Your expectations are a little high, methinks. My grandma always said average ain't that bright.

At least Chimpy's anyway. Deferment Dick might know how to study for it.

Bush?

But can we deport him if he fails?

Like the 50% U.S. citizens it is estimated would not pass the test

Good for you. I got nine out of ten but I didn't think it was that easy. I missed the one about the number of amendments. Answer was somewhere in my head but I couldn't find it.

The question about who can vote was interesting. Actually the Constitution gives no one the right to vote; it only lists reason for which voting cannot be denied.

When I have time I'm going to take a go at the full version.

Without studying I missed the number of ammendments, the number of respresentatives, and the picked the wrong patriot as a writer for the Federalist papers. So, I barely passed (I got 3 wrong, 4 was the limit). That said, I had a childhood of US history and government classes pounded into my brain, my mother was a history teacher and I like history. While this test obviously proves I am bad with numbers, I would guess I probably did better than the average US citizen on the street. I think it would be daunting, though not impassably difficult, for a someone who hadn't been studying US civics and history since childhood. And that they would need a fairly decent grip on these concepts to pass. I think the test strikes a good balance.

uh, then why do we hand it out for free to anyone who is accidentally plopped out of mom's womb here? and let them keep it no matter what horrible, despicable and treasonous crimes they commit?

i suggest that we start behaving like a democratic meritocracy rather than a geographic aristocracy. even if you are born here, you gotta work (including raising family, caring for elders and volunteering), vote, educate yourself and keep out of trouble to get the "benefit of the doubt." if you fail, then you gotta re-qualify every year for citizenship, just like a driver's license. behave badly enough, you're outta here...

i'm so sick of people crowing about how superior they are because of nothing more than being born, and how we need to lock everyone else out. it's just bullshit. being american is a privilege, not a right...

Or (Woodrow) Wilson being president during WWI. How does that bit of info affect understanding the Constitution? I hope, once Cheney/Bush are out, that understanding what the Constitution means becomes the focus of the test.

And speaking of Cheney/Bush, some parts of the test are hypothetical these day, for example, the question on checks and balances.

The fact you don't give a shit about American history says a lot about you, and nothing about the value of American history.

A major reason we're in the mess we're in now is that our electorate, and our leaders, have not learned from our past mistakes. So we re-elect a president with a Jacksonian contempt for the rule of law. Who we've blindly and jingoisticly followed into war, like we've also done before.

There would not be a US Constitution w/o the Federalist Papers having convinced the electorate that they were a vast improvement over the Articles of Confederation. Maybe you should Google 'em at least?