UK citizenship test

[Peter Wolf]

Its not as if anyone would expect the questions not to be weird would they ?

I cant even remember any of those questions now

I wouldnt mind seeing the full list of questions in the citzenship test to see if there are any questions that relate to anything other than govt bereaucracy/ the benefits system and obscure facts and figures like culture and history or language for example .

[House of Usher]

Sounds like they wrote a handbook full of facts and figures about government, demographics and public services and then went through it compiling questions from it. So all it's a test of is whether or not you've read - can read - the handbook. What I want to know is where are the questions about history, geography and culture?

[Old Tankie]

71% for me, better than most of you lot, but still a failure!  Shame on you, Ush, don't be silly, you mustn't expect immigrants to this country to know anything about its heritage and its culture, that's so un-PC!!  Why would we expect immigrants to know anymore about the history and culture of this country than our wonderful "chav" population!?!

[House of Usher]

Why would we expect immigrants to know anymore about the history and culture of this country than our wonderful "chav" population!?!

Because they could make the test about anything they wanted to include in the handbook the test is designed to test your knowledge of! It might even be more useful and authentic than testing people on how many people in the UK are aged 19 or under (13, 14 or 15 million?? Really, what's the difference as far as you or I are concerned?) or when, in the middle of the C19th, women were first able to petition for divorce.

But I know you're being ironic!

[Noisybast]

46% for me. I'm off to the colonies.

Ah, but did you take that test to see if they'd have you?

Bugger.

[Rio De Fideldo]

50% for me.

Noticed that in at least one of the mutiple choice the question was "which TWO of these things" with a choice of AB or C but in the answers it seemed to include a D option which hadn't been available in the question.

I'm not making an excuse just saying thats all.

I'm assuming this is nothing to do with the browser. It was in the European Parliament question.

[Mikey]

54%

It's a bit like learning a language I suppose - generally speaking if you've learned a second language you have looked in more detail at the actual strucuture than natives have to.

Buddy - more people speak Klingon than Ulster Scots? Can you tell them apart?

M.

[Trout]

Despite being a pretty well-informed journalist, with a law degree, I only managed 54%.

I found it interesting that many of the questions involved having memorised numbers from a guide - exactly how does that indicate someone would be a worthwhile citizen? - and several of them were specific to England.

I'm quite pleased to have failed and I suspect most of Scotland would, too. Perhaps it's time to go it alone? :-)

hides behind the couch, giggling

- Trout

[Trout]

Wow! I got 80% on the Canadian test.

But, to be fair, I have spent far more time in Canada than in England.

[WoD]

Hmm...EPIC FAIL on my part.  I'm surprised at two things...the questions and the fact this thread hasn't dissolved in to something quite nasty by now.

[SuperSurfer]

50% so I'm another persona non grata.

Great test (if you hate immigration).

[locustsofdeath!]

This is a somewhat serious question: How is it that you lot, many of you proving to be intelligent and thoughtful individuals, have failed miserably (except for the bloke scoring a 75...cheater!) yet there is an entire subsection of Polish immigrants living a few blocks away from me? Did they each study for this the way Trouty studied for his law degree or what?

[satchmo]

67% for me...

I assume you get a booklet to memorise before you take the test. Like the Driving Theory Test book that I didn't read before I failed mine

[SamuelAWilkinson]

This is a somewhat serious question: How is it that you lot, many of you proving to be intelligent and thoughtful individuals, have failed miserably (except for the bloke scoring a 75...cheater!) yet there is an entire subsection of Polish immigrants living a few blocks away from me? Did they each study for this the way Trouty studied for his law degree or what?

A mixture of reasons (56% - I'll see you all in the queue for Stateless Persons!), partly, as has been mentioned, that the test is clearly a 'learn the contents of this booklet' type affair, crammed full of stats which have little practical use but help to give a flavour of all the factors which go into making the UK the place it is today; partly because we never received adequate teaching on the subject at school (one of my personal bugbears - compare with American schools, which may be somewhat creepy with their pledges of allegience and such, but your average degree-educated US cit seems to come out knowing more about how their political system works than their UK equivalent), and partly because the questions are formulated in a boring way - if asked for an essay on "which parts of the UK parliamentary system are great, and which are in need of improvement?" I could kick those Poles' arses.

[House of Usher]

Ah, but of course, this is a Citizenship test, for people wanting citizenship, like, a UK passport, etc; not permission/rights/dispensation to live and work in the UK. Thus, you'd not find many Poles taking the citizenship test, except for the ones who have married a UK citizen and (possibly, I'm not an immigration expert!) those who have chosen to naturalize by virtue of having lived in the UK for sufficient years, with permission. The Poles don't actually need UK citizenship to be here.

My stepfather is getting his citizenship ceremony a week today. I presume he's had to take this test. I'll ask him about it when I see him.

And I didn't bloody well cheat! Cheeky sod.  

This happens to be one of my specialist areas. I'm a sociologist. I could teach citizenship if I wanted to! It's just facts out of a book, very much indeed like the Highway Code.