Civics teachers have long included questions from the U.S. citizenship test in classroom lessons to spur conversation among students. Now, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has updated the exam for those who hope to become American citizens, expanding the possible questions to 128, and in some cases, asking for more detail on the test.
The updated test is being administered to applicants who filed for naturalization on or before Oct. 20. Applicants have to answer 20 questions, and in order to pass, they must get 12 of those questions correct. In the past, getting six correct answers out of 10 was required.
On Thursday, the Washington Post included 10 questions from the updated exam so that readers could test their knowledge. WTOP reached out to Maryland State Education Association president and Howard County teacher of American government and law, Paul Lemle, to ask about the new version of the test.
So, how did he do? Out of 10 questions, “I got 10,” Lemle said, quickly adding, “It was luck, in part.”
Lemle admitted to guessing on two questions: the one that asked what James Madison was famous for (the answer: D. President during the War of 1812); and the other on what year women got the right to vote (the answer: B. 1920 — we’re adding bonus points if you knew that was the 19th Amendment).
But Lemle said he wouldn’t focus on dates or places, necessarily. “Who knows the year of a particular passage of a constitutional amendment?” Lemle argued. “You don’t need to know whether Yorktown was an important Revolutionary War battle.”
“You do need to know, and you should know, what the compact is between you and your government,” he added. “The real lesson of the Revolutionary War is what it was fought for — freedom from a faraway oppressive government and who got left out of that.”
Parents often complain that civics isn’t taught in schools anymore. “We still teach civics, but we just call it ‘American Government,’” Lemle said.
Lemle said many of the students he’s taught are the sons and daughters of immigrants or are immigrants themselves. “Often, our recent arrivals come without a real understanding of what a democracy is,” he said.
Noting President Donald Trump’s administration’s challenge to birthright citizenship, Lemle said, “It surprised me that the clause in the Constitution that ensures citizenship for everyone born in the United States,” in his words, “made the cut as a test question.”
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https://wtop.com/government/2025/10/americas-path-to-citizenship-has-an-updated-exam/
