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thedrifter
02-20-07, 04:11 PM
Troops in group taking new citizenship test

By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 20, 2007 14:45:59 EST

The federal government is retooling the exam for U.S. citizenship and wants 6,000 people, including members of the U.S. military, to take the new, streamlined version.

“We need that many people to get a good statistical representative sample of who would take the test and the military would be great because they come from all over,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan said.

As many as 40,000 non-U.S. citizens are serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, said Rhatigan, who noted that in fiscal 2006 the agency naturalized 9,374 uniformed men and women out of more than 700,000 nationwide.

Thousands of those service members were naturalized in overseas citizenship ceremonies, which began taking place in October 2005.

Over the next four months, citizenship application packets sent out by Citizenship and Immigration Services will include a letter inviting applicants to participate in the new exam. The two-decade old exam now in use will be pared from 142 questions to 100 and feature fewer that require rote memorization.

“Currently there are a lot of redundant questions,” Rhatigan said. Seven alone address aspects of the U.S. flag, she said. The trial version of the test includes only three flag questions; others range in difficulty, including several on historical figures such as women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and events such as the Civil War.

A sample question might ask applicants to name one problem that led to the Civil War.

“We know a lot of people don’t agree on the causes of the Civil War so there are a number of answers that would be correct,” Rhatigan said.

Acceptable answers would be slavery, economic conditions or states’ rights, she said.

Applicants may be asked what was King’s dream for America.

“If you say, ‘He talked about freedom,’ it would show that you studied this,” Rhatigan said, adding that the adjudicating officers have been trained to use discretion in evaluating answers.

To pass, test-takers must correctly answer six of 10 oral questions on the civics section of the pilot test. If they don’t pass, they can take the regular test afterward.

Taking the pilot exam does not give applicants any benefit in the process of petitioning the government for citizenship.

“We want to hear back from people so we can make the test relevant,” Rhatigan said.

The pilot started in San Antonio and El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 15 and will soon also be administered in Albany, N.Y; Boston; Charleston, S.C.; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; Miami; Tucson, Ariz.; and Yakima, Wash.

Ellie