June 22nd, 2009

High school students guess what happens to money deposited into checking accounts

In August 2007, the results of the first nationwide high school economics graduation tests were released. (Download the report [pdf].) It appears that the results were better than expected, but let’s not celebrate too quickly: The results were that 42% of students rated “Proficient” and 3% “Advanced”. And only 52% of the students could answer this multiple-choice question correctly:

What happens to most of the money deposited in checking accounts at a commercial bank?

  1. It is used to pay the bank’s expenses.
  2. It is loaned to other bank customers.
  3. It is kept in the bank’s vault until depositors withdraw the funds.
  4. It is paid to owners of the bank as return on their investment.

I guess 48% of the students have never seen It’s a Wonderful Life.

Author

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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