A Simple Political Quiz

Give it a shot.

It’s simple as evidenced by my score of 11/12. Though the results page reports the average as closer to 50%. Special thanks to Theresa for seeing my error there. Average result is between 8 and 9 correct.

Take the test! Report your results! I suspect MikeDiDonato.com readers are smarter than the average.

Check the comments to see which one I got wrong.

18 thoughts on “A Simple Political Quiz

  • 6/1/2009 at 1:23 pm
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    Sigh. I incorrectly assigned Timothy Geithner’s job.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 1:56 pm
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    I only got 9/12 :( but I’m still slightly higher than average

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  • 6/1/2009 at 2:40 pm
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    I hate the wording of these questions, “Do you happen to know…” The answer to that can only be yes or no! I either know it or I don’t!

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  • 6/1/2009 at 2:50 pm
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    11/12… dang unemployment rate got me.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 2:52 pm
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    Wait wait wait. So .. if you check how you did question-by-question, it tells you what percentage of people answered each question correctly. Only three of those numbers are below 50%. So, wouldn’t that mean that the average person gets 9 out of 12?

    Wait. Wait. I’m … wait. I’m confused. Any statistics nerds want to put it in simple terms for me?

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  • 6/1/2009 at 3:01 pm
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    11/12…I had no idea about the # of deaths in Iraq.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 3:07 pm
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    Unemployment and Iraq, grrrr.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 3:15 pm
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    I don’t think the average response is 50%… percentile rank is different from average percent correct. For example if half of the participants get 10 or fewer questions correct, then if you get 11 correct you’d be ranked in the top 50%. If you got only 50% correct, you could be in the bottom 30th or so percent. SO, Mike D, I think you might have read the results too quickly – most people get about 8 or so correct (I blasted through it quickly and got 8 right and ranked at 49%).

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  • 6/1/2009 at 3:25 pm
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    Oh, oh I see! My percentile ranking != my percent correct. Yes, thanks Theresa!

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  • 6/1/2009 at 3:26 pm
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    Thanks for clearing that up Tree!

    What an interesting confusing indicator!

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  • 6/1/2009 at 4:11 pm
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    11/12 – also burned on the number of dead in iraq.
    i opted to go big instead of going home.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 4:15 pm
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    8/12. Although this is less a political quiz than a “who watches the news?” quiz, and at that I’m surprised I even got half.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 4:20 pm
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    I brute forced some answers to this pressing question. The average number of correct answers is just under eight.

    I listed every possible combination of right/wrong answers, and calculated for each what the chance is a respondant would answer in that series. Then I sorted by number correct, and added all the percentages that were 12 correct, 11 correct, 10 correct, etc. From that I built a histogram and cumulative number correct plot. Feast:

    http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rjlS7ZSTVaZLQ59b9JQT1mQ&output=html

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  • 6/1/2009 at 4:23 pm
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    Your dedication is unparalleled. I am so very impressed.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 7:40 pm
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    11/12.

    I said that that we were gonna status quo in Afghanistan.

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  • 6/1/2009 at 8:46 pm
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    11/12, but I guessed on the three numbery ones, so I was surprised.

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  • 6/2/2009 at 9:34 am
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    12/12 in under 3 minutes. Ding!

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  • 6/2/2009 at 10:13 am
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    “and calculated for each what the chance is a respondant would answer in that series”

    I’m curious, how did you do that?

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