Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
- Remember the two steps. First an amendment is proposed, which means formally put forward. Then it is ratified, which means approved by the states. Only after both steps is it part of the Constitution.
- Step one is done: two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate voted for it.
- Step two needs three-fourths of the states. There are 50 states. Three-fourths of 50 is 37.5, and there is no half a state, so it takes 38.
- Thirty states is not enough; it needs eight more. Thirty is more than half of the states, but more than half is not the rule.
Answer: No. It needs 38 states, and it has 30.
Example 2
- Ask which must come first. The states cannot approve an amendment that no one has put forward. Putting it forward is proposing, and in the usual way Congress does it: that is (b).
- Next the states ratify. When the thirty-eighth state ratifies, three-fourths of the 50 states have approved it: that is (a).
- At that moment it becomes part of the Constitution: (c). Nothing else is needed. An amendment never goes to the president, and the president cannot veto it.
Answer: (b), then (a), then (c)
Where this is taught: All the Amendments: How an amendment is made · All the Amendments: Step one, proposing an amendment · All the Amendments: Step two, ratifying an amendment · All the Amendments: Why it was made hard on purpose
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 3, Lesson 2: Constitutional Government · Map of the Terrain, topic 20: Amending the Constitution
The drill
Ten questions
Tap your answer to each one. A few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Then press Check my answers at the bottom.Circle your answer to each one; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.