The United States Naturalization Test has two parts: an English test and a civics test. The English test consists of three parts: reading, writing and speaking, while the civics test covers topics including American history and government. When Donald Trump came into office, he passed Executive Order 14161 titled “Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” In order to comply with this order, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has implemented a new civics test.
The new civics test includes 20 questions, 12 of which test takers must get right, compared to the 2008 civics test that asked 10 questions, six of which test takers had to get correct. The new civics test also includes a larger focus on American history and requires more thought-out answers. The test is given orally, meaning that there are no multiple-choice questions to help eliminate potential answers.
Certain questions about U.S. holidays and geography, like “What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States?” are now being replaced with more difficult questions like “Why did the United States enter the Persian Gulf War?” according to NPR.
To simulate the civics portion of the test, a random number generator was used to pick 20 questions out of the 128 available. Then the selected questions were put into a survey that was given to multiple students throughout this school.
Senior Christina Chow received an 18/20 after taking the survey. It was difficult to determine which answers were correct as the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services only provides a limited number of correct answers on their website. They do acknowledge that there are other correct answers, but “applicants are encouraged to respond to the questions using the answers provided below,” according to their website. To combat this issue, “I think it should be multiple choice because I think it would decrease the subjectiveness of the questions,” Chow said.
Similarly, by having a multiple choice exam, it is more accessible. “Multiple choice is easier for everyone,” freshman Marie Tevosyan said.
Junior Alex Yang also scored an 18/20 and said the easiest question for him to answer was “Who was president during the Great Depression?” to which the answer is Franklin D. Roosevelt. This topic is well-known and taught in most U.S. history classes. However, a question like “What is the form of government of the United States?,” which might be considered easy, is actually more difficult. The most common answer would be for students to respond with “democracy,” but the correct answer is actually a republic or a representative democracy.
This is just one example of how the U.S. civics test could be more difficult for immigrants who are traveling from other countries and may not be as proficient in English to pass. “The wording can be confusing, and most of the history questions are inaccurate measures of people’s citizenship qualities,” Chow said.
However, other students disagree. “The questions are easily understandable for people with minimal English knowledge,” Yang said.
A 12/20 is a 60% which would be a D at this school. This may be considered too simple for some people. “I would think you should be required to get an 80%,” law and personal finance teacher Christopher Thompson said.
