I failed my life in Britain mock test

[Britishfailure]

So I am a European citizen who has lived in London for 3 decades married to a Brit and raised 2 children. I have been toying with the idea of citizenship I light
of the Reform “we want to deport you all” rhetoric.

I took the mock citizenship test tonight and scored 71% which was not enough to pass. However, I made my British DH and children take it too and I actually scored way higher than they did.

The test is honestly crazy. Questions about roast beef. Honestly so weird. I think I won’t bother becoming a British citizen as I really don’t like roast beef 😂

I think that is a valid fail. Boaty is the epitome of Britishness.

I really think the majority of British people would pass it. How can you have lived here for 30 years and not know about Boaty McBoatface or that roast beef is synonymous with England?

But there questions I would guess a much lower percentage of people would know the answers to. Like the limit of the small claims court in Northern Ireland for example.

I have even lived here for 30 years and never eaten roast beef!!

Well, I just did a mock test out of curiosity and passed. I didn’t study for it. I’m English, possibly I just have good general knowledge, there were a couple of questions I didn’t have a clue about. Most of the questions did make sense in terms of understanding cultural reference points in the UK.

You don't have to eat it. Plenty of vegetarians won't have. You just have to know it's a traditional dish, in the same way you could associate bratwurst or goulash or paella with particular countries.

Sure, many people don’t, but most know that roast beef, the traditional Sunday roast dinner, is quintessentially English.

In which case your username is pretty apt. 😀

😂

Ofc I know and I didn’t fail this question.

I passed I got 80% it isn’t that hard

I got 58% then immediately redid it and got 100% so it is pretty easy to revise for.

@Britishfailure I only scored 79 and born and lived here all my life. Odd, random questions. They don't seem relevant to contributing to society.

I am 43yrs old born in England and now live in Northern Ireland, apart from the odd weeks holiday I have not left the country so I am absolutely a British citizen by birth and have been here longer than you @Britishfailure. I say that not to sound like an arse but to agree and make your point that a % of citizens by birth may not pass the test without studying....

Your thread really piqued my interest so I decided to have a go at the test, I got 17 out of 24 so 71% however I absolutely guessed 3 of the answers and had no idea which of the options was correct and got lucky with picking the right answer so I guess my score is realistically 14 out of 24.

I see there are quite a number of mock tests so I didn't see the roast beef or the boaty mcboatface questions and I'd say there was only a couple of questions that made me think what on earth has this to do with being British? I struggled with the dates as history is really not my strong point but with revision if I had to take the test then I'm sure I'd learn these well enough to get the question right (and then completely forget the answers once the test was over!) I wonder if you got unlucky with the random set of questions you got being not really relevant? Although I get and agree with your point that surely all the questions should be relevant to being/becoming a British citizen

I think the real test wouldn't be a repeat though. There's a very large number of possible questions/answers you would have to revise as you wouldn't know which was coming up in the final exam. So revisable, but quite time-consuming and somewhat pointless.

It's 80% history from several centuries ago, barely anything current?! Although there was a music festival question I got wrong because I've never heard of there being a music festival called Creamfields! I really thought I was quintessentially British but I guess not 😔

Weirdly, my Irish mum, my aunts on both sides, and both grannies used to do a lovely roast beef, some even with yorkshire pud, in Ireland.

Obviously, that's because we all live our own small part of Britain. Where as you are asking for a generic permission, you may live anywhere in the UK and need to take the test. Someone who is born and bread in Yorkshire will know and live a different type of Britishness than someone in Cornwall.

The test is catch all rather than regional. Surely you would get the same in a test from your home country. We are a group of 4 counties, the test is catch all culture from those.

I'm British & got 71%, the questions range from useful to pointless, it would be better if it included useful things like queuing, money, basic law, monarchy from 20th Century onwards, British customs, I don't think not knowing 16th Century history should stop you from getting citizenship.

If you’ve been here for over 30 years, I’m guessing you are not too young. Well when you’re 65 you can apply without taking the test or having to prove you can speak English.
So maybe wait till then? (And I agree, the test is pointless).

I already posted some questions from the test from my home countries and they were mostly relevant and useful for life in my country. Just seemed a bit more meaningful.

Hopefully that will change .eso regarding not having to speak English..

Maybe try to imagine scenarios where someone might not speak English. It’s not that hard.

They are not the only ones thinking spekaing English might be quite important part of licing here... I don't think people who don't speak the language should get citizenship. I actually think that B1 english as expected level is a joke as well tbh and should be higher than "How are you? Fine, thank you. " considering it takes few years of being here to be able to apply.

What if they speak Welsh?