There Were 13 Original States. Name Five: Civics Question 81

You name five of the thirteen, not all of them.

Question 81 says there were 13 original states and asks you to name five. The thirteen are New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Any five of them count.

Where the Thirteen Came From

These were the British colonies along the Atlantic coast. They declared independence in 1776, fought the Revolutionary War together, and became the first states under the Constitution.

Every one of them sits on the eastern side of the country. Nothing west of the Appalachian Mountains was a state yet.

Pick Five and Stop Learning the Rest

The officer does not ask which five. You choose, so choose the five you can say cleanly under pressure.

Good picks for most people:

• New York
• Georgia
• Virginia
• Delaware
• Maryland

Each of those names is short and ends cleanly. Compare them with Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, which run longer and are easier to stumble over when you are nervous.

If English is not your first language, choose on sound rather than on history. A state you can pronounce is a state that gets marked correct.

Why the Officer Asks This

The test expects you to know the country started small. Thirteen states on one coast grew into fifty across a continent, and these thirteen are the starting point.

The original thirteen also explain the flag. The fifty stars stand for the states today, and the thirteen stripes stand for these first thirteen.

How to Remember Your Five

Say your five in the same order every time you practice, so the list becomes one phrase instead of five separate facts.

Try it out loud: “New York, Georgia, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland.” Repeat that ten times today and ten times tomorrow. By test day it will come out as a single breath.

There is a map anchor too. New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia sit in that order down the Atlantic coast, north to south. Run down the coast in your head and the names follow.

What to Say on Test Day

Name your five states, one after another, then stop. Do not try to reach thirteen, and do not apologize for the ones you skipped.

The officer counts to five and moves on.