Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress Social Studies Grade 11
Constitutional principles, the three branches, rights, elections, and state and local government, with Michigan examples.
These questions are original. This is not an official Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress exam, and FreeExam is not affiliated with the Michigan Department of Education.
1.A civics class in Ann Arbor draws the national government as three branches. Which statement matches those branches?
2.A voter in Grand Rapids asks how many people Michigan sends to the United States Senate. What is the right number?
3.How many voting seats does Michigan have in the United States House of Representatives?
4.Which description of Michigan's legislature is accurate?
5.During a forum in Lansing, a student asks what federalism means in the United States system. Which answer is accurate?
6.The governor rejects a bill that both chambers of the Michigan legislature have passed. What does that action do?
7.A study group compares an ordinary statute with a change to the nation's fundamental law. What does an amendment do?
8.Which pairing names Michigan's capital and its largest city?
9.A township supervisor in the Lower Peninsula tells residents that the board's authority comes from them. Which principle is that?
10.Why can a Michigan city council not create a power that its charter and state law do not give it?
11.A county sheriff's cousin is ticketed under a local ordinance. What does the rule of law require?
12.Michigan gives lawmaking to the legislature, enforcement to the executive, and interpretation to the courts. What is that split called?
13.The president nominates a federal judge, and the Senate may refuse to confirm that person. What does the example show?
14.Residents of a charter township elect a new board in November. Where does that board's right to govern come from?
15.A public school near Kalamazoo wants to suspend a student only for a calm letter criticizing a school rule. Which limit applies?
16.Voters in a state House district elect one representative to decide most bills. What kind of system is that?
17.In a town of 1,001 adults, 900 vote to ban people of one religion from the public library and 101 vote no. Why must that result fail?
18.After a flood along the Grand River, public crews protect lives and property. Which purpose of government does that show?
19.Why is the United States Constitution harder to change than an ordinary Michigan statute?
20.A federal court refuses to apply a statute because the statute conflicts with the Constitution. Which power is that?
21.A valid federal law requires safety equipment on trucks that cross state lines. A Michigan rule says those trucks may skip that equipment. Which result follows?
22.Which power belongs to Congress rather than to Michigan alone?
23.Why do Michigan and a much smaller state cast the same number of votes in the United States Senate?
24.How long is one term in the United States House, and how long is one term in the United States Senate?
25.Why are United States Senate elections staggered instead of choosing all 100 senators in one year?
26.The United States House passes a bridge bill, and the Senate passes a different version. What must happen before the bill can go to the president?
27.A new federal tax bill is being drafted. In which chamber must a bill for raising revenue begin?
28.Who has the power to declare war for the United States?
29.Why does the United States count the population every ten years?
30.Before the full Michigan House debates a complicated water bill, a small group of members studies it and suggests changes. What is that group?
31.Who chooses the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives?
32.House and Senate negotiators meet to write one compromise text of a federal harbor bill. What is that meeting for?
33.Michigan has 13 United States representatives and 2 United States senators. How many presidential electors does the state have?
34.How long is a presidential term, and how many times may one person be elected president?
35.Which statement accurately splits command of the armed forces from the decision to declare war and fund them?
36.One person was convicted of a federal crime. Another was convicted only under Michigan law. Whom may the president pardon?
37.What is the main job of the president's cabinet secretaries?
38.The president tells a federal agency how to carry out a statute, but the instruction contradicts that statute. What is the limit?
39.The president addresses Congress about conditions in the country and recommends policies. What does that address do by itself?
40.No candidate for president wins a majority of the electoral votes. Who chooses the president then?
41.There are 538 presidential electors. How many electoral votes make a majority?
42.All nine justices of the United States Supreme Court participate in a vote. Which result is possible and decisive?
43.How does a person become a justice of the United States Supreme Court, and how long may that justice serve?
44.A person loses a civil trial in a Michigan trial court and believes the judge applied the law incorrectly. What can that person do next?
45.Which court is the highest court for questions of Michigan state law?
46.A driver in Flint is charged with breaking a Michigan traffic law, and the case raises no federal issue. Which courts hear that kind of case?
47.In a Michigan criminal trial, what is the usual division of work between the jury and the judge?
48.A Michigan appellate court decides a legal question. A later case presents the same question. Why do judges read the earlier decision?
49.At a public meeting in Holland, a resident calmly criticizes a plan for a new parking lot. The council dislikes the criticism. What may the council do?
50.A city council wants to require every resident to attend a worship service the council chooses. What blocks that plan?
51.A small news site in Marquette publishes a sharp criticism of the county budget. What may the county do?
52.Residents plan a peaceful rally on a Traverse City sidewalk. The city asks them to follow a route that leaves room for emergency vehicles. May the city do that?
53.Neighbors in Battle Creek collect signatures asking the city council to repair a broken park bridge. What are they doing?
54.Police in Pontiac want to enter a home to look for evidence of a crime. The resident does not agree to the entry, and there is no emergency. What do the officers need?
55.A person charged with a serious crime in a Michigan court cannot afford a lawyer. What does the right to counsel require?
56.The state wants to revoke a worker's professional license. The worker received no notice of the claim and no chance to respond. What requirement was skipped?
57.A city recreation program excludes children solely because of their race. Which principle does that exclusion violate?
58.A prosecutor demands that the accused person take the stand in a criminal case and confess. What protection answers that demand?
59.A person charged with a serious crime wants members of the community to decide the facts. Which right is the person invoking?
60.Last year a certain act was legal. This year the legislature makes that act a crime and tries to punish people for doing it last year. What stops that punishment?
61.A faction in a legislature drafts a bill that names one private citizen, declares that citizen guilty, and imposes a fine. Why must that bill fail?
62.A person sits in a county jail and says there is no lawful reason for the detention. What can that person ask a court to do?
63.A Michigan citizen turns 18 before election day and meets residency and registration rules. May that citizen vote in the election?
64.Which voting rule comes from later amendments to the Constitution?
65.A polling place wants to turn away a qualified citizen who did not pay a special tax for the privilege of voting in a federal election. What is the rule?
66.How many members sit in Michigan's state House of Representatives and in Michigan's state Senate?
67.How long is a term for a Michigan state representative, and how long is a term for a Michigan state senator?
68.How long is one term of Michigan's governor, and what limit applies to election to that office?
69.Michigan's governor dies in office. Who becomes governor?
70.Under Michigan's current limit on legislative service, a person has already served 8 years in the state Senate. How many additional years may that person serve in the legislature?
71.How many counties does Michigan have, and what does a county board typically handle?
72.Many communities in Michigan outside cities are organized as townships. Who makes a township's local legislative decisions?
73.A Michigan city adopts a charter that sets up its council and its mayor. What is the best description of that charter?
74.An elected school board in Kent County adopts an attendance policy. What limit applies to that board?
75.Which statewide Michigan official administers elections and also handles driver licensing?
76.What is the role of Michigan's attorney general?
77.Who draws the district lines for Michigan's state legislature and for its seats in Congress?
78.Michigan's redistricting commission includes 4 members who affiliate with one major party, 4 who affiliate with the other major party, and 5 who affiliate with neither. How many members is that?
79.Citizens gather enough valid signatures to place a proposed state statute on the Michigan ballot, and the voters approve it. What process is that?
80.The legislature passes a statute, and Michigan voters are later asked at the ballot to approve or reject it. What is that vote called?
81.A home has a taxable value of $100,000. Voters approve a tax of 3 mills. One mill is $1 of tax for each $1,000 of taxable value. How much is this tax?
82.A shopper in Traverse City buys a paddle priced at $50. Michigan's state sales-tax rate is 6 percent. How much sales tax is due on that price?
83.Which set of Great Lakes touches Michigan?
84.In what year did Michigan become a state?
85.Michigan includes an Upper Peninsula and a Lower Peninsula. What is true about their government?
86.Federally recognized tribes in Michigan govern their own communities. Which statement fits that arrangement?
87.Travelers and goods cross between Michigan and Ontario. Who controls admission at that international border?
88.A severe storm hits several Michigan counties. Who can call the Michigan National Guard into state service for that emergency?
89.A bill in Lansing would have Michigan print its own dollars to pay road crews. What is the constitutional problem?
90.Who has the main responsibility for establishing public schools in Michigan?
91.A lawful permanent resident living in Grand Rapids wants to become a United States citizen. Which government handles that naturalization?
92.What is the difference between a primary election and a general election in Michigan?
93.A Michigan voter is not registered as a member of any political party. What may that voter do in a partisan primary?
94.Michigan chooses 15 presidential electors. How does the state award those electors?
95.An association of people who fish the Great Lakes hires someone to urge the Michigan legislature to change a fishing rule. What is that association doing?
96.What is a political party's role in Michigan elections?
97.A newsroom in Detroit investigates how a state agency spent a grant. Which civic role is the newsroom filling?
98.Which of these is a civic duty, rather than only a freedom a person may skip?
99.A village council has 9 members, and all 9 vote on a motion. The vote is 5 yes and 4 no. What is the result?
100.A county can spend $4,500,000 on two road projects. One project costs $1,750,000 and the other costs $2,250,000. If both are funded, how much is left?
101.A city needs a narrow strip of a private lot to widen a public road. The owner does not want to sell. What must the city do if it takes the strip?
102.Voters want to remove a city council member before the term ends. Which path follows Michigan's rules for that goal?
103.Michigan sets the public-school calendar, while only the national government coins the money used to pay teachers. What does that contrast show?
104.A Michigan resident is 28 years old, has been a United States citizen for 10 years, and lives in the state. For which federal office does that resident meet the age requirement?
105.A party loses a case in a Michigan circuit court and appeals. Which court is the usual next step?
106.A resident asks a township for a copy of last year's adopted budget. The budget is a public record, and no exemption applies. What should the township do?
107.When the Constitution was framed, large states wanted representation by population and small states wanted each state to have an equal vote. What compromise met both demands?
108.Both the United States and the state of Michigan collect taxes to pay for public services. What kind of power is that?