2008 civics test — recall deck in the USCIS wording

The 2008 civics test is spoken. The officer reads a question from the 2008 list and you answer in your own words, with no options to choose from. That means the skill you need on the day is recall: hearing a question and producing an answer, not recognizing one in a list. The practice tests in this category train you to tell similar facts apart; this deck trains the other half.

It holds 90 cards, one for each question in the 2008 bank whose answer does not change. The front of each card shows the question exactly as it is worded on the USCIS 2008 list, with its number, so you get used to the phrasing the officer will use. The back shows every answer the list accepts, in the list's own wording. Where the list gives several answers, the card says so, and you only need one. For the six questions that ask for more than one answer (Q9, Q36, Q51, Q55, Q64 and Q100), the card tells you how many to say: two, or three for the original states. A few cards also keep the notes printed on the list, for example that the officer has a list of federally recognized American Indian tribes for Q87, and that New Jersey and the Hudson River are also accepted for the Statue of Liberty.

The ten questions whose answers change with elections or depend on where you live, such as the name of the President now or your state's senators, are not in this deck. A fixed card would soon be out of date, so they have their own look-up checklist in this category.

How to use it: read the question, say your answer out loud, then turn the card. Put the cards you missed back into the pile and go again until you can answer each one without looking. Many answers have a short form in parentheses, such as (George) Washington or (Woodrow) Wilson; the part in parentheses is optional.

This deck is for applicants who filed Form N-400 before October 20, 2025, who take the 2008 test: the officer asks up to 10 of the 100 questions and you need 6 correct. It cannot rehearse the interview conversation itself; the spoken practice in this track does that.

• Recall an accepted answer to each of the 90 fixed-answer questions of the 2008 civics test without options
• Recognize each question in the wording the officer will use
• Give the required number of answers for the six questions that ask for two or three
• Know which parts of an answer are optional (the words in parentheses)

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the USCIS 2008 civics question list (rev. 01/19); questions and answers are reproduced from that list, a work of the United States government.