Reply to: UK Citizenship Test: Would You Get In?

[ctdctd]

1. A financial obligation payed for by the state.
2. A service available free to families with more than 14 children.
3. A financial obligation payed for by employment.

Can we include paid in the test?

[shaunbhoy]

WooHoo!
42%!!!

Does that not entitle me to some sort of Training Grant, or should I just hand over my Pension Rights now and have done with it?

Fancy me not knowing how many people in the land claim to be Muslim, what percentage of the population are under 19, or where most immigrants came from in the 1980s?
How very Un-British of me?

[original PM]

Lol Failed!

[SantaClaus]

We need tests, designed by psychologists to catch liars, that check if people believe in democracy, rational laws, separation of religion and state, equality for women, and individual freedom consistent with special responsibility.

Actually, this is the best idea I have read this morning!

Pyschometric tests to get into the UK. Bring it on!

How about some questions like this too:

In the UK, a mortgage is:

1. A financial obligation payed for by the state.
2. A service available free to families with more than 14 children.
3. A financial obligation payed for by employment.

[AtW]

It's interesting that the United States, widely regarded as the home of free market economic principles and the bedrock of Capitalism, nonetheless recognises the principle that if the State has paid for something (such as NASA's research or the findings of the US Geological Survey) then the fruits thereof should be made freely available.

NASA isn't giving away all its stuff for free.

[Sysman]

The question on the number of school days is, I believe, incorrect. Schools have to do a number of sessions per year. Most state schools do two per day. The private school I attended did three per day, ( school hours were 8:45 to 4:15 ), + 2 on Saturday morning ( 8:45 until 12:30 ). This allowed for ten weeks holiday in the summer, three weeks over Christmas etc.

The same hours here, except we had 2 afternoons a week off for sport/other in-school pursuits or doing your homework. While state schools got a week for each half term, we only got a day or two. Long holidays at Easter too.

And why are there two questions about the EU? It's billed as Life in the UK.

Referendum? What referendum?

[NotAllThere]

Oops, 63%. Will they deport me somewhere nice ?

I got 63%, but I left already.

The question on the number of school days is, I believe, incorrect. Schools have to do a number of sessions per year. Most state schools do two per day. The private school I attended did three per day, ( school hours were 8:45 to 4:15 ), + 2 on Saturday morning ( 8:45 until 12:30 ). This allowed for ten weeks holiday in the summer, three weeks over Christmas etc.

And why are there two questions about the EU? It's billed as Life in the UK.

[NickFitz]

Who on earth are LearnDirect anyway?

Oh, I see, it's a scam:

It's interesting that the United States, widely regarded as the home of free market economic principles and the bedrock of Capitalism, nonetheless recognises the principle that if the State has paid for something (such as NASA's research or the findings of the US Geological Survey) then the fruits thereof should be made freely available.

Meanwhile the Johnny-come-latelys who run the UK instead think that even something created by the Government purely for its own purposes should nonetheless still be sold at whatever price can be determined - not by a free market (who, for example, is in direct competition with the Ordnance Survey?) but by some imaginary market that might possibly exist if there was, in fact, a market beyond the state-sponsored monopoly.

So Learn Direct is in fact a Government agency (in all but legal status) that has to pretend not to be such, so that it can pretend to be publishing its materials in a market where the price is determined by demand, even though the Government is the only one that can approve such materials for the intended purpose, and it only approves the one supplier because only one supplier wants to do it, and anyway, if there was more than one supplier, it would cost the Government too much to ensure that all suppliers were compliant with the legal requirements.

This is why even the U.S. Federal Government has always had the sense to realise that, sometimes, the free market sucks and is not fit for certain purposes. If only New Labour hadn't followed Tory (more specifically, Thatcherite) policies so closely in these matters...

[NickFitz]

The Stationery Office is now some kind of quango:

Point of Order.

It used to be known as Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO).

Or are we taling about a different thing?

If you follow the link, you'll see what I meant:

TSO was privatised from HMSO in 1996.

...where TSO === The Stationery Office, and HMSO === Her Majesty's Stationery Office. I deliberately used the present tense ("The Stationery Office is now...") to distinguish it from its former incarnation as part of HMSO.

This would never have happened under the Tories... oh, hang on, 1996 - it did

[Sysman]

Fail 67%

Woohoohoo. Does that make me automatically eligible to apply for citizenship elsewhere?

Who on earth are LearnDirect anyway?

Oh, I see, it's a scam:

Book
Published: 26 Mar 2007 ISBN: 9780113413133 Price: £9.99

Downloadable PDF
Published: 16 Jun 2008 ISBN: 9780113413232 Price: £8.69 (£10.21 inc. VAT)

Audio CD
Published: 29 Aug 2007 ISBN: 9780113413188 Price: £9.99 (£11.74 inc. VAT)

Book - Large Print
Published: 07 Aug 2007 ISBN: 9780113413171 Price: £9.99

[Sysman]

The Stationery Office is now some kind of quango:

Point of Order.

It used to be known as Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO).

Or are we taling about a different thing?

[SizeZero]

You have failed the practice citizenship test. Questions answered correctly: 13 out of 24 (54%)

It's fine, I left a couple of years ago .

[Gonzo]

I got 14 out of 24, 58%. I have been away for one year but still, I don't think I have forgotton that much.

It seemed there were a significant number of questions about benefits and what would I know about those?

The XXXXs have a fun two part test which had the pass line upped to a quite ridiculous level last year. So, now you have to be quite academic to achieve citizenship. The language test is set at a level 90% of natives would fail and the culture test, 70% of natives would fail. Well according to Secondary School exam results.

There is an immigration museum in Adelaide, South Australia that is fascinating.

South Australians are always quick to tell you that South Australia was settled by entrepreneurs and not convicts. It seems though that that the entrance exams were always set in "a european language", the language chosen at the whim of the person testing you. If you were white you would get the exam in English. If you were black it is more likely that you would get the exam in Polish or Croatian.

They do make a point of saying "we're not like that any more" ....

Then when I went for my citizenship ceremony, one of other ladies recieving citizenship was offered the services of an interpreter as she could not speak English.

At Mrs Gonzo's citizenship ceremony in East London it was only her and one Australian bloke that could speak English at all.

The whole ceremony was quite frankly an embarrassment.



Another four years and I can apply for New Zealand citizenship so I can tell you all about it then. I have been here for one year and can now vote so there is a long list of things that I think need to change....

[AtW]

These questions are all answered in a very small book meant to officially prepare you for test - it is very short, but once you read it then 90% of questions are trivial.

Crap test for sure, like most of "memory" tests.

[HairyArsedBloke]

I wonder if the questions / ‘correct’ answers were deliberately chosen so that a native Briton would only get about 2/3 and thereby fail. Then the government could shout about how tough the test is and anyone that passes deserves it.

Not that a New Labour government would ever engage in lies, fraud and spin.