The students of Harvard University have flunked their Canadiana test.

The Harvard Crimson uploaded a video last week in which twelve students from one of the world’s most renowned educational institutions answer the tough, tough question: “What is the capital of Canada?”

Only one of the students featured in the video correctly names Ottawa, and she’s Canadian. Other guesses include Vancouver, Toronto, and incredibly, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
In their defence, the students who were stumped seemed thoroughly embarrassed about not knowing the answer. Better go home and study for the next one, slackers.

The Toronto Star connected the baffled American students to U.S. residents who were once featured in Rick Mercer’s “Talking to Americans” specials, in which he duped people with references to Canada’s most famous “Eskimo President” and a Russian invasion of Saskatchewan.

Trickster television personalities aside, a 2011 study found that fewer than half of Americans could name the Canadian capital, according to the National Post.

A panel of Jeopardy! contestants also did poorly on an impromptu test of Canadian current affairs on Monday evening, letting an awkward silence float in the air after Canadian host Alex Trebek showed a picture of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and spoke the clue, “the prime minister in the photo came into power after Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.” No one could answer.