The paper describes social studies skills of students age 9-adult as assessed by the 1971-2 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Project. NAEP organized skill exercise items around two subthemes: (1) obtaining information, including raising questions, seeking answers, identifying sources of information, and using standard reference sources and aids in locating information; and (2) interpreting graphs and maps, and using a variety of nontraditional sources of information. The paper contains selected released exercises developed to carry out assessment of the two categories. These skill exercises include multiple-choice tests, short essays, and longer essay-type written oral responses. Exercises are based on questions involving explanation of the human condition, insight into human affairs based on historical, philosophical, or literary information, and factual knowledge of events in American history. Findings indicated that respondents perform better on the items for obtaining information than on items dealing with interpreting information. It is concluded that NAEP results should be utilized as information sources for educators in setting curriculum norms rather than accepted as curriculum norms themselves. The NAEP social studies objectives for 1971-72 are presented in the appendix. (Author/DB) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Assessment Instruments (Released Exercises).