[joinee coolio]

I just completed the Citizenship test at http://www.channel4....itizenship-test

I scored 50% which means I woudln't be considered British enough to be granted citizenship if I wasn't British already!

Interesting results statistics at the end; they ask you whether you were born in the UK or not at the beginning, and those who weren't actually had a higher percentage of passes (above 75%) although they also had a higher percentage of people scoring very poorly indeed (sub 25%).

I'd be interested to know how Joinees do, as an international group.

This post has been edited by joinee coolio: 29 February 2012 - 12:03 PM

[Joinee Hathorn]

42%, It appears my knowledge of mostly pointless facts isn't British enough. Surely something about soap operas, newspapers, how you take your tea and what you should do in the event that you find a queue at the post office would be more appropriate?

[Lady Alexandra of Herts]

Well I did really bad, but in my defence, I do have a toddler hanging around trying to press the buttons!!!! I got a rather low 25%. I may try it again later when shes in bed Xxx

[Worm]

50% (born and raised in the UK - although I really didn't think about it and did the whole thing in about a minute)

As with most of these tests, it's based on data points rather than ideas. It doesn't ask you what the NHS is - it asks when it was founded.

Mostly irrelevant stuff to be honest. In general, if the answer when asked for a date is 'before I was born' then I'm not sure that knowing the exact date is that vital is it? As long as you have a general idea, does it matter whether something happened in 1920 or 1930? As long as you know it wasn't 1820 then insisting on the exact date is just pedantry. But then that's the point of a test I suppose.

How many MEPs are there? No idea...does it matter? only six of them cover Scotland.

I'm not pooh-poohing knowledge. Knowledge is a great thing, but this is just rote learning of facts, not knowledge.

This post has been edited by Worm: 29 February 2012 - 01:30 PM

[Lethal Biddle]

Oooh. 75%.
I got 1, 5, 10, 12, 13 & 21 wrong. And 8 was a complete guess, which is weird because apparently most people know that...
British history is an interest of mine though, so I would have expected to get the founding years ones right & the Hugenots, but not have expected most people too. If it was all British military history I'd have #!$&ing aced it.
I expected it to be more law/policy to be honest & there was none!

Also I think it makes sense that more people born abroad would get a successful result, as they include all the people who had to or may have to learn all of this specifically for citizenship.

[joinee coolio]

Biddle's our first entrant to be granted citizenship then! Congratulations! They were weird questions. Why would I know how often I need to renew my driving license when I'm a pensioner when I'm only 30 now? You find things out at the relevant time in your life.

I got 1, 2 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22 & 23 wrong and felt that perhaps I should have known 2, 7, 11, 21 & 23 as useful facts for someone of my circumstances.

[Hebba Homemaker]

I got 12/24 and 50% so I'm outta here, I wonder which country will take me; I hear Iceland is looking...

To be honest, Im surprised I did that well, I pretty much guessed every answer but 3 of them; why does it matter what % of the ethnic Population lives in London?! or when people came from France? Silly test! I like Noel's suggested questions; although I would probably do worse on that test...

[PJ Hannah B-R]

63%. I am bemused by there only being 4 bank holidays...Blur have always told me there are 6...and that a film with U classification is only suitable for those over 4...

[joinee_doug]

Forty-two percent. If I wasn't American, I could figure out how many right/wrong that was.

[edit] There must be something in the water in London. I just moved there from "the Northwest" (technically it's true, just the wrong country) and my score skyrocketed to 46%. Imagine if I took the test to-morrow!

This post has been edited by joinee_doug: 29 February 2012 - 04:00 PM

[Gaz]

42% for me as well. Some of those were meaningless questions with regard to citizenship though - what relevance is TV licence discount for the blind to how well you'll fit in?

[joinee_doug]

It just occured to me that since a lot of mine were guesses (on things like minimum ages, church attendance and so forth) I had to take the US equivalent and dial it down and adjust for the f***ed-uppedness factor of this place to guess a reasonable number. Also, it was unfair that there weren't any questions about NASCAR or misreported history.

This post has been edited by joinee_doug: 29 February 2012 - 04:23 PM

[Lethal Biddle]

PJ Hannah B-R, on 29 February 2012 - 03:44 PM, said:

63%. I am bemused by there only being 4 bank holidays...Blur have always told me there are 6...and that a film with U classification is only suitable for those over 4...

Only the Mondays count as Bank Holidays & I knew about the U certificate because I'm a film buff. It just means that under 4's must be supervised. It used to be slightly different, they introduced the over 4 bit (in the early 80's I believe) with the argument that no child under 4 should be left to watch anything unsupervised then later came the Uc certificate which was specifically targeted at under 4's & then in 2009 they retired that again because, what with it still not really being appropriate to leave an under 4 unsupervised it was completely unecessary.

[joinee coolio]

I got 16 out of 24 on the Guardian's version (from last year) http://www.guardian....nship-test-quiz

[Joinee Hathorn]

PJ Hannah B-R, on 29 February 2012 - 03:44 PM, said:

63%. I am bemused by there only being 4 bank holidays...Blur have always told me there are 6...and that a film with U classification is only suitable for those over 4...

Direct.Gov lists 7 Bank Holidays for 2012 and 6 for 2013-15 as (8/9 BH's and PH's) Christmas and Easter are classed as Public Holidays. So who is technically wrong?

This post has been edited by Joinee Hathorn: 29 February 2012 - 04:46 PM

[Worm]

My memory from having looked at this before is that technically Bank Holidays are only those specified in the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 which (in England and Wales) are Easter Monday, May, August and Boxing Day (with added confusion of an extra day if Christmas/Boxing day are at the weekend)

The main thing to remember is that 'Bank Holiday' has come to mean 'holiday' in general usage, but really it is the 'Bank' part of it that is important. These are the days on which the financial sector can legitimately not do business. The public holiday part of it is a whole separate issue.

Although I get pretty confused myself, mainly because
a) I live in Scotland where it's all different - we get St Andrew's Day as a bank holiday and
b) my employers basically ignore all the bank holidays apart from May Day and just give additional annual leave

This post has been edited by Worm: 29 February 2012 - 05:27 PM

[joinee_doug]

Lethal Biddle, on 29 February 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

Only the Mondays count as Bank Holidays & I knew about the U certificate because I'm a film buff. It just means that under 4's must be supervised. It used to be slightly different, they introduced the over 4 bit (in the early 80's I believe) with the argument that no child under 4 should be left to watch anything unsupervised then later came the Uc certificate which was specifically targeted at under 4's & then in 2009 they retired that again because, what with it still not really being appropriate to leave an under 4 unsupervised it was completely unecessary.

My God, it's the ultimate Nanny State! Do you mean to tell me that as a parent, