Can you pass the UK citizenship test?

PS I know the answers to 2 of your questions, railman but can't count up the first. How far back?

No wonder the test is rubbish, this is what it's based on:

The Life in the UK Test contains 24 questions based on the 3rd Edition handbook – “Life in the United Kingdom: A guide for new residents”.

3rd edition eh? You would have thought they could have got it right first time!

This is an interesting link to follow:
lifeintheuktests.co.uk/study-materials/chapter-1/

Almost the first statement on this page is wrong - it states the first fundamental principles of British life is "Democracy" - it isn't, it's a "Parliamentary Democracy" with a a monarchy.

Given that this book is issued by the Home Office - I'm guessing it will also help us understand how we are able to achieve reduced tax payments using an offshore scheme in a British Protectorate like the 'British Virgin Islands'.

AllieOxon - there is an excellent little book by Stuart Laycock called "All The Countries We've Ever Invaded (And the Few We Never Got Round to)"

The answer is 171 out of the current 193 members of the UN.

It's quite a funny read sometimes - mostly a bit scary - and if you thought Donald Trump was off his trolley, there are a few'establishment' characters in it that'll make your toes curl

I got 15/20 . Two of my wrong ones I really should have got right (Katherine Howard being one of them). I also got the Scottish jury wrong (didn't have a clue) and the Domesday book, as I said the Magna Carta

I think they're introducing a "Global Citizenship" test if you want to be a contestant on "Pointless" now.

I think someone mentioned knowing who designed St Pancras Station earlier in this thread, so how about adding questions like:

Who invented the 'negative strip' continuous cast steel making process, and where was it commercially developed?
When did the railway invent and use bar-codes
Which station in Warrington would you use to catch a train to Manchester Victoria?
How many engineers are there in the House of Commons today?
What is the longest rail tunnel wholly in the UK?

Why on earth would anyone build an 'international' station at Ashford?
Why are the promised Eurostar services (1988) not running from Manchester or Leeds yet?

Sorry .... got a bit carried away there

Well Gillybob - if they're asking questions about Henry VIII's wives, this would be a better (not London centric) question:

Which north west England town was home to his last wife Katherine Parr?

What do you think?

Exactly railman but do any of these "new citizens" really want to live up North anyway? Probably not. After all London is England isn't it?

Why is the proposed waste of money that is HS2 route linking London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester? us "real" Northerners invented to bloomin' railway but hey ho, there's no need to link Newcastle to anywhere is there? We can't even get a bloody dual carriageway linking us to/from Scotland. Pheww.

One of the themes running through all our responses seems to be just hot ridiculous and mostly irrelevant to living in Britain these questions really are.

From asking questions of the younger generation in the family (the old 5th and 6th forms at school), many don't seem to have much knowledge of important things like:

Your rights as and obligations as an employee
Knowledge of Tax and NI
Little if any awareness of stocks, shares, and financial markets
Similarly little knowledge of consumer rights and protections
Who to turn to if help is needed either in the community or welfare rights

There are times when I hear stuff on the news about all of these things that affect our daily lives - but if we are not providing even a basic understanding before kids leave school, when they have lived here all their lives - what chance has someone who chooses to live in the UK.

gillybob - I've often wondered that about London too - it's turning into a City State, maybe like Milan or Venice - and there are plenty of Machiavelli types who are keen to see that happen.

I was astonished to hear that Google are planning to employ 100s of new people, and only this morning, the excitable BBC Breakfast team were keen to point out that over 1,000 new jobs are being created by ASOS.

Where are they going to be - why London, where else.

On your point about HS2 - you are exactly right, it is and will be a white elephant, and will add no economic value to the country. There is no provision for goods/freight traffic - and it will not increase on the existing routes, so all ends up HS2 is just a bit of a fairground ride.

I just asked Mr Google himself about Katherine Parr and he cannot find any link to the North West railman

gillybob - clearly Mr Google has never heard of Kendal.

Katherine Parr was a native of Kendal - maybe Google didn't recognise it has nothing tho do with tax havens

gillybob here is reference to the link:
www.tudorplace.com.ar/aboutCatherineParr.htm

I find her links with Sudeley Castle more interesting as we know she actually lived there and died there, I'm not sure that she ever visited Kendal although she did live in Yorkshire for a time.

I am frequently asked to (initially) 'teach to the test' with my English Language students and consider it an enormous waste of my time and resources. The time spent talking and teaching about things that are nothing to do with day to day life in the UK could be far better spent. That is not to say that I disapprove of teaching some history or current customs (cf the court system) - and our discussions are endlessly fascinating to some of my students, but I think there are far better uses of our time, which is always limited. On a daily basis my students need to grapple with things like income tax, council tax, mortgages and rental payments, what they need to do to get a car on the road, health matters, schooling, work, transport..... I could go on, but you get my drift I'm sure.

I just got the question about Scotland wrong, it seems quite a basic test and you should know them as well as extending it to everyday living as someone mentioned. Priority should be speaking and writing English, in order to integrate with society and work..