Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
- Ask what problem this is about: a president leaving office before the term is over.
- Think of the amendments that fixed how the government works. The one about a president who dies, resigns, or cannot serve is the Twenty-fifth (1967).
- Its first section says that if the president is removed, dies, or resigns, “the Vice President shall become President.”
- It is not the Twenty-second. That one limits how many times a person can be elected president. It does not say who takes over.
Answer: The Twenty-fifth Amendment
Example 2
- Two amendments were ratified in 1913, so the year alone will not settle it. Look at what the amendment does.
- The Sixteenth gave Congress the power to tax incomes. The Seventeenth let the voters of each state elect their senators directly.
- This one is about a tax on income, so it is the Sixteenth.
- Why it was needed: in 1895 the Supreme Court had struck down an income tax, and the Sixteenth Amendment removed that obstacle.
Answer: The Sixteenth Amendment
Where this is taught: All the Amendments: Fixing how the government works · All the Amendments: The Sixteenth Amendment, the income tax · All the Amendments: The Seventeenth Amendment, voters choose their senators · All the Amendments: Prohibition, and the only repeal · All the Amendments: All twenty-seven in one table
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.