And (spoiler alert) if you are female and a Democrat, you may find it especially difficult.
Hey you! You’re a smart, well-informed professional, right? Wouldn’t you like to find out just how well-informed? I encourage you to go take the Pew Research Center Political News IQ Quiz right now. It’s fun and informative and only takes a couple minutes.
I confess that I didn't totally ace it. In fact, I found it surprisingly difficult, and I learned a couple things while doing it.
When you have finished, don’t miss the demographic breakdown of correct and incorrect answers by question. And be sure to read Pew’s report on the results. You may be surprised by a few things. Notice, for instance, that women routinely score almost two questions below men on the test. (They even do worse on identifying a certain prominent female...) And Republicans do almost two points better on the test than do Democrats. Uh... no comment.
-- WTP
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--Bill Paarlberg is editor of The Measurement Standard blog and newsletter, and of Katie Paine's new book Measure What Matters. The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many… Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders... But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” 
Female independent here, and I only got one wrong. It was the unemployment rate--and I got it wrong because I over-thought the answer (tried to factor in those who had stopped looking, etc.)
Posted by: Jen Zingsheim | November 08, 2011 at 09:48 AM
Good for you, Jen. You beat me by two, (and I had a couple lucky guesses). Why do you think women (or Democrats) average lower scores?
Posted by: Bill Paarlberg | November 08, 2011 at 10:08 AM
I have no idea why women or Democrats would score lower Bill--the questions all seemed fairly topical and direct. I'm a bit of a news hound, so that helped, I think.
I vaguely remember a study not that long ago that suggested center/right voters and Republicans were more apt to read and watch news. My guess is that those who are heavy news consumers would score better.
Posted by: Jen Zingsheim | November 09, 2011 at 07:24 AM
I'm guessing that older people tend to both be more conservative and to watch more news. I've no clue about women. (Hah!)
Posted by: Bill Paarlberg | November 09, 2011 at 08:51 AM