Can you pass the UK citizenship test?

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..

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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

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'.

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

And - when did we last resist invasion?

Or even - when have we been invaded successfully.....?

I got 14 right, they weren't what I would have expected and could have been far more relevant.

What sort of idiot devised this test - I mean, who in their right minds thinks it is an important test of citizenship to know that the first christians in Britain arrived in the 3rd century AD!!

An official test practice question asks if we know that Mo Farah won a gold medal, another wants us to understand what the Crystal Palace was.

Maybe we could add questions like:

How many countries has Britain invade and occupied?
What did we sell to the Chinese to trade for tea?
When did Britain invent the concentration camp?

What a load of rubbish that test is - it's about as relevant to citizenship as a chocolate fireguard!

I passed (75%) but feel the questions should relate much more to our current way of life and our expectations of each other in daily life. In particular, for some would-be immigrants, the role of women in western society and how this translates in everyday life.

Like being treated with respect and not being intimidated and pushed to one side when walking along the pavement. Both of which have happened either to myself or to friends recently.

In this context, most/all of these questions are irrelevant, imo.

Only got 65% but thought the questions pretty irrelevant and thought knowing or not knowing the answers proved nothing about suitability for citizenship . Also, in 1918 only women over 30 who were householders got the vote, and it wasn't until 1928 that women of 21 got the vote. . The chicken has nothing to do with citizen ship but I don't think it gets used much and I had it for lunch.

Phew! I managed to get 75%. Yippee, I can stay.

The test questions are taken from the 'Life in the UK' book.

From axaltedwombat at 10.43 this morning.

So presumably candidates will have been given a copy of this book and when they've studied it, apply to take the test. Just like an ordinary exam, really.

They couldn't seriously be expected to know some of the questions otherwise!

toscalily, try the second link the OP gave:
www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/travel/can-you-pass-the-uk-citizenship-test/ar-AAlj5Qp?li=AAaeUIW&ocid=spartandhp

I got 20/20 But strangely enough I had not answered a single question, must have telepathically conveyed my brilliance Tried refreshing but still gives me 20/20.

County courts deal with civil disputes including consumer disputes, magistrates' courts and crown courts deal with criminal cases.

Didn't know the Welsh or Scottish ones (oops) or the county court or cash machine ones, but as I've never used either, I'm not worried! Rather strange choice of questions. Anyway, got 80% so satisfied with that.

The Highway Code contains knowledge that is actually relevant to driving
JayH Ah - but when some of us oldies took it years ago we learnt what was in the Highway Code book and got asked random questions on the day of the test, so we know not to park on the brow of a hill, opposite a junction etc.

However, today they seem to have so much to learn, then take a theory test and immediately forget it all when they pass the driving test, judging by the way some of the younger parents park in our road when picking up their DC from school or that 30mph means 30mph when going through our village