Thursday, July 16, 2009

UK Citizenship Test

Via AngryMob I quickly took the UK Citizenship Test. The pass mark is 75% so for 24 questions you need to answer at least 18 correctly - I got 15.

Now to be fair I'm supposed to have read the "Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship - the Official Publications" book a snip at £9.99; oddly enough I haven't.

So:

  1. Immigrant group - Incorrect; damn I did know this.
  2. Constituency seats - Correct; as I've mapped them all.
  3. CofE - Correct; though with some thought as to the second name.
  4. Education - Correct; knowledge via moaning parents
  5. Job Applicants - Correct; though I wouldn't be surprised if the others became obligatory.
  6. Ulster Scots - Correct; wrenched from the back of my brain.
  7. Divorce - Incorrect; who the hell knows this beyond a lawyer or feminist historian?
  8. EU Parliament - Correct; because why have just one office.
  9. Prescriptions - Correct; I took a common sense approach rather than a Daily Mail one.
  10. New Deal - Incorrect; what the hell is "New Deal"?
  11. Children - Correct; again statistic wonk to the rescue.
  12. Muslims - Incorrect; but not far off I think I was mixing it up with minorities.
  13. Quango - Correct; though you could be forgiven for thinking it something else.
  14. Hospital - Incorrect; excuse me? P*** off!
  15. Training opportunities - Correct; again common sense applied.
  16. Census - Incorrect; I was wavering here.
  17. Voting - Incorrect; majorly so, though I now realise I misinterpreted one of the answers.
  18. Schools - Incorrect; really? Knock me down with a feather.
  19. Advice - Correct; good old common sense.
  20. Minutes - Correct; wonk.
  21. Speed - Correct; though it seems most don't bother.
  22. By-election - Correct; wonk.
  23. Under-age work - Incorrect; pathetic choice of answers, 10 or 12? Big effin difference.
  24. EU body - Correct; wonk.
So I note that of the questions I answered incorrectly at least 4 I wouldn't expect to have any knowledge on without prior study and of some that I answered correctly I doubt many others would unless they too had been delving into population stats and minutiae of Parliaments.

Except wouldn't you expect a test to determine 'UK-ness' to consist of questions that every current UK citizen should get right? 'Which side of the road do you drive on?', ' Takeaway fish and chips are normally wrapped in?' Instead this test appears to be a 'How well can you read and regurgitate the Citizenship book' which should at least knock out all those who can't afford the tenner to buy it.

[Update - Jim passed with 18, in his own words "I guessed a lot of them" see lucky people that's also the type of people we want in this country]

2 comments:

Dan H said...

I wasn't sure how to answer "Alternate HTML content should be placed here. This content requires the Adobe Flash Player. Get Flash." Perhaps not propping up Adobe's monopoly is unAmeric—I mean, unBritish—these days.

Also, even without Flash, I notice your blog has sprouted some kind of banner ad for Sony games consoles.

FlipC said...

But but Flash is the only way to do these sort of tests :-P

Oh and yes Sony have finally made a GamerTag... sorry Portable ID available for the PS3, sadly not one small enough to fit into the sidebar.

I think I'll move it to the bottom.