The Secret to Doing Well on Government and Civics Tests: A Grader Tells All

Occasionally companies hire me to work on tests for them. I can't be too specific- confidentiality and all that- but I can tell you that after working on these tests I gain valuable insights into how to do well on them. And for anyone that is interested, I'm going to pass on a huge tip on how to do well on any government or civics test- be a conservative.

That's right, after grading thousands of tests over a period of many years, it suddenly hit me me- the number one way that a student could improve their score on many of these tests on government and civics is to be a conservative instead of a liberal.

Before you just laugh and reject my thesis, hear me out. Liberals (Democrats, progressives, communists, socialists, progressives, whatever you want to call them) tend to get a lot of questions wrong on government and civics tests because in order to be a liberal you have to buy into certain myths, lack important information about history and economics, or have an elitist or judgemental personality that does not lend itself well to open, honest, unbiased tests.

For example, when students are asked about group voting tendencies on a test question, liberal students reply that every group in society is moving Democrat because Democrats are right on all the issues, and that only racists and evil businessman still vote Republican or conservative. Conservative students reply that some groups are moving Democrat because of their stance on some issues and other groups are moving Republican because of their stance on some issues- which is the correct answer. The only difference- being a liberal makes you put the wrong answer down.

Another question asked about federalism and limited government. Liberals answer that federalism does not exist any more and that limited government is an outdated answer that no one believes in any more. They write this because they think this is correct- they base their answer on faulty information. Conservative students reply with discussions on how federalism has changed and how limited government has changed, which again is the correct answer.

Liberal students reply to questions about fiscal policy by asserting that raising taxes and raising spending makes the economy go up and lowering taxes and lowering spending makes the economy go down. Conservative students discuss Keynesian theory vs Hayek, which again is the correct answer.

When asked virtually any question about civics and government, a liberal student's answer is filled with inaccurate information, myths, lies, distortions of the truth, and falsehoods. That's not to say that conservatives don't also do this, but one thing that I have noticed about conservatives is that they do this much less and attempt to provide evidence to support any assertions they make, whereas liberals, because they know they are right, throw off multiple lies, hoping one will stick.

Once, a student asked me how I could consider myself a conservative, when conservatives are such bad people (in their opinion). I said that I wish I could be a socialist, or a liberal, but sadly, those ideologies are false- they do not describe the reality of the world that I see about me. An ideology is a way of looking at the world, a lens through which you can view things, and if the lens is wrong or incorrect, you won't see the true reality of the world. Liberals don't see the true reality of the world around them- in fact, most outright reject that there is any sort of true reality to the world and that everything in it is just subjective- and so whenever they advance their theories, make predictions, or shape policy, they are always wrong, because their lens is wrong. I'd love for them to be right- if only money grew on trees and that paying people to stay home and do nothing made society a better place to live and criminals could be released early from prisons and holding hands and singing a song made evil dictators be nice- but sadly, that isn't the way the world really works. To be right, to be correct, you have to be conservative.

And on thousands of tests that students are taking all around the country on government and civics, that is the biggest difference between a student doing well and a student doing poorly- the ability to see the world correctly by being a conservative and not a liberal.