Poll: UK Citizenship Quiz

[Athinira]

Speaking as someone who is from a country where this kind of test also exists (Denmark, introduced no more than 1-2 years ago), i can safely tell you that it's is completely retarded.

It tests us with random questions that most people - including native citizens - doesn't have a china mans chance in hell to answer because the questions are... well random. They've just picked out random historical or legal fact, put a few wrong answers in and ask you.

It's ridiculous to say the least. While i can understand that immigration can be a problem, a countrys history has very little to do with proper integration of immigrants into society. It's a desperate idea at its best and totally worthless at its worst.

Oh and i scored 8 out of 24 btw, 33.3%.

 

[4nthr4x]

11/24, non-UK citizen, so I had to guess all the way

 

[tea-addict]

Irish citizen, failed
It must be noted that the questions in the article are only a sample of the total pool. I think I recall some other questions appearing in the media which were pretty reasonable, such as "What do you do when you spill someone's pint?" etc.

 

[Treblaine]

I did a US Citizenship test and got 89% without any research or preparation. 60% is a pass.

Yet I've ever been to any part of North America in my whole life.

 

[Treblaine]

Also, what kind of useless citizenship test is this:

"What is the speed limit" = This is the question you ask tourists, this doesn't define Britain
"questions about immigrants" = Rather than for example, naming English and Scottish counties
"does the government pay for school uniforms" = how is this relevant to being a British Citizen?
"how do you apply for a job or get benefits" = kinda jumping the gun here
"when were women allowed to divorce" = How about when were women allowed to VOTE!
"questions about the EU"
"stupid Halloween joke"

What about a question asking to:
"Make any indication of naming English monarchs"
"clarify the status of Northern Ireland in the Union"
"Define Great Britain and the United Kingdom"
"Specify the difference between Monarchy and Parliament in power"
"how laws are made"
"How laws are enforced"
"What powers does the Prime Minister have"
"What rights to British Citizens have"
"What responsibilities do British Citizens have"

The American Citizenship test as 96 questions all about the history the the united states and the mechanisms of government.

 

[Ciaran Lunt]

it matches our social life its a pub quiz you dont really know but you tell them its definatly 1801

 

[TheVioletBandit]

It's funny how most of you Brits couldn't pass a citizen test for your own country, but then are so quick to stick your nose up, and tell us about how little Americans know about their own history.

If they asked me questions this arcane about American history, I'd probably be baffled.

Yeah I probably would be as well. The point of my post though wasn't that one group is smarter than the other but that we both probably know less than we think we do and in that way are more similar than lead to believe. Once you push aside the falsities of stereotypes and see people for what they really are we are all the same.

I have been quoted a lot for this statement; I think I just said it really poorly, and that's giving people the wrong idea. I hope this clears it up for you.

 

[TheVioletBandit]

It's funny how most of you Brits couldn't pass a citizen test for your own country, but then are so quick to stick your nose up, and tell us about how little Americans know about their own history.

Im not British, but in all fairness, the questions are way to specific. Statistical data about % of declared Muslims in a country? The hell, i don't know how many of each religious groups are in my country... i simply don't care about such detail.

Go out on street in your town and ask similar questions to random people. I'm pretty sure majority will have no idea about such things. It's something a normal, sane person will not pay attention to unless it is somehow tied to their job and/or interests.

Maybe it's a reverse test? Who scores the highest is just locked in asylum?

I agree with your statement. The point of my original post though wasn't that one group is smarter than the other, but that we both probably know less than we think we do (less details as you would put it) and in that way are more similar than the stereotypes would lead us to believe. Once you push aside the falsities of these stereotypes and see people for what they really are we are all pretty much the same or at least this is what I have observed.

I have been quoted a lot for this statement; I think I just said it really poorly, and that's giving people the wrong idea. I hope this clears it up for you.

 

[Darius Brogan]

*snip*

5. Bacon sandwich is always served with lettuce and tomato's. Hence BLT. Tbh, Bacon, veg, and fruit in a sandwich, isn't bad.

Sorry, but you disgust me. BLT is a heathen sandwich while a Proper Bacon Sandwich is Godlike

That's because a Proper Bacon Sandwich is basically some buttered bread, loads of bacon, and maybe some brown sauce... You can't get much more Godly than that.

 

[MammothBlade]

I found a better test.

http://realcitizenshiptest.co.uk/quiz.php?n=1

I still failed with 7/10.

 

[averydeeadaccount]

i received 12/24. it said i "have insufficient knowledge of the English language," which i find completely baseless because the test is impossible regardless, and if they want to test English, why must they make it an English and a trivia test at once?

personally i think it should be at most a test of the understanding of the language and the most basic parts of the law.

