There were 13 original states. Name three.

Why this is the answer

Any three of these count: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The officer is listening for three correct names, so you can stop at three; nobody expects all thirteen. Every one of them began as a colony on the East Coast of North America. When the first ones were founded, the settlers were subjects of England. In 1707 England and Scotland joined as one country, Great Britain, and from then on the colonies were British. Their representatives declared independence together in 1776, and with the Declaration the thirteen colonies became the thirteen original states. Once they became states, each one set up its own government and wrote its own constitution, and only later did they unite under the U.S. Constitution. That explains why the official statehood dates can look odd. A state's date comes from when it ratified the Constitution, not from 1776. Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey came first, in 1787. Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York followed in 1788, North Carolina in 1789, and Rhode Island last, in 1790. Keep in mind how small that first group was. The country began with thirteen states and has fifty today, so most state names you hear in daily life are not on this list, including big ones like California and Texas. For the interview, an easy set is the three that start with "New": New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey. They come out in one breath and are hard to scramble. If you prefer others, choose the ones you can pronounce without hesitating. Say the Carolinas in full, because "Carolina" by itself is not the name of a state. The trap to avoid is a state that sounds old but is not on the list, such as Vermont, Maine or Florida. A name that is not one of the thirteen does not count toward your three.