Am I smarter than the average Harvard Graduate?

I took this civics quiz and scored 70%,

You answered 42 out of 60 correctly — 70.00 %

but I am over 50 years old, have not attended formal education classes since the mid 80's and then it was not civics. It was statute, commercial, property and case law. Oh and I took a couple of computer tech classes at the time too.

If I remember correctly 70% is something like the lowest point considered to be a C-.

Considering that Freshman and Seniors of some of this countries most "prestigious" academic institutions took this test and;

NO COLLEGE EARNED BETTER THAN A “D+”

I'd say I did fairly well.

The highest Mean Senior Score of 69.56% was achieved by Harvard University by the way.

Don't get me wrong this post is not so much what this quiz says about me, as what it says about the quality and focus of an expensive college education.

According to the summary, 5 pages of major findings and 3 pages of additional findings posted on the Intercollegiate Studies Institute website by their National Civic Literacy Board, college seniors know astoundingly little about America’s history, political thought, market economy and international relations.

In fact the report points out that to a certain degree after four years of college Seniors were dumber than when they started.

In other words Obama voters. (Sorry I apologize, I couldn't help myself)

So much for that Ivy League Education.


TOP 10 THINGS STUDENTS “UNLEARNED” ABOUT AMERICAN HISTORY

Although the average college senior outscored the average college freshman by 3.8 points overall on the American civic literacy exam, seniors were especially less likely than freshmen to correctly answer questions about major themes in American history.

That's not all folks, the National Civic Literacy Board survey tables also points out that;

• More expensive schools like Yale (49), Duke (48), and Princeton (46) ranked in the bottom 10
• Less expensive schools like the University of Mississippi(10), Mississippi State University (6) and Eastern Connecticut University (1) ranked in the top 10
• Of schools that ranked in the top ten for Resident salaries, 6 scored in the bottom 10
• Of schools that ranked in the bottom ten for resident salaries, 3 scored in the top 10.
• Heavily subsidized schools like Yale (49), Duke (48) and Princeton (46) ranked in the bottom 10
• Less subsidized Schools like Iowa State (9), Connecticut State (1), and the University of Mississippi (10) ranked in the top 10.

The ISI's National Civic Literacy Board lists several more conclusions about the tested colleges if your in the mood for some statistical reading and have an hour or so of free time check it out.

If you are a student or parent of a student that is going to be heading off to the hallowed halls of higher learning in the next year or two, and cost is a factor, I would encourage you to take a hard look at some of the lower tuition schools that rank real high on this survey. It might be less money better spent.

Take the test - I double, no I triple dog dare you.

No you don't have to share your results, but you might learn something about yourself.

How can that a bad thing?