根据最近的一项调查显示，只有三分之一的美国人能通过在公民考试时会提出的多项选择考试，而通过的标准并不特别高。考生只要得到至少60分，相当于“D”分，就算通过考试。
公民身份考试是美国入籍程序的一部分，适用于非美国出生的人。在美国的合法永久居民，也就是“绿卡”持有人，通常可以在美国居住5年后申请公民身份。
参加考试的美国人中有近四分之三的人无法在多项选择考题中选出美国最初的13个殖民州，57％的人不能说有美国最高法院有多少法官，有超过一半的 60％ 的人不知道美国在第二次世界大战期间与哪些国家作战。
非营利组织伍德罗威尔逊基金会的里卡德说：“这真的很让人伤脑筋。“他说，“这显示出真正需要开始研究我们如何在美国教授和学习历史，以及我们如何才能让历史对现在的学生来说更有意义、更有趣、更有吸引力，来扭转这种趋势。“
令人啼笑皆非的是，40％参加考试的人表示历史是他们在学校时最喜欢的科目。
参加考试的老年人得分最高，65岁以上的人中有74％正确地回答了10个问题中至少6个问题。而45岁以下的人中只有19％的能通过考试。
Just one in three Americans can pass a multiple choice exam featuring questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test, according to a recent survey. And the bar isn't particularly high. Test takers must get a score of at least 60 percent — the equivalent of a "D" grade — to pass the exam.
The citizenship test is a part of the U.S. naturalization process for people not born in the United States. People who are legal permanent residents — known as "Green Card" holders — can normally apply for citizenship after living in the United States for a 5-year period.
Almost three-fourths of the Americans who took the test couldn't pick out the 13 original colonies in the multiple choice exam, 57 percent couldn't say how many justices serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, and more than half — 60 percent — didn't know which countries the United States fought during World War II.
“It really becomes troublesome," says Patrick Riccards of the non-profit Woodrow Wilson Foundation. "It points to a real need to begin to look at how we are teaching and learning history in this country, and what we can do to make history more relevant, more interesting, more engaging for today’s students so that we can reverse this trend.”
Ironically, 40 percent of people who took the test cited history as their favorite subject while they were in school.
Senior citizens achieved the highest scores, with 74 percent of people over 65 answering at least six out of 10 questions correctly. Only 19 percent of people under the age of 45 managed to pass the exam.