Students Ignorant of Western Culture: Poll Shows Need for Core Curriculum

Thursday, June 2, 2005

The Dartmouth Review's culture survey of 242 students was conducted May 16-27 in Thayer Dining Hall. While not "scientific" per se, the results represent a disturbing trend in the knowledge base of the typical Dartmouth student.

1. Q. What famous brothers founded Rome?

A. Romulus and Remus

Percent Correct: 64.0
Percent Incorrect: 36.0

2. Q. What does quod erat demonstrandum (Q.E.D.) mean?

A. It has been proven

Percent Correct: 32.2
Percent Incorrect: 67.8

3. Q. Name five US Supreme Court justices.

A. William H. Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer

Percent Correct: 15.7
Percent Incorrect: 84.3

4. Q. What English king signed the Magna Carta?

A. King John

Percent Correct: 18.6
Percent Incorrect: 81.4

5. Q. Who painted The Birth of Venus ca. 1482?

A. Botticelli

Percent Correct: 24.0
Percent Incorrect: 76.0

6. Q. Name one of the three authors of The Federalist Papers.

A. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay

Percent Correct: 45.0
Percent Incorrect: 55.0

7. Q. Who was Dante's guide through Hell?

A. Virgil

Percent Correct: 24.4
Percent Incorrect: 75.6

8. Q. Name one of the two men who invented calculus:

A. Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz

Percent Correct: 46.3
Percent Incorrect: 53.7

9. Q. What is the dominant sect of Islam in Iran?

A. Shi'a

Percent Correct: 38.4
Percent Incorrect: 61.6

10. Q. What famous battle occurred in October of 1066 AD?

A. The Battle of Hastings

Percent Correct: 22.7
Percent Incorrect: 77.3

11. Q. Who wrote the "1812 Overture"?

A. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Percent Correct: 21.9
Percent Incorrect: 78.1

12. Q. What Shakespearean character demanded a "pound of flesh" to repay a debt?

A. Shylock

Percent Correct: 25.6
Percent Incorrect: 74.6

13. Q. Where is Michelangelo's Creation of Adam located?

A. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Percent Correct: 50.8
Percent Incorrect: 49.2

14. Q. Which President's pet project was building the Panama Canal?

A. Theodore Roosevelt

Percent Correct: 56.6
Percent Incorrect: 43.4

15. Q. Who wrote "A Modest Proposal"?

A. Jonathan Swift

Percent Correct: 24.8
Percent Incorrect: 75.2

16. Q. Who composed the symphony with a movement known as "Ode to Joy?"

A. Ludwig van Beethoven

Percent Correct: 63.2
Percent Incorrect: 36.8

17. Q. What woman was the cause of the Trojan War?

A. Helen of Troy

Percent Correct: 83.9
Percent Incorrect: 16.1

18. Q. What is the major third party in British politics?

A. The Liberal-Democratic Party

Percent Correct: 9.1
Percent Incorrect: 90.9

19. Q. Name three of the twelve apostles:

A. Simon (Peter), Andrew, James the Greater, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the Less, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot, Matthias

Percent Correct: 16.9
Percent Incorrect: 83.1

20. Q. Who wrote Democracy in America?

A. Alexis de Tocqueville

Percent Correct: 19.4
Percent Incorrect: 80.6

21. Q. Which four US Presidents were assassinated?

A. Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, John Kennedy

Percent Correct: 10.3
Percent Incorrect: 89.7

22. Q. Who wrote Don Quixote?

A. Miguel de Cervantes

Percent Correct: 46.3
Percent Incorrect: 53.7

23. Q. Name three freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

A. Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition

Percent Correct: 45.9
Percent Incorrect: 54.1

24. Q. Who wrote "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?

A. T.S. Eliot

Percent Correct: 19.8
Percent Incorrect: 80.2

25. Q. Who wrote Faust?

A. Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

Percent Correct: 24.4
Percent Incorrect: 75.6

26. Q. Who wrote the novel The Brothers Karamazov?

A. Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Percent Correct: 39.7
Percent Incorrect: 60.3

27. Q. Who invented the printing press?

A. Johann Gutenberg

Percent Correct: 46.3
Percent Incorrect: 53.7

28. Q. Name the five Great Lakes:

A. Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

Percent Correct: 45.5
Percent Incorrect: 54.5

Students Ignorant of Western Culture: Poll Shows Need for Core Curriculum

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