The New York City Citizenship Test
The New York City Citizenship Test
Know about government? Let's see—take the 90-question test!
I made a New York City citizenship test! Take it and see how much you really know about how NYC works. The test is based on the content of the hard mode of The Foundations of New York City (applications open until August 31!).
You might be familiar with the U.S. Citizenship test. If you want to complete naturalization and become a U.S. citizen, you have to correctly answer a small subset of questions from the potential bank of 100. These questions cover basic U.S. history, government, and law. When someone mentions it, it’s usually in a sentence like, “Most native-born U.S. citizens couldn’t pass this test!”
That’s most certainly true, but I don’t buy into the cynicism that often accompanies that observation. It’s an opportunity for any aspiring civics instructor to succeed where others have failed, and to help their fellow citizens access the knowledge and possibility of American government.
But I think many people would be best served by learning about their local government first, and so of course I’ve made The New York City Citizenship Test!
It’s a 90-question test that measures how well you understand the basics of New York City government, law, and political history. The question categories are:
Basic components of government
Matching important city offices with the names of their occupant
City law
Political history and geography
Terms of office, elections, and political parties
State relations
New York City agencies
Why make this test?
Most people don’t know what they don’t know about government. Our education system, especially our university system, does not teach its students how the government really works.
The test corrects that. After taking it, you will know the extent of what you know, or not. And since many principles of city government carry to the state and federal governments, your score here is very likely an indicator of your knowledge of the other levels too.
This test makes plain what most people avoid making plain, especially to others: how much they really know about government.
It’s not supposed to be easy
The test is 90 questions, will take tens of minutes to complete, and will give you genuinely useful information.
It’s not supposed to be something you can easily guess your way through if you don’t know anything. It’s supposed to be easy only if you have a basic, but very robust, understanding of the New York City government.
The test is designed to allow you to feel the distance between where you are, and a level of early intermediate mastery.
But no test can cover everything, and this one is no exception. It’s a selection of basic questions about New York City government and law—if you pass, that doesn’t mean you know everything. But if you don’t pass, you can be sure you’re far off the mark.
Why take this test?
For individuals
It will affirm or dispel your current estimation of your own governmental knowledge. Most people overestimate their own, and this can have unfortunate consequences:
They might assume their current level of knowledge is sort of adequate to the task of forging New York City’s future.
They never venture far enough into the field of government to truly find the interesting affordances.
They will be repeatedly frustrated at their inability to understand anything, and they’ll blame the system for being nonsensical, rather than their own weak grasp of it (this drives the anti-politics meme).
For companies and groups
Test your human capital. Improve your human capital. Have a good time.
Many companies profess a civic orientation. They say they want to give back to the world, especially the city they might be based in. This usually comes out in the form of service-based volunteerism (think food drives, backpack stuffing for back-to-school, and pro-bono work). This is great, and it accomplishes other worthwhile corporate objectives too, like team building.
One thing it doesn’t do, and one thing essentially every self-professed civically oriented company does not do, is ensure its employees have basic civic literacy. If you want your workforce to be civically productive, but you do not take care to help them understand the basics, you are shooting yourself in the foot in an obvious way. I’m not saying civics training should be compulsory (that would have…subpar results), but there is a good place for it in corporate America.
Send this test around your company Slack/email/whatever you use. See how people do, and see if they’d like to become the kind of person who can breeze through it. I’d love to help.
Excelsior.
