Why you shouldn’t answer survey questions while yapping on the phone

I found this little civics quiz from ISI and learned that 71% of Americans fail the test with an overall average score of 49%. Elected officials scored even lower than the general public with an average score of 44%. So I figured hey, I know a lot about this stuff and I want to be an elected official so let’s see how I’d do. Unfortunately, my partner in a new project (will announce details shortly) and running mate, Angela Keaton, rang me in the middle of the quiz and I multi-tasked right through the quiz and conversation and earned myself a ‘B’ score.

You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %

You can take the quiz as often as you like, however, your score will only count once toward the monthly average.

If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.

Answers to Your Missed Questions:

Question #1 – E. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Question #27 – A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
Question #30 – C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
Question #33 – D. tax per person equals government spending per person

I think you can see where in the quiz the phone rang but I’d like to offer a defense for missing question number one. I’d clicked choice A (A. life, liberty, and property) as the correct answer but on vacay my dumb ass had been reading some Locke; it was stupid error to make but since most states’ Bill of Rights written before the Declaration of Independence borrowed heavily from Locke and used the term property I won’t beat myself up too badly. Besides, I know some of y’all will beat up on me enough because it really was a dumb fucking mistake.

As to the other questions, I should have paid better attention to the wording. I answered D, D and A because I just moseyed through without really reading the full questions/choices combos. I fell into the trap of answering how I’d like to see things (#30), parroting a libertarian mantra (#27) and FSM knows what on #33.

Oh well, I’ll try to take comfort in knowing that I helped increase the national score and I’ll make a better effort to do one thing at a time from now on. I just hope the phone doesn’t ring in the next several hours because I’ve been reading Gibbon and I’d really like to make sure I get something out of it.

~ by Miche on November 24, 2008.