 

[Charli]

I found a better test.

http://realcitizenshiptest.co.uk/quiz.php?n=1

I still failed with 7/10.

9/10 Apparently the one I failed after a load of clicking to find out was the 'when someone drops their tray in the canteen'?

Really? That was the answer? That kind of depends on how old/mature the audience is tbh :S
My REAL answer would be stony silence.

 

[Yosato]

LOLLERCAUST

You scored 6 out of a possible 24.

Some of these questions are total bull though.

5 is wrong and open to interpretation.
6 is wrong.
8 open and wrong.
11 - no-one cares.
12 is wrong
14 includes the right answers, and is wrong.
21 is wrong
24 is wrong

The rest tend to rely on verbatim regurgitation. Like Crop Rotation in the 14th Century.

Jesus Christ I thought I was going insane - thank you! I scored the exact same score, then when I looked at the answers it was a real head scratcher. The ones I'd gotten right were pretty much just the ones I guessed at, but at least 8 of them that were marked as wrong I know were right becuase I've fucking studied them at college and university!

 

[Andrew_C]

16/20

12) You can attend hospital without a doctors letter if its not an emergency (i.e. if your G.P. is an idiot and won't refer you). They'll just give you a form to fill out to get an appointment, though (or send you to A&E who'll refer you back to the department, who'll then give you a form to fill in).

13) Both choices are wrong. It's not directly available to the pubic even after 100 years, you have to sign up at a pay per view website to gain full access. And legitimate researchers and illegitimate marketeers can easily access the census data before then.

 

[Daffy F]

Wow. This is a bit of an eye opener, actually. I scored 9/24 and I am a UK citizen. I'm not entirely sure how I was supposed to know that the recruitment in the 1950's in the West Indies was to recruit bus drivers though...

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

11/24. UK citizen about to be deported.

But some of these are simply strange. Can't go into a hospital without a doctor's letter except for an emergency? Having been "into" a hospital for orthodontic appointments without one, I dare say I'm right... and the whole constitution business is actually misleading. The UK has a written constitution, the only issue being it's not written in a single document, it's uncodified. So actually being knowledgeable about this subject made me get it "wrong". LOL GOOD TEST!

 

[caffineking]

10 out of 24. Fail!!!

Despite Englands rich and varied history, there's no History questions in the citizenship test because (as one Minister is quoted as saying) "Well. There is a lot of it"!!!

 

[Wushu Panda]

Can you pass it? [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/quiz/2011/oct/11/uk-citizenship-test-quiz]

In case you didn't know, to gain citizenship in the UK you have to take a short test about British culture and history, the above link is adapted from a practice version. Do you think that it's too harsh? What would you change about it, if anything? Did you get the trick-or-treat question right?

Also post your scores. I failed with 15/24, even though I'm a citizen by birth

EDIT: Only 7% of the escapist has managed to pass, that's 18 out of 291 so far.

EDIT2: That's gone down to 6%, 768 have failed, only 48 have passed. UK citizens seem to be doing marginally better.

This test is sad and pathetic. It's more like trivia you find at a weekly bar competition than a passport exam. I've seen citizenship tests friends have taken for here in the U.S., that's a hard test. It doesn't ask the random ass speed limits, who the president can/cannot marry or what to do for f***ing halloween. I just lost a ton of respect for your country.

 

[tahrey]

There is a study book available though, so much like the driving theory test, there's a lot to learn and most of it is irrelevant bollocks (with a few unexpected, actually quite important bits mixed in)...

What are the important bits? I've never read the study book so don't know how representative the guardian's version of the quiz is.

I have no idea mate, as a native born Brit I have no need or interest of paying whatever presumably rip-off price they ask for it, or going to a library to hunt it out. But it does seem very Theory Test-ish, and was probably written by the same people, as there's only so much time you can spend updating driving test questions that barely change.

Actually on the strength of the practice test I'd say it's considerably more bollock-hard than the driving one, because it doesn't even have any of the stupidly easy (almost comic relief), pretty much guessable questions that the theory throws out.

Some of the questions only apply to England & maybe Wales. For example, nobody pays for prescriptions here, and 13-16 year olds can work up to 4 hours a day. (but only on farms or delivering papers)

This is a good point, they could have put in a bit more about how Scotland and Wales have their own parliaments, and how policy differs. I suspect there are reasons behind that...[/quote]

Like I say... written by the same slightly uninformed people who write the theory questions. There's some stuff I had to deliberately mis-learn from the coursebook to get thru my bike theory, then try my damnedest to unlearn it again after.

 

[DefinitelyPsychotic]

I failed the test miserably and I'm damned proud of it! Go USA!