Natural-Born Citizens vs. the Citizenship Test
First off, this test isn't as easy as some people think. When you say "Citizenship Test", people laugh and say that it should be easy to list off the capital and first President, but that's not all that this test is. How many natural-born American citizens know the "rule of law" or the current Chief Justice of the United States? When I gave this exam to friends earlier today, none of them got perfect scores, and only one of them actually passed the test.
Before I gave the Citizenship test, I read up on the history and rules of it in hopes of understanding how the test had evolved to its modern day format. Over the years, trick questions were removed, the examiners were changed (judges to officers), and educational programs were created when the federal Bureau of Nationalization took over in 1906. It only became a mandatory requirement after 1950.
What I found interesting was that since most of these tests are given orally and vary from examiner to examiner, there is very little record of how they were done in the earlier centuries, especially because some judges didn't even test the applicants. Furthermore, a lot of the modern exam is still left up to the examiner's discretion, so there is no official written test. The examiner will observe the age, educational level, and background of the Legal Permanent Resident and determine what questions are fair to ask. For example, if you are 65 or older and have been living in the United States for 20 years or more as a LPR, you only have to study the questions on the study guide that are marked with an asterisk; this makes it a little easier for you to study. The purpose of the exam is to demonstrate that you have basic knowledge of American history and government, not to test you on specific wars and/or events.
However, the core rule is the same everywhere: you must get six out of ten citizenship questions right in order to pass the test. And the number of possible questions? One hundred with very specific answers. Everyone has had that teacher who says that "one answer is the BEST answer" or "choose the answer that is most correct", and that teacher probably admires this exam. At the beginning of the study guide, the USCIS tells you that they are "aware that there may be additional correct answers to the 100 civics questions", but "applicants are encouraged to respond to the civics questions using the answers provided below". When I administered this test to my friends, all of them tried to argue that an answer should have been on there or that the answers given aren't the most common options. But depending on your officer, your self-constructed answers may or may not be accepted (so I didn't accept them).
Now for the experiment. Since my subjects were going to be my friends who have grown up in the American educational system, I tried to choose the hardest questions in order to simulate the level of difficulty of this exam for the actual immigrants; the questions I asked would have only been the worst-case scenario. The three girls participating were all Honors-level seniors who had taken US History and had learned about the government countless times, and I allowed them to work together on some questions (the idea-based), while for others I asked for them to each write down their answer (the dates and amounts). I also provided a lot of hints and prompting for one of the questions because they kept insisting that "states being able to collect taxes" was one of the answers, and every time there was an idea-based one, I allowed them to deliberate for a while before they each chose a final answer. I do realize that this is definitely not the most professional or accurate way to take this exam, but this was mainly just for fun (and it was being done during lunch). Besides, the teamwork should have made it easier for them to get the answers correct.
I was wrong about that. Taniya, a fellow E=mc2 student, was the single person that passed; the other two got 5 questions correct, just barely missing the cutoff. No one knew who the Chief Justice was, no one knew what the "rule of law" was, and no one could originally think of any powers of the states given by the Constitution. The only reason Taniya knew the last day to turn in federal income tax forms was because it is the same day as her birthday. And without the ability to discuss with friends and the occasionally given hint, the scores probably would have been even worse.
At the end, I informed each one of the girls of how they did. I explained that the two girls who didn't pass would have their applications "continued" in hopes of passing on the second try, but if they fail again, their application would be denied. One of the girls remarked that this experience "was so stressful", and I completely agree with that. We were surrounded by close friends in a large cafeteria in a place we knew well, but all of the immigrants who really take this exam do it one-on-one in an unfamiliar environment. We were laughing as questions were answered incorrectly, but for them, this is a test that can literally change their life.
Link to the 100 question test:
Link to the history:
