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 😂

Perhaps the test content should be rolled into the eBac list and become an expected basic school-leaving qualification that employers require at a base level like having a grade 4 in maths&english gcse. Shouldn't we hold our young people to the same standard of citizenship as we do immigrants?

You can take it multiple times, but it costs a lot of money each time - hundreds I think

ETA It appears to be £50 each time, still a fair bit of money but I thought it was more.

My daughter's friend's mother took it multiple times and some of the questions are really ambiguous. I don't remember the exact question now (something about Cromwell I think), but some of the historical ones you can be marked wrong even though the answer is actually correct.

What, and no English. Pretty much all Welsh learning resources are via English so would need to know that first, so unless they are emigrating here from Patagonia and speak Welsh and Spanish this really isn't likely to happen. So it's a bit is a niche hypothetical problem!

Now there IS a good pub quiz question.... In which two countries is Welsh an official language?!

I did the test with my citizenship application and just spent a bit of time learning the answers. I think it is fair to have to learn some facts when you want to become a citizen of that country. Some of the information you have to know may be more relevant for people coming from very different cultures. I found some of it quite interesting but have to say when it comes to specific dates and numbers this did not go into my long term memory 😄

Reform voters are morons who wouldn't even get 10% on that test. Good luck.
I'd take an immigrant over a reform mug any day.

It's a big mistake to put us all in the same boat. It makes you sound like a bitter and twisted reform voter.

I just did it out of interest and I got 83%, managed it in 5 mins so I passed. I also did the test 11 yrs ago when I became a naturalised British citizen so the randomness of the questions was familiar.

I'm British, I passed with 88%. I did get a bit distracted by the Robert the Bruce question because I was thinking about that good looking actor who played him in Braveheart, Angus Macfadyen.

I did it many moons ago, the best way I found was to download a free app (the paid for doesn't necessarily have all the current questions) where people upload current questions - did that on the way to work etc for a few weeks and managed to pass. Good luck with it all. (I agree, the only thing it tests is your ability to rote learn)

Well I’m. Reform voter and have got high pass rates on this (in the high 80s). I’m also highly educated and have a good career.

Im astounded by British people who are unable to pass this test.

But... What if the reform voter is an immigrant? 🤔

Non-stealth boast.

It's not difficult if you prepare for it.

All you have to do is read that one short book really well. You can also prepare with free online tests.

In essence, it's about whether you can be bothered to make a bit of an effort. Same level of difficulty as theoretical driving test. It's also super short.

Exactly this!

Me too, it's not hard.

Im astounded by British people who are unable to pass this test.

I'm not. The average level of general knowledge is quite low.

Why? My wife spent 4 years at university studying English, and has lived here for over 40 years. Her English is far better than most Britons (and her spelling and grammar certainly better), yet she would have had to take expensive exams here to ‘prove’ she could speak English . Simply money making scams for private companies… probably ones linked to politicians. Thank goodness her age meant she avoided that.

Of course it’s important that people coming here can speak a good standard of English. Most people coming here are not in your wife’s position. We need standard procedures, there will always be outliers like your wife.

In order to integrate into UK life, you need to be able to speak the language.. We need to stop wasting time and money on people who can’t. Maybe, we could put the money saved to good use, like raising educational standards for British kids.

A system that can’t differentiate between someone who speaks (& writes) English fluently, has worked here, brought up children here, and lived here for decades and others who have (perhaps fleeing from war) arrived not speaking English isn’t fit for purpose. Maybe we should accept the former without the need for tests (a 3 minute conversation would be enough), and focus on English lessons for the latter instead? Or is this just another Reform inspired piece of racism?🤔

No it’s practical. It is also fair to treat everyone the same. Where do you draw the line between who should be tested and who shouldn’t? Should we draw the line at 1 year? 5 years? 10years? What level of job? A cleaner? A shop worker? A CEO?

inappropriate use of the word “racism” in cheap and undermines those actually suffering racism.

The French, German and Swiss also do this. Heck most European countries do? In France you have to go for a formal interview (so it becomes more subjective). The English one is straight forward!

I’m Australian and have never lived in the UK although my DH is English. I passed with 75%. Our political system is based on yours so that helped but a lot of the questions were just general knowledge.

The language requirement is around B1 - that is not hard!

Look if eg Reform came in and changed it to a C1 language (uni and professional standard English requirements) then you might have cause to complain. But this little test to revise is in its current form straight forward and pretty accessible and certainly not out of sorts with most of Europe.

It looks a lot like the one I did for German citizenship. The questions are designed to make you aware of salient points of the culture you‘ll be living in, so the question on Habeus Corpus, for example, isn’t really testing the date, it’s ensuring you know that you can’t have a court trial without the person present. The question on the Welsh flag not being in the Union flag is to ensure you know that Great Britain is not just England (in too many countries, England is used as a synonym for GB).

You need to prepare for the test by reading through the book of questions. I prepared for the German one by doing all the online questions. There were a crazy number of questions there on how many states there are and where their parliaments all are (to understand that many, many decisions are made on state level - there are even differences in law and education between states) and some key events in German history - unification in 1870, reunification in 1990, wall coming down in 1989, Kristallnacht in I think 1937. There were also lots of questions on the equal role of women in law and society.

Once you have gone through the questions, you discover what has shaped the nation you‘re becoming part of.

(I didn’t read the roast beef question, but know there are nationalities who call a rare steak a bloody steak. There are two cultural elements that need addressing right there).

There‘s probably also a question on sticking up two fingers and ordering two tickets, too. That nearly got a German relative thrown out of the Royal Albert Hall.