How much do you know about America?

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - New citizens are required to pass a test to prove they know about the American system of representative democracy. Would you know enough to qualify?

Newsweek Magazine recently polled 1,000 Americans with the same questions found on the U.S. citizenship test and only 62 percent passed. Surprising?

Current events may be difficult to keep track of, but how about this: "Who is the Vice President of the United States?"

>> Take the test here then tell us how you did!

In the Newsweek survey, 23 percent of respondents didn't know. And when we quizzed some people in Buffalo, we got a variety of responses.

One person said, "Vice President? I'm sorry. I don't."

John Rott said, "If you ask them who Lady Gaga was or Britney Spears are, any of them, they could tell you who they were and what they've been up to for the last 10 minutes."

Another question respondents struggled with: "When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?"

One person answered, "Now you're going back to elementary school here so, um."

"I would say 1776," said one woman.

And she's right. But 33 percent of those polled were flat out wrong. Why are so many Americans having a tough time with the quiz?

Newsweek senior editor Andrew Romano said, "When people don't have a lot of money, there's difficulty getting a good education. There's a lack of opportunity and a lack of knowledge. That's one of the reason's why we don't do as well as northern European countries sometimes on these."

And wouldn't you know? We got a lot of right answers from Polina, a foreign exchange student from Russia.

Think you can ace the quiz? Find out here then leave a comment below letting us know how you fared.