British citizenship test

[ronaldd]

We all know some things about the UK, but do you think you could pass a citizenship test?

[EDguy89]

I had to take this test recently. Fortunately I passed (Not sure by how much. They don't tell you your score whether your pass or fail)

A lot of it isn't really practical information that would be used daily.

Knowing the name of the court for youths in Scotland isn't totally relevant for an adult living in London. Nor what Gertrude Jekyll is famous for.

I remember thinking as I was studying that the infinitely more relevant things would be along the lines of "Who campaigned to continue school meals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic?"

You can give them a go here: https://lifeintheuktests.co.uk/life-in-the-uk-test/

[Earl Aelfheah]

Wow, there are some weird questions on that test. Which British actors recently won an oscar? Is this relevant to living here?

[legalalien]

Yes.

Just tried an example online to see and got 23/24. Mind you, I grew up in a former Dominion and am of an age where we learned lots about the UK. Not sure if they were actual questions but if so they are very dated and some of them are pretty obscure.

https://lifeintheuktestweb.co.uk/british-citizenship-test-4/

[Spartacus]

Crikey

Some questions are hard like when did Christianity start in Britain?

Knowing that depends if you are religious or not and stayed awake in RE

Also sports questions depends if you follow sports or not ...

[diable rouge]

I also got 23, failed on ''What did the Canterbury Tales consist of?'', novels, poems, fables, and something else, but several of them I only got by deduction, had there been no multiple choice I wouldn't have known e.g. ''Who invented radar''...

[EDguy89]

There's a book you can purchase that acts as a study guide for this test.

They publish the prior years version for free so I opted to just use the free one because I figured the difference between the 2020 and the 2021 version were minimal. Especially since the closest we get to anything modern is around 2012.

The kicker about this test is you gotta pass it before you're able to apply for indefinite leave to remain or citizenship. It's run through a third party company and it costs ?50 a go. If you fail they don't tell you how many you had gotten wrong, or which questions. Just that you failed.

As a native English speaker it wasn't too bad, but I imagine this is a very frustrating quiz for people where English isn't their first language.

[diable rouge]

It doesn't really prove anything when it comes to 'Britishness', more appropriate questions would be ''Are you happy to stand in a Post Office queue for 45 minutes?'' or ''Do you dunk your biscuits in your tea?''...:)

[Spartacus]

Or what's the frequency of the no 12 bus

Or who's Al Murrey 😅

[legalalien]

Completely agree re English being a first language and a lot of it being about deduction from the multiple choice options. Surprisingly I knew the radar one - god knows how - if I hadn?t seen it written down I certainly couldn?t have answered. Women?s franchise caught me as I have 1893 etched in my brain and had to guess the English equivalent.

[sweetgirl]

Born & raised in the uk I would never pass such tests!

But then saying that, how many drivers would pass another driving test?

My guess is very few?.. possibly lower than 10%

About two months ago whilst waiting for my son I went into the library to kill time.

I found myself on the pc registering for the driving theory test.

I passed none! These tests are ridiculous hard I think & take a lot of time to study for!

[JohnL]

Spartacus Wrote:

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> Crikey

>

> Some questions are hard like when did Christianity

> start in Britain?

> Knowing that depends if you are religious or not

> and stayed awake in RE

>

> Also sports questions depends if you follow sports

> or not ...

it certainly wasn't St Augustine as the Romans introduced it to the Celts long before him.

As the BBC says

"We tend to associate the arrival of Christianity in Britain with the mission of Augustine in 597 AD. But in fact Christianity arrived long before then"

[hahn_ka]

My friend was preparing for the citizenship test. He was preparing with the help of the this practice test. I was curious to also try, and I need to confess, I failed when I tried to pass the test. So I know such test is extremely hard, especially for those who came here from abroad. They are difficult even for those who live in the UK for the whole life.

[Sue]

What a farce.

I've lived here all my life, and I only got 19 out of 24 right, and some of those were guesses.

What on earth is the point of this test?

Although judging from some of the posts above, I must have done a different test? It came up from a link above. The first question was about roast beef 🙄

[OutOfFocus]

Sue Wrote:

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> Although judging from some of the posts above, I

> must have done a different test?

It seems to give you a random set of questions. Tried it a 2nd time and got different ones. It also varies the order of the multiple choice answers.

My first go asked how often general elections are - 3 4 5 or 6 years. "correct" answer = 5. They don't seem to have been every 5 years in recent history?

[diable rouge]

If the questions were the same, it wouldn't be long before the questions had been passed on to all and sundry :)

5 years is the maximum term a Gov can serve, it can still call an election before then if it so wishes subject to conditions in the Fixed Term Parliament Act...

[ianr]

> conditions in the Fixed Term Parliament Act...

Which was repealed by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/11/enacted/

[diable rouge]

Thanks for the correction Ian, passed a couple of weeks ago, didn't spot it in the news at the time but I guess Ukraine has rightly dominated the headlines...

[KidKruger]

Would be interesting to see how many of the so-called ?Patriots? who voted Brexit could pass the British citizenship test!

[Sue]

KidKruger Wrote:

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> Would be interesting to see how many of the

> so-called ?Patriots? who voted Brexit could pass

> the British citizenship test!

Good point, KK!

[Moovart]

Surely the test is just one measure of how much effort someone is willing to put in to become a British citizen given that even most current citizens would have to do specific revision in order to pass the test.

The other measure being whether someone is willing and able to pay as it's not cheap to become a citizen.

[JohnL]

Moovart Wrote:

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> Surely the test is just one measure of how much

> effort someone is willing to put in to become a

> British citizen given that even most current

> citizens would have to do specific revision in

> order to pass the test.

>

> The other measure being whether someone is willing

> and able to pay as it's not cheap to become a

> citizen.

Maybe so - so you learn it as is taught

But the answers in my view are debatable whether true or not