I tried that test a few days ago. I got a piffling 58%. My deportation awaits.

I thought I’d done quite well at 60-something per cent, but then realised that wouldn’t be enough to allow me entry to the UK.

That and I had to guess virtually all of the questions, so a somewhat hollow non-victory.

Would love to see how many Nads could answer correctly. Does the test allow scores in minus figures?

I played the game yesterday with my MP, who happens to be my boss.

We both failed.

Miserably.

As someone who has taken the test and passed with flying colours, I and my friends have to say that if you don’t pass, unless you are non english speaking, there is something wrong with you.

But its clear to us that along with the £30 you have to pay to take it and the £10 you have to buy the book for that its a money making scheme. But again, this pales into insignificance compared to the £1020 you have to pay in order to get your permanent residence.

I guess those like me who can’t go back to their native country are happy to put up and shut up if it allows us to live here indefinately.

Lets see what they have cooked up for us with this new points based system?

75% including three guesses – so I would have failed if I had guessed incorrectly. I’ll get me coat.

A splendid idea! Where are we going to deport them all to?

(I got 75%, so I get to stay. Just. Although one of the questions appears to be incorrectly scored, in that the answer it explains is right gets marked wrong. And as a Scot, I couldn’t give a flying chuff when St George’s day is.)

100% though with two lucky guesses.

75% doesn’t strike me as a difficult pass mark, especially if – as suggested @4 – there is a book you can get to help you.

I mean, heaven forfend we should ask anything of people who want to live here.

@3 – that an MP and his researcher failed “miserably” – frankly I can’t see how that’s possible, but anyway – says more about you than about the test.

If you need to pass the test you buy a question bank book and rote learn the answers like my South African friend did. I agree it’s a ridiculous way of handing out citizenship

Yes cjcjc – rote learning will solve this country’s problems! You must have been Indian in a previous life.

Well I learned quite a lot by rote at my primary school – worked rather well…

And if it’s the basis of Indian education, well, all those engineers and doctors aren’t turning out too badly either!

Sunny said “You must have been Indian in a previous life.”

Racist!!!

9. The UK seemed to do well winning Nobel Prizes, starting the Industrial Revolution, being awarded more patents than anyone else plus producing writers such as Chaucer, Shakespear, Donne, B Johnson, Milton, Austem Bronte Dickens, Orwell, Kipling etc,etc , with a fair amount of rote learning on the curriculum. In fact Huxley who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology /Medicine said a main reason why the UK won so many Nobel Prizes was that the O and A level system meant the wrote learning was completed early on in one’s training and so enabling people to start thinking conceptually about their subject. The basis of engineering, science and medicine requires much rote learning. Not sure that I want to be operated on by a surgeon who does not know their anatomy or fly in a plane designed by an engineer who does not know the basics!

I can say that Praguetory, I’ve studied at an Indian school

Does that explain your analytical skills, Sunny.

Does that explain your analytical skills, Sunny

Yes.

I took a similar test in Australia nine years ago – it went something like: “What’s the capital of Australia?” “Can you spell ‘g’day mate’?”.

I passed.

cjcjc:

“@3 – that an MP and his researcher failed “miserably” – frankly I can’t see how that’s possible, but anyway – says more about you than about the test.”

Well, it’s possible because when we did it, neither of us knew the answers to some of the rather obscure and odd questions.

As you got 100%, you are no doubt a flaming genius of epic proportions. Would you like to inform us of all your other staggering qualifications that indicate how fantastically intelligent you are, and how much wonderfully-relevant knowledge you posses? Perhaps you once scored 100% in a spelling test in primary school? Maybe you passed your driving test with an unusually low number of minors?

We’re all dying to know, so go on, let the cat out of the bag…

Most of us natives would fail the test – but we haven’t had the opportunity to study the questions and learn the answers. I’ve passed every exam I’ve ever taken, through to post-graduate level, by learning and study. It isn’t too much to ask of those who wish to become citizens that they apply themselves to a bit of similar study.

I got 87% it’s not that difficult. If your MP can’t pass then that would be embarrassing. It’s not perfect and could be improved but what’s wrong with a citizenship test in principle? One of the questions seemed to score incorrectly, I hope that doesn’t happen in real tests. Though it might be a useful lesson about life in Britain…

Well rote learning won’t harm anything. It’s always obvious in the greats in any field (pianists and scales, batsmen and standard strokes, ballerinas and standard routines, blah blah – it’s their instinctive command of the boring basics that lets them fly).

Oh, and Sunny: just once, count to 10 before using the race card.

Paul S – your ignorance is not my fault.

As @19 says, if your MP can’t pass that’s just embarrassing.

Most of us natives would fail the test – but we haven’t had the opportunity to study the questions and learn the answers.

That made me laugh. Cause ya know, the real problem here is that we are discriminating against British people by selling a book in WH Smiths that they are not required by law to read in order to be allowed to stay living in Britian! The horror!

The point about the test is not that it’s hard or easy. It’s that it is discriminatory. It requires people to do something that other people are not required to do, purely on the basis of nationality. It also costs quite a lot of money, especially if you factor in things like travel and time off work, as test centers are far from being equally distributed around the country. The legal underpinnings of requiring this from people who are by definition in the country quite legally already are far from clear, and I don’t think the system would stand up to a serious legal challenge.

I believe it is perfectly legal to set a test for citizenship .

How do you define citizenship in a way that you can test?

I got 67% on the test and therefore failed. I don’t see how some (or most) of the questions are at all relevant to being a citizen (or indeed, a SUBJECT) of this country and how knowing the answers to the questions, would enable you to be a better citizen.

Quite easy really and I agree with cjcjc, if an MP cannot pass this test he should be ashamed