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The Life in the UK Test


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25 minutes ago, GordonD said:

I got both of those wrong, ended up with 19 too. But as has been said, very anglocentric. If I'm coming to live in Scotland why would I need to know the limit for a small claims court in England and Wales? And as for what time the pubs open...

In fairness, that set of questions is particularly Anglo-centric.  However, I picked another set and at least half a dozen were about Scotland.

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1 minute ago, GordonD said:

I got both of those wrong, ended up  with 19 too. But as has been said, very anglocentric. If I'm coming to live in Scotland why would I need to know the limit for a small claims court in England and Wales? And as for what time the pubs open...

What if you're Muslim?  Why would you need to know pub opening times?  It should be questions about laws and democracy and values.  The UK is run by absolute belters top to bottom, this is just the latest evidence.

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7 minutes ago, Richie95 said:

I got 17, was not able correctly answer how old Big Ben is, how long the Romans  remained in Britain or who Henry Purcell was, but I do know when a pub opens. 

You know the important stuff.

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13 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

21/24 with a fair few guesses.

I can only assume applicants get some youtube videos or a pamphlet to revise before taking this test?  Or do they attend prep courses?  Some of the questions seem ludicrously irrelevant.  

Some of them are really esoteric. And, as has already been stated, very Anglo centric.

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What a half-arsed effort that comes across as. You could say the stuff about small claims courts and the like would be useful to give a newcomer a hand with using the UK's institutions, but most of it comes across as a bit of braggadocio about famous folk who came from here. And I've no faith that most UK citizens would pass without preparation, which would make a mockery of the supposed aim.

Presumably the actual idea is just that you should give enough of a shit to buy the official government book about life in the UK (only £12.99), learn it rote, and pay the £50 to sit the test. Making the questions about Pokemon would have been just as relevant to that.

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Tried another one and got 22


I think the one I picked was one of the tougher sets of question

I was averaging about 22 on the paper tests while my Brother in law was about 21

In the actual test they only tell you if you passed or failed so I don’t know whether he scraped through or he aced it

but I do know that my explaining the Episcopalian Church to him got him a point (He’s from Greece where Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, Methodists etc. are basically all filed in the single folder “Splitters”)

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13 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

What a half-arsed effort that comes across as. You could say the stuff about small claims courts and the like would be useful to give a newcomer a hand with using the UK's institutions, but most of it comes across as a bit of braggadocio about famous folk who came from here. And I've no faith that most UK citizens would pass without preparation, which would make a mockery of the supposed aim.

Presumably the actual idea is just that you should give enough of a shit to buy the official government book about life in the UK (only £12.99), learn it rote, and pay the £50 to sit the test. Making the questions about Pokemon would have been just as relevant to that.

If you repeated all the tests on the website 5 times you'd probably get 100%.  Did that for the driving theory test.

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Just now, welshbairn said:

If you repeated all the tests on the website 5 times you'd probably get 100%.  Did that for the driving theory test.

I vaguely remember that too. The questions and answers were all word-for-word from the training materials.

Looks like it's Pearson Vue in charge of these things, so that doesn't surprise me. Their IT certification tests were notoriously available to whoever wanted them when I worked in the field, so passing their tests essentially certified that you're capable of reading a test paper, and were willing to stump up hundreds of pounds to do so.

(allegedly)

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21/24 with a fair few guesses.

I can only assume applicants get some youtube videos or a pamphlet to revise before taking this test?  Or do they attend prep courses?  Some of the questions seem ludicrously irrelevant.  

 

Just as you’d be unlikely to sit your driving test without having flicked through a copy of the Highway Code you would be unlikely to sit this test for real without having a copy of the official book “Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents, 3rd edition” and/or a privately produced text book. You’ll probably want a book of practice questions as well.

 

I think there are firms that offer actual classroom courses if home study isn’t your thing. Or you can get your partner to repeatedly test you on the sample questions and then get her brother to take over when she’s getting sick to death of it.

 

There is an inherent bias here in that if you’re from an academic background and are well used to studying and passing exams learning this stuff might be work but will be feasible. If you weren’t one for “book learning ” in your first language then you’re probably not going to be much good at it in your second.

 

So the test going to be a significant barrier to uneducated working class people but present only a minor obstacle to University educated, middle class professionals.

 

 

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Just as you’d be unlikely to sit your driving test without having flicked through a copy of the Highway Code you would be unlikely to sit this test for real without having a copy of the official book “Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents, 3rd edition” and/or a privately produced text book. You’ll probably want a book of practice questions as well.

I think there are firms that offer actual classroom courses if home study isn’t your thing. Or you can get your partner to repeatedly test you on the sample questions and then get her brother to take over when she’s getting sick to death of it.

There is an inherent bias here in that if you’re from an academic background and are well used to studying and passing exams learning this stuff might be work but will be feasible. If you weren’t one for “book learning ” in your first language then you’re probably not going to be much good at it in your second.

So the test going to be a significant barrier to undereducated working class people but present only a minor obstacle to University educated, middle class professionals.



And Donny. He’s got no chance. Which is as it should be.
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I vaguely remember that too. The questions and answers were all word-for-word from the training materials.
Looks like it's Pearson Vue in charge of these things, so that doesn't surprise me. Their IT certification tests were notoriously available to whoever wanted them when I worked in the field, so passing their tests essentially certified that you're capable of reading a test paper, and were willing to stump up hundreds of pounds to do so.
(allegedly)


It would surely be the vendor (Cisco/Microsoft/Oracle/whoever) that set your tests as opposed to Pearson Vue who just administer them.
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13 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

It would surely be the vendor (Cisco/Microsoft/Oracle/whoever) that set your tests as opposed to Pearson Vue who just administer them.

 

The general belief was that one of those organisations benefited more from the tests being released into the wild than the others. Let's leave it at that.

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1 hour ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

You could say the stuff about small claims courts and the like would be useful to give a newcomer a hand with using the UK's institutions,

Bleedin' foreigners, coming over 'ere and taking advantage of our legal system...

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6 minutes ago, GordonD said:

Bleedin' foreigners, coming over 'ere and taking advantage of our legal system...

If you can't scam money off foreigners without redress, who can you take advantage of? Political correctness gone mad, mate.

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20/24 because my PC skills failed on one question and on small claims I guessed wrongly. I can't remember the other one apart from not knowing who Big Ben was. I will be nit picking but since Churchill became PM before USA/USSR/and Japan entered the War maybe it was not WW2? ( I did get it right mind you) I do like Quizzes but it is rather Anglo centric which I suppose reflects the reality of being in bed with an elephant.

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