National Geographic Geography Quiz

[markedel]

I only got 6 on the europe quiz-very sad consdering I came in 3rd in a national trivia competition last may.

But the geography questions weren't terribly difficult (I got the Christianity one wrong-I swear Islam is bigger by now, but guess not) but I only needed to think about the scandanavia one. Interesting how few Americans know where Israel is... or where Japan is. I'm glad they didn't ask about Canada-note how more canadians can find US than americans.

[Silverstripe]

I got all eight questions right, but I could probably answer a lot more HISTORY questions about North America (especially US and Canada) and Europe than I could about any of the other continents. The same is probably true with geography.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Silverstripe
I got all eight questions right, but I could probably answer a lot more HISTORY questions about North America (especially US and Canada) and Europe than I could about any of the other continents. The same is probably true with geography.

I was thinking about that 70% that can't find New Jersey on a map. That shows a lack of comprehension in History classes too - not just geography.

Not only is New Jersey one of the original 13 colonies everyone learns about in elementary school and is repeatedly tested on, but also the turning point of the Revolution occurred in Trenton and Princeton when Washington crossed the Delaware to attack the Hessians in Trenton on Christmas morning. I guess most Americans wouldn't even know where the Delaware is or what states it seperates.

Washington spent more time in New Jersey than any other colony and more battles were fought in New Jersey than anywhere else during the Revolutionary War.

Thomas Edison invented the incandesent light bulb, the phonograph, the movie camera, etc here.

If someone doesn't know where New Jersey is - then they don't know where these key events took place. Without the Battle of Trenton - we'd still be an English possession (like Canada ).

If history didn't get people to figure out where NJ is, maybe the entertainment industry would. MTV has hosted "Summer Beach House" at Seaside Heights twice. MTV even had Seaside Survivor, where contestants had to go from Manhattan through NJ to Seaside. It's the home of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Frank Sanatra, Whitney Houston and many others - not to mention the "Sopranos". We're home of Princeton University - rated the number one college in America.

In elementary school we always colored in the 13 original colonies and we had to know them and fill in their names on a blank map for tests.

[LuthienTinuviel]

when/where was this test? i never took it?

[Khamûl]

I got 19/20 right. I missed the world religion question too. Oh well.

LuthienTinuviel, a link to the quiz can be found in jerseydevil's first post. Click on the words "Global Geographic Literacy Survey".

[Radagast The Brown]

I got 19/20. I was wrong on the question with the movement of the ocean or something like this.

It is an easy queeze - probably because I'm very good in Geography. I like Geography, and the question weren't hard at all. (and I'm just 13 years old (!))

[Erawyn]

I got perfect, and I thought it was pretty easy, but then i love geography, history etc. still the u.s.'s results were pretty sad.

[Shadowfax]

Some people can be so ignorant I think. I got 18/20. Pretty easy I thought, and I'm 16 years old from Canada.

[azalea]

I got them all right on the first one, but only got 6/8 on the second. I missed the most populous country (I put France instead of Germany) and I put that Sweden is not an EU member, when it's actually Norway. Oh, well.

I agree that geography needs to be taught more in school. I was allowed to skip geography in HS because I was in an AP class, so the first real Geog. class I had was in college. It was a great course w/ a really good instructor. We did have a unit in 5th gr. about South America and learned all of the countries, but that's the only other true geog. course I had.

When I taught elementary school, I used a program called Daily Geography, which would be part of the students' AM work. It was a couple of geog. questions they would have to answer (they could use maps or the globe to help them if needed, since it was a learning activity, not a test). Then we would go over the answers and it became a great springboard for discussion about different topics in geography.

[gdl96]

20/20 on the first test and 4/8 on the Eurpean test. But I'm not too smart when it comes to Europe.

[Radagast The Brown]

I can't find this "europe test".

[Earniel]

Aw, now I feel stupid. Mmmm, may I add to my defence that maps and me never went together well? Nah, I'm just stupid. Good thing I don't have geography anymore. But at least I KNOW where Belgium is!

Originally posted by jerseydevil
3% of Swedes didn't know where Sweden was. If the multiple choice list included Finland or Norway in the choices - then I would have been guessing. I couldn't remember which one was Sweden.

Ditto, yeah it's a shame since I'm half a continent closer than you are but I keep switching them. They should have included all numbers in the test I think, giving only a few numbers makes it easier to guess.

[azalea]

Yeah, that would have been the same for me, too. But the numbers were so small, I could hardly read what they were. If they had had all the numbers as choices, I definately would have gotten some wrong because I'd get the 3s mixed up with 8s, etc. They would have to make the numbers bigger.

[Elvellon]

“Top of the class, along with the Poles”

I think they both were quite straightforward, but the National Geographic quiz was better made, two of the questions of the European quiz were not from universally known facts.