The citizenship test now requires applicants to answer 12 questions of 20 correctly, as opposed to six of 10. Applicants now must study a list of 128 potential questions, as opposed to 100 potential questions.
18 possible questions were removed (11 that had simple answers), and were replaced with more nuanced, complicated questions that could have subjective answers such as “Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War?” and “Supreme Court Justices serve for life. Why?”
Other questions’ answers were revised. For example, the answer to “Who does a US Senator represent?” used to be “all people of the state.” Now the correct answer for the test is “citizens in the state.”
Critics say the test is now unnecessarily difficult, requires a higher level of English fluency, and accuse the administration of limiting citizenship for political reasons. President-elect Biden can reverse the changes when he takes office in 2021.