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Symbols and Holidays
The symbols the country shares and the days it sets aside: the flag and what its stripes and stars stand for, the national anthem, the Statue of Liberty, the capital, and the national holidays and what each one honors.
10 of the 128 questions on the test are in this category, in 2 groups. Each one links to its answers and explanation.
What this category covers
The law behind the civics test speaks of history and of the principles and form of government, as the USCIS Policy Manual quotes it; flags and holidays are not named there. In the official list of questions, USCIS gives them a category of their own, and it is the smallest of the three. That makes it the quickest one to finish, and a correct answer here counts toward your passing score exactly as much as a correct answer about the Constitution.
These questions reward knowing what something means more than remembering a figure. The flag questions ask what the stripes and the stars stand for. The holiday questions ask what each day honors, which is why Memorial Day and Veterans Day, two days people often mix up, have to be kept apart by their meaning.
Several answers connect to other parts of the list. The original colonies behind the stripes are the same ones the history category asks you to name, and Martin Luther King, Jr. appears both as a national holiday and as a person whose work you are asked to describe. Learning these together means fewer separate facts to carry.
Which answers are fixed and which are not
- 2 of the 10 are on the 65/20 list, the shorter set of questions for applicants who qualify for the special consideration: 121, 126.
- None of them depends on the state where you live.
- None of them asks for the name of a current officeholder.
- 10 have their answers printed in the official list.
How to study this category
Symbols
The two flag questions are a matched pair (question 121, question 122): stripes for the original colonies, stars for the states. "One star for each state" is an accepted answer, so you can give the reason without recalling the count. The motto question (question 124) hands you the Latin phrase and asks what it means; "Out of many, one" is the answer to have ready.
For the Statue of Liberty (question 120), New York Harbor or Liberty Island is the usual answer, and the official list notes that New Jersey, near New York City, and on the Hudson River are also acceptable. Do not confuse the capital of the United States (question 119) with the question about the capital of your own state (question 62), which sits in the government category and depends on where you live.
Holidays
The national holidays question asks you to name three (question 126), the only question in this category that wants more than one answer. Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day are all on the accepted list and are easy to say. The question about Independence Day itself (question 125) accepts "the country's birthday" as well as a holiday to celebrate independence from Britain.
Memorial Day and Veterans Day (question 127, question 128) are the classic mix-up. Memorial Day honors soldiers who died in military service; Veterans Day honors people who have served. A memorial is a place or an act of remembering the dead, and that word is the hook that keeps the two days apart.
Guides for this category
- A study plan for the 128 civics questions: where this category fits in the order of study.
- How the naturalization test is scored: how many correct answers you need.
All 10 questions, by group
Symbols
* On the 65/20 list.