of great ideas here for my current events service for teachers.
markm:
Electronics engineer. 58/60
September 21, 2007, 9:51 amCraig:
Public school teacher. 36/60
(Note: this is purely hypothetical).
September 21, 2007, 11:10 amGreg:
"Would it even be fair to speculate what President Bush would score?"
Probably higher than most in Congress.
I failed miserably, with 78%. Ignorant old pup, I guess. :)
September 21, 2007, 12:26 pmMesa Econoguy:
Um, not to be the grammatical asshole, but shouldn’t the title of this post be “Trying to uphold…….â€
Sorry.
[pseudo-Ivy Leaguer]
September 21, 2007, 3:39 pmBill Lever:
I guess agenda education matters.
The astonishing thing was that THESE SCORES GOT WORSE between freshmen and senior years: (freshman score, senior score and change)
Univ. of Calif.-Berkeley 57.03% 56.27% -0.76%
Rutgers 50.93% 49.99% -0.94%
Princeton 63.60% 61.90% -1.70%
Duke 65.66% 63.41% -2.25%
Yale 68.94% 65.85% -3.09%
Cornell 61.90% 56.95% -4.95%
One might conclude that a Yale or Cornell education is kind of like a lobotomy.
These got better:
September 22, 2007, 9:51 amHarvard 63.59% 69.56% change 5.97%
Notre Dame 55.66% 61.25% 5.59%
Charles D. Quarles:
I passed :). I answered 53/60 correctly. I've been out of school for more than 20 years now; and, since my children are all grown and gone now, my memory of these things is declining.
September 23, 2007, 5:50 pm