I'm not fit to be a UK citizen!

I’ve just taken the practice UK citizenship test online and scored 17 out of 24 (try yourself below), just under the 75% pass mark. I wanted to give it a try as I’m currently a referee for a good friend who is applying for a UK passport – she was telling me about the test, and passed it first time, so I thought I’d give it a go.

But now I’ve seen it, it really isn’t that easy. To pass she did work and study for the test before hand, plus she’s an experienced Italian journalist and English language broadcaster (Update: Her name’s Barbara Serra, she’s confirmed she didn’t mind a name check) who’s been here since we were students at the LSE together in 1993.

While some of the questions she faced are practical ones such as: ‘Where do you apply for a National Insurance card?’ – others such as: ‘What is the current minimum wage?’ or: ‘What year did women get the vote?’ require specific learning – not generalised knowledge.

I presume the reason for that is that you can only take the test in English, it’s also partly a comprehension test and thus you need pretty decent English to take it in the first place.

If you want to take the practice test I found online it’s here: http://www.ukcitizenshiptest.co.uk/ (it’s not the Home Office page though, so for its info go to: http://lifeintheuktest.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/).

Do try it and let me know how you did below (and be honest).