Can You Pass This High School General Knowledge Quiz?

By: Stella Alexander
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Can You Pass This High School General Knowledge Quiz?
Image: shutterstock

About This Quiz

"Gotta get'cha, get'cha head in the game!" While our lives weren't a High School Musical, you need to get your head in the game for this quiz! High school might have seemed like the longest four years of your life! The seven-hour school day was packed full of our best and worst classes. From algebra to biology to history, if you can score a 31/35 on this quiz, you were really paying attention in high school!

While many of us were forced into the strict curriculum of a high school student, we were also given the choice to pick classes in subjects we liked. These were our electives! If you were into the performing arts, you might have joined choir or band. For the visual artists, your electives could have been spent in ceramics or photography. You might have wanted to stay active with gym or maybe you were spending your elective period baking in home economics. These might have been your favorite courses, but we're here to test you on the classes you couldn't get out of!`

The basic high school curriculum focuses on English, math, social studies, and science. You might have taken American Literature and British Literature If you hated math, maybe you struggled through geometry and trigonometry. You probably had to sit in on a biology class about prokaryotes and eukaryotes. These were some of the basic classes every high school student took. Just how much attention were you paying to your teachers?

Could you solve an angle when given a parallel or perpendicular one? Do you know which system carries blood around the body? In what year did the Civil War begin? If you can answer these questions, you might be ready to ace this quiz!

You'll need a 31/35 to prove you were really paying attention in high school. Are you ready to make the honor roll?

Let's find out!

Which of the following is not one of the four nitrogenous bases found in DNA?
Adenine
Guanine
Uracil
Guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine are the four nitrogenous bases found in DNA. In RNA, uracil replaced thymine.
Cytosine
Who was the author of "Common Sense?"
James Fenimore Cooper
Ralph Waldo Emerson
William Faulkner
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was a writer who is known for his publication of the 1776 pamphlet, "Common Sense." This was sent around the 13 Colonies to persuade the people to claim independence from Great Britain.
Solve for X: 8x + 16 = 24
x = 0
x = 1
This is a problem you'd find in your algebra class. You must first subtract both sides by 16 then divide by 8.
x = 2
x = 3

Advertisement

What was the first state to ratify the Constitution?
Pennsylvania
New York
Delaware
Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, making it the very first United State. This is also why Delaware's nickname is "the First State."
New Jersey
What elements can be found in the first column of the periodic table?
Alkali metals
The first column in the periodic table is dedicated to the alkali metals. They are: lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, and francium.
Noble Gases
Halogens
Transition metals
Which of these is not a work by William Shakespeare?
Hamlet
Othello
The Tempest
The Iliad
William Shakespeare is one of the most well-known authors in British literature. He wrote a series of plays and 154 sonnets. The Iliad is an epic poem written by Greek author, Homer.

Advertisement

What type of triangle has two sides equal in length?
Perpendicular
Parallel
Isosceles
An isosceles triangle is one that has two sides of equal length. In an equilateral triangle all three sides have the same length.
Equilateral
Which of the following countries was not an Axis power during World War II?
Germany
Russia
The Axis Powers in World War II were made up of Italy, Germany, and Japan. The Allied Powers consisted of France, Great Britain, Soviet Union (Russia), China, and the United States.
Italy
Japan
Which scientist is credited with the laws of motion?
Einstein
Newton
Issac Newton is often credited as one of the fathers of physics. He is well known for his three laws of motion that help define how force, motion, and acceleration work together.
Galileo
Bohr

Advertisement

A haiku is a traditional poem from which country?
China
Japan
A haiku is a popular type of poem that comes from Japan. The first and third line have five syllables, the second has seven.
Vietnam
Korea
How do you find the sine of an angle?
Opposite/Adjacent
Opposite/Hypotenuse
When it comes to trigonometry, SOHCAHTOA is a popular device used to solve for an angle. In order to find the sine of an angle, you would take OH or the opposite length and divide it by the hypotenuse length.
Adjacent/Opposite
Adjacent/Hypotenuse
What is the capital of Spain?
Barcelona
Seville
Granada
Madrid
Madrid is the capital city of Spain. It is also its largest with a population of more than 3.1 million people.

Advertisement

What is the fifth planet from the Sun?
Mercury
Mars
Jupiter
There are tons of devices to help one remember the planets and they are always listed in order of which are closets to the sun. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun.
Neptune
What is the poetry device used when the same consonant sound occurs at the beginning of words in a sequence?
Alliteration
Alliteration is a popular poem device used with the repetition of the same CONSONANT sound. Assonance is for the same vowel sound.
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Metaphor
An equation with x^2 is representative of what kind of formula?
Linear
Quadratic
In the math world, x^2 is the sign of a quadratic equation. X is the sign of a linear equation.
Polynomial
Exponential

Advertisement

How many branches of the U.S. government are there?
two
three
There are three branches of the U.S. Government. Executive (led by president), Legislative (led by Congress), and Judicial (led by the Supreme Court).
four
five
The largest organ of the body is part of which system?
Circulatory
Renal
Integumentary
Since our skin makes up the entire portion of our outer body, it is the largest organ. It is part of the Integumentary System which also features the hair and nails.
Nervous
Which of the following wasn't a writer during the American Renaissance?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Walt Whitman
Ernest Hemingway
The American Renaissance was known as a literary period between 1820 and 1865. While Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman were all popular writers at the time, Hemingway wouldn't rise to prominence until the early 1900s.

Advertisement

Which of these is NOT a perfect square?
25
64
121
139
139 is not a perfect square. Twenty-five is the perfect square of 5, 64 is the perfect square of 8, and 121 is the perfect square of 11.
Which of these wars occurred first in the United States?
War of 1812
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War is obviously the first war in the United States' history since it ended with America becoming its own country. This war started in 1775 and ended in 1783.
Mexican-American War
Civil War
What are atoms made of?
Protons
Neutrons
Electrons
All of the above
Atoms are made up of the three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons carry a positive charge, electrons carry a negative charge, and neutrons are "neutral," and carry no charge.

Advertisement

Which of the following authors is credited with writing "Jane Eyre"?
Jane Austen
Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte is an English author who is most-known for her novel, Jane Eyre. The novel was published in 1847 and is a common book found in English literature curriculums.
Virginia Woolf
George Eliot
The following is the equation for which shape: A = (pi)r^2
circle
When finding the area of a circle, the only information one would need is the radius or diameter. The equation requires the radius to be squared and multiplied by pi (3.14 or 22/7).
triangle
cylinder
cone
What was the disease that killed almost a third of Europe's population in the 1300s?
Smallpox
Tuberculosis
Cholera
The Bubonic Plague
The Bubonic Plague ravaged the European population during the 14th century. Also called the Black Death, it killed more than 50 million people during the 1300s.

Advertisement

If a mass is sliding down a frictionless​ slope, would you expect it to lose motion or gain motion?
Lose motion
Gain motion
If an item is sliding down a slope, you'd first need to know if there's friction working in the opposite direction. If there is friction, the option would be slowing down. If there is no friction, the angle and gravity would work together to speed up its acceleration.
Neither
Victor Hugo wrote which of the following plays?
Oedipus Rex
Les Miserables
Victor Hugo is a popular French novelist from the early 1800s. He is well known for Les Miserables as well as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Hamlet
The Three Muskateers
If the sides of a triangle have lengths of 3-4-5, what kind of triangle is it?
Acute
Obtuse
Right
When it comes to triangles, 3-4-5 is said to be the golden ratio. This means it forms right angles and this is the ideal ratio for the Pythagorean theorem.
None of the above

Advertisement

What is the largest country in the world?
China
Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world. Over 6.6 million square miles, it spans the entirety of Asia and is also found within the European border.
Canada
The United States
Which of the following is not a type of galaxy?
Elliptical
Irregular
Submerged
There are three types of galaxies: elliptical, irregular, and spiral. The Milky Way galaxy, the one in which we live, is considered a spiral galaxy.
Spiral
Robert Frost wrote which of the following poems?
The Raven
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost is a popular poet whose works were made famous in the early 1900s. He is well known for poems such as "The Road Not Taken" and "Fire and Ice."
A Dream Within a Dream
Paradise Lost

Advertisement

What is the name of a U-shaped curve on a graph?
Sinusoidal
Parabola
A parabola is the curved line that forms from a quadratic equation. It can be seen with the curve opened upwards, downwards, or sideways.
Logarithmic
None of the above
When given a deck of cards, what is the probability that the first card you draw will be a heart?
1/2
1/12
1/4
When it comes to a deck of cards, 13/52 of them are hearts. If you simplify this further, you would get that 1/4 of the cards in the deck are hearts.
1/52
In the order of succession, who follows the vice president in line to the presidency?
Secretary of State
Attorney General
Speaker of the House
In the presidential line of succession, the president is always followed by the vice president. The list further continues to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Secretary of Defense

Advertisement

Given the data set, find the median: 4, 6, 11, 9, 5, 2, 8
4
11
9
6
In order to find the median, one would first have to put the data set in increasing order. The median would be the number in the middle of the data set. If there are two numbers in the middle, you would simply find the mean of them.
Central America is part of which continent?
North America
Although it might be confusing because Central America and South America are considered "Latin America," Central America is very much part of the North American continent. North America ends with Panama's border with Colombia.
South America
Both
Neither
You Got:
/35
shutterstock