Are You Smarter Than a 12th Grader?

Every two years, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy tests 12th graders' practical money knowledge. The average score usually hovers around 52 percent. You can test yourself on these sample questions from the 2006 survey.
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I got 3.
 
I got 4, which I can say I honestly knew, not just guessed. I'm in 11th grade. And I think they should teach finance at school. Kids should know how to handle loans, and pay bills, and write checks, and manage bank accounts, etc. This is very useful stuff, that luckily, my dad taught me.
 
I got 6, but I doubt most Americans would know about factors that reduce finance charges or which types of deposits are insure. The number of us who go to check-cashing stores, have all our money in savings accounts, or buy hugely depreciating assets with our disposable income astounds me.
 
I got 6, most of them are common sense questions. I mean, why would going to a private school increase your interest rate? Only the tuition cost would increase, not the interest rate of the loan.
 
I got all six and I'm a musicologist who has never taken an econ course. These are all common sense, which is why I assume most 12th graders can not answer them all.
 
I got a 6 but it still bugs me that a car is considered a collateral asset. It depreciates once you're handed the title and drive off into the sunset and, to me, anything that isn't making you money isn't an asset; that's called a liability in my book. But whatever, it's a small example of how messed up current economic thinking is right now.
 
2 things.

1. I got a 2.

2. What is up with that fat chick all the way to the left? KILL IT WITH fuckING FIRE!!!
 
[quote name='jaykrue']I got a 6 but it still bugs me that a car is considered a collateral asset. It depreciates once you're handed the title and drive off into the sunset and, to me, anything that isn't making you money isn't an asset; that's called a liability in my book. But whatever, it's a small example of how messed up current economic thinking is right now.[/quote]It's because if you don't pay back the car loan, they can at least reposes the car and sell it to recoup some of their money.

If you borrow money for a vacation and don't pay it back, what are they going to repo?
 
I got all 6 and was never taught any of that in high school. Any questions answered correctly by a high school student would have been learned from their parents or their own dealings, not from a class.
 
[quote name='Apossum']3 out of 6. I thought the last one was tricky.




fixed.[/quote]So non-white kids aren't smart enough to know this stuff? Racist.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']So non-white kids aren't smart enough to know this stuff? Racist.[/QUOTE]


Haha, you got me man. You're so smart, VG. you must be white or something. Damn! There I go again.
 
Nailed it. If you actually do your own taxes you probably know most of this stuff.

I found this question confusing however:
  1. Doug must borrow $12,000 to complete his college education. Which of the following would NOT be likely to reduce the finance charge rate?
    1. If his parents took out an additional mortgage on their house for the loan.
    2. If the loan was insured by the federal government.
    3. If he went to a state college rather than a private college.
    4. If his parents cosigned the loan.
I'm assuming that option 1 is supposed to read that the folks took out an additional mortgage as collateral for the loan? If you've got two mortgages and you can't pay, do the banks then have to fight for equity in the home.

I'm reading "Barbarians at the Gate" right now and questions like this are driving me nuts :D
 
Most hs students definitely do not know all of those answers. I got a 5 and am just really starting to learn some of this stuff in college atm (wound up guessing one right by eliminating other choices). The most econ I've heard of being taught at the hs level is enough to cover through intermediate micro/macro econ college level classes, which has almost no practical application to finance. I've never heard of finance in and of itself being taught at the hs level, but I do know some good econ teachers will introduce and integrate some basic financial concepts into their econ courses. I have many friends who go to upper echelon universities who would probably would struggle to get to 5, like I did.
 
You'd be amazed at how many people think economics is a business class. The main economics teacher here always goes on about how accounting majors will argue with him over the true cost of something. Is kind of funny really, he really goes on in his classes about how they always disagree with him.
 
I got a 5 and don't know shit about shit. They sure as hell didn't teach me that stuff in high school, so everything I know was learned elsewhere.
 
i got 4 but am sure i miss read some i was in a hurry

edit: now that i checked i misread NOT twice lol
 
I got a 3 and I'm a sophmore in college. Never have taken any business class at all, and probably won't (I go to a technical college). Always opted to take art/graphic courses rather than business. So, I think the course kinda assumes that HS students have taken atleast 1 business course throughout their HS career.

I'm sure I will learn it eventually though.
 
5 out of 6. I missed the last one. Only class I had that came close to this for me was economics, and that was about 12 years ago...
 
6/6 But I'm an accounting major.

My high school offered financial classes for kids in the work program (specialized classes for half a day, then work at a real job half a day). I always hated that because it was "usually" kids who got in trouble often and they got to take easier courses, skip out of school and make money. Although if it taught them anything, I can't complain too much.

I'd be very impressed with a school that taught this kind of stuff. My parents kept up with their financial situation and I picked up on certain habits, but figured out a lot on my own. My girlfriend's financial situation is a disaster... which kills me because:
1) It carries over when we get married
2) She made more than me for the past year and a half and always has less money. (She's not even a heavy spender)
 
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