Are you smart enough to be a German?
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images If you want to become a German citizen, you’ll have to pass a new citizenship test as of September 1. The test has 33 questions on the country’s politics, history, and society. To pass, you have to answer 17 questions correctly (52 percent of the total 33). Seven sample multiple-choice questions were unveiled ...
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
If you want to become a German citizen, you’ll have to pass a new citizenship test as of September 1. The test has 33 questions on the country’s politics, history, and society. To pass, you have to answer 17 questions correctly (52 percent of the total 33).
Seven sample multiple-choice questions were unveiled this week. I took the mini-test here and passed, but just barely (I got four questions right). How did you all score? Feel free to leave comments below.
And, for anyone planning to become an American, the United States will be using a redesigned citizenship test as of October 1 that is supposed to focus less on civics trivia and more on fundamentals about the country’s government, history, and geography. Ten sample questions are here. I doubt many American-born citizens would know the answers to most of these questions. In fact, Gary Gerstle, a professor of American history at Vanderbilt University, told the New York Times that of those who take the test:
[T]heir knowledge of American history may even exceed the knowledge of millions of American-born citizens.
No word yet on whether the German or American citizenship tests’ study materials will include a DVD of gay men kissing and a topless woman on the beach — images found in the Netherland’s test-prep package.
Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009-2016 and was an assistant editor from 2007-2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP
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