'I'm not fit to be a UK citizen. Are you?' blog discussion

I_luv_cats

58% ere.

How I am suppose to know much of the subject matter??

fermi

Honesty I think it is unfair to expect a current UK citizen to pass the test. Citizenship in that case is a right, and not given out on merit or knowledge.

For someone who aspires to become a UK citizen it may be fair to set the bar much higher?

You would expect someone who has that aspiration and is serious about making a contribution to society to put in a good deal of time and research on the UK and it's culture, government, systems etc?

MUCH more than you would expect a current citizen to have done?

Where the above ^^^ argument does fall down is that the questions are a bit 'mad' even for that aim....

melancholly

67%.... some awful errors though (and at least 3 lucky guesses that i can't really claim!). some are an odd choice to ask, but i guess it's more about the use of language to phrase the questions and to make some effort. (but i think it is pretty bad that as a UK citizen, i got the number of MPs wrong.... it's embarrassing if people who have been brought up here don't know these things..... me included! maybe the date of allowing women to divorce their husbands is less relevant)

MoneySavingUser

63% - not bad with no study

Katiehound

failed the first time- 64% but then when I'd seen the correct answers it gave me the test again and I got 96%!! wonder which I got wrong yet again? I don't see how a lot of these questions are really relavent to citizenship- more pub quiz nights! or that it makes people better citizens............

Dave_C_2

11 right - failed!

So the right to live in the UK depends on the ability to memorise pointless facts and figures from a single book!

What sort of idiot thinks these up?

Dave

Errata

16 out of 24 - 67% in 5m 58s
Bizarre questions which I imagine vast swathes of the population with ancestors that arrived with the Vikings couldn't answer correctly.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

54% for me and I guessed at a couple of the right ones too. Thought they might have give me something for getting one right on a couple of the questions where they wanted two answers. So I'm not fit to be a UK citizen. Well I've known that all my life anyway and don't really care

Churchmouse

Well I passed 79% Yeah a couple of lucky guesses, but I got 19 out of 24 in 2mins 38 seconds. The questions seem a bit odd to me too.

I was visiting my son in Canada recently, and was there for the Canada Day celebrations. Where we were, they were investing ( is that the right word?) some new citizens. The mayor made the point they had all had to pass an examination, and stated they all knew much more about Canada than most of the natives! My son will soon be starting the study process ( his wife and children are citizens) and has no objection, although he too will have to learn useless facts amongst the treasures.

td_007

While the questions may be daft, outdated, pointless etc. etc, what Martin fails to mention is that the fees for taking the test each time is £50. A nice little money earner for the Home Office