Practice American Civics: Test Yourself and Learn What You Missed
The short answer. Three ways to learn the same material. The Civic Coach asks you questions and adapts to what you get wrong. The Daily question is one question a day with a streak. And every answer either of them uses is written out in full on the pages behind them, so nothing is locked inside a widget.
Civics is taught once in this country, at around fourteen, and then never again. Nobody comes back to check whether it stuck. So most adults carry a rough sense of how government works, discover the gaps at the worst moment, and have nowhere to go that is neither a textbook nor a sales pitch.
These are the tools we built for that. They cost nothing, they ask for nothing, and they work on a phone.
Start with the Civic Coach
It asks one question at a time. When you miss one it tells you why the answer is what it is, and links to the page that explains the whole subject. Then it remembers, and brings that question back a few days later, and again a few weeks after that if you need it.
There are six ways to use it. Ask it to teach you something. Say an answer out loud and check yourself. Have it quiz you cold. Look up your own state and county. Ask it a question in your own words. Or just look at what you have learned so far.
One thing it will not do is tell you who to vote for. Ask it and it will say so plainly and hand you the page on how to research a race yourself.
Or answer one question a day
The Daily question is a single question, three guesses, and a streak you will not want to break. It takes about thirty seconds. Everybody in the country gets the same question on the same day, and you can share the result without spoiling it for anyone.
It is the version to use if you want the habit rather than the study session.
Every question, written out
Both tools draw on the same bank of questions, and every one of those questions and answers is published as plain text on the Coach page. Scroll past the tool and it is all there: the question, the answer, why the answer is what it is, and a link to the page that covers it properly.
That matters for two reasons. A reader with JavaScript turned off still gets everything. And nobody has to trust a widget to know whether we are telling them the truth.
What the questions cover
The same ground a good civics course covers, chosen so that every question is about something that comes up in an ordinary life.
- Levels of government. Federal, state and local, and which one actually decides the thing in front of you. The three levels.
- Branches. Who writes the law, who carries it out, who says what it means. The three branches.
- Rights and responsibilities. What the Constitution guarantees every person here, and what it asks in return. Rights and responsibilities.
- How a law is made. All the stages, and the four places a bill usually dies. How a bill becomes a law.
- Voting and the ballot. How elections run and how to read the offices below the top of the ticket. How voting works.
- Taking part. Reading an agenda before the vote, speaking at a hearing, commenting on a rule. Making your voice heard.
Is this the citizenship test?
No, and we want to be exact about that. This is general civic education for anybody living in the United States, citizen or not. It covers the same subjects a civics course covers.
We are not a government agency, we are not affiliated with one, and nothing here is an official study guide for any examination. If you are preparing for the naturalization test, the questions and the rules for it are published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and that is the source to use.
Questions people ask
Is there a civics practice test I can take right now?
Yes. The Civic Coach asks one question at a time, tells you why the answer is what it is, and links to the page that explains it in full. It costs nothing, needs no account, and works on a phone.
How is this different from a list of questions and answers?
A list treats every question the same. The Coach watches which ones you miss and brings those back on a schedule, and it stops asking about a subject once you have shown you know it. It also caps the credit you get for guessing from multiple choice, because recognising an answer is not the same as knowing it.
Do I need an account?
No. Nothing here asks for your name, your email address or anything else. Your progress is kept in your own browser and never reaches us.
Can I use it in Spanish?
The Coach has a Spanish version at Asistente cívico. The Spanish section of the site is smaller than the English one and we say so rather than pretending otherwise. More is being translated.
How long does it take?
The Daily question takes about thirty seconds. A session with the Coach takes as long as you give it, and it is built to be picked up and put down rather than finished.