Just sat and passed the Life in the UK test this morning. Here are my thoughts and what you should do to prepare and pass.
- When you book the test, do follow the instructions! Bring your proof of identity and proof of address, if you don't bring the right things you won't sit the test. I saw it happen, and felt sorry for the persons who wasted 50 quid not being able to sit the test because they didn't bring their BRP or supplied the wrong address.
- When they say arrive 15 minutes early, you better do it! I've seen late arrivals and the test supervisors weren't amused at all, and neither were the candidates. For the record I arrived 1 hour early and mucked around on Facebook.
- Once you finish the test, you have to wait for your results which is as long as the last person to finish the test. So, if you parked in a 30 minute parking zone expecting to finish in less time than that then you'll probably get a parking fine. Once again, it is your responsibility!
- The entire thing from start to finish isn't 45 minutes; it's more like 90 minutes. This covers waiting, sitting down, listening to instructions, verifying your identity to the test supervisors one by one, sitting the test after being logged on to the system by test supervisors, answering all questions, more waiting until the last person has finished, and then receiving your result from the test supervisor one by one (there's two supervisors and 15 people sitting the test with you, the supervisor verbally tells you your result, hands you a piece of paper, tells you to keep it safe, blah blah blah). Just make sure you've booked enough time in the day for this, i.e. don't do it on your work lunchbreak.
- Also, if you need to, go to the toilet before the test. You won't have any opportunity to do so.
- Study from the official book (Life in the United Kingdom, A Guide for New Residents 3rd Edition). It's the only book you'll ever need. You can buy it or, if you're lucky, borrow it from the non-fiction section of the library (the library I go to had around 10 copies on the shelf).
- You will be tested on everything in the book, so make sure you read everything. Pay attention to important dates in history, i.e. remember them as if it was your mother's birthday.
- Practice makes perfect, so do as many mock exams as you can and learn from your wrong answers. The one I used covers questions from the 3rd edition and can be found here http://www.uk-citizenship-test.com/prac ... -2013.html. I think I did around 60 attempts (with both same and different questions) allowing me to identify what ares to focus on and gave me confidence when I kept scoring 100% each time.
- Finally, take it slowly. This isn't a race. You have 45 minutes and 24 questions. And a lot of it is common sense developed from living in the UK, e.g. if you get a question like "which is not a fundamental principle of British life?" and the choices were democracy, rule of law, tolerance of different people and extremism, well, you know what to choose!
Good luck, and hope my experience will help you on test day!
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