Like you, I have seen many versions of the video (see post – Will Not Happen On Our Campus) where people are asked basic questions and virtually no one seems to know anything.
So rather than feel sad or even scared at that apparent lack of American cultural literacy and the ramifications of that lack of academic prowess, let me lead with a positive note.
By the time a student has spent one year on the Monticello College campus, they will have mastered all of the questions below and a lot more.
I challenge you to grill any of my 2nd year students with the questions listed below. I can personally guarantee that you will be impressed and a little envious of their reservoir of knowledge.
While I think that all of our students are very bright and extraordinary, there is no question–they put in well over a 1,000 hours of study each year to reach this level of proficiency.
Try your hand at these questions…who knows? Maybe you are smarter than you thought or maybe you will decide that it might be time to enroll at Monticello College.
50 Questions All 2nd Year MC Students Can Answer
- What are major wars in which the US participated?
- What are the continents of the globe?
- What are the names of 5 American Founders?
- Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Can you recite it?
- What are the 7 articles of the US Constitution?
- Can you name the Supreme Court justices? How many are there?
- How many members are there in the House of Representatives and the Senate? How are they selected?
- Can you name 5 different forms of government? Can you detail each one?
- What is the Bill of Rights and can you name them? How many amendments are there today?
- In what continent are the following countries found? Latvia, Viet Nam, Ukraine, Venezuela, South Africa, China, Libya, France, United States, India, Great Britain, Japan, Mozambique, Canada, and Guatemala.
- What year was Jamestown established?
- Who is George Wythe?
- Can you explain the Tyranny/Anarchy Cycle, including the method of measuring political power used by the American Founders?
- Who is Benedict Arnold? Who is Nathan Hales?
- Who is Robert Morris? What is the history the Battle of Trenton?
- Can you relate the history of Shay’s Rebellion?
- Who is John Locke?
- Can you outline US monetary history?
- In the US, who can legally declare war?
- Who is Malcolm X?
- Who are the Senators from your state?
- What is the religious text of the Moslem world?
- What are the religious texts of the Jewish faith?
- Who is Calvin?
- What is Marbury v Madison?
- What is Mercantilism?
- What is the name of the Israeli legislative body?
- What is the origin of the term “Separation of Church and State” and what is the common usage today?
- What is a Statesman?
- What is Collectivism?
- What is Libertarianism?
- What is Marxism?
- What is Secular Humanism?
- Can you explain Natural Law in detail?
- Who is Cicero?
- What is “Natural Aristocracy” and who coined the phrase?
- What is the Northwest Ordinance?
- What are Franklin’s five points of the American Religion?
- How have Natural Rights been eroded by the 14th, 16th, and 17th amendments to the US Constitution?
- What is the proper role of Government?
- Who are or what are the following? Give personal details and their philosophies or what they are known for: Blackstone, Supreme Court, Federalist Papers, Tocqueville, Montesquieu, and Bastiat.
- Can you expound on the following periods and subjects? Antediluvian period, Mesopotamian period, Greece City-states, Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Middle Eastern History, Christian Era, Dark Ages, Islamic History, Renaissance, the Reformation, Enlightenment, Mesoamerica, Chinese History, The Crusades, and British History.
- Can you expound on the following personalities/philosophies? Moses, Plato, Aristotle, Christ, Paul, Aurelius, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Marx, Rousseau, Hegel, Emerson, Thoreau, Wilbur, Economics, Capitalism, Free Enterprise, Socialism, Fascism, Communism, and Natural Law.
- Can you explain the following scientific processes or principles? Osmosis, Meiosis, Mitosis, The Periodic Table, Atomic History, E=MC2, Bernoulli’s Principle, Occam’s Razor, Alchemy, The Pacific Rim, The Soil Food Web, Plate Tectonics, H2o, the Five Steps of The Scientific Method, The Law of Hydraulics, Gravity, Inertia, Centrifugal Force, AC Current versus DC Current, the Food Chain, the Hydrological Cycle, Sedimentary, Metamorphic, Igneous, the Process of Petrifaction, Carbon Dating, Astronomy, the Human Circulatory System, the Human Respiratory System, the Human Nervous System, the Human Reproductive System, CPR, and the Human Lymphatic System.
- Who is Galileo?
- What are arthropods? What are protozoa?
- Who painted the Mona Lisa? Who is Picasso?
- Name 3 Art Periods? What is pointillism? What is Surrealism? What is Abstractism?
- What is prose? What is allegory? What is fiction/non-fiction?
- What is poetry? What is tragedy? What is iambic pentameter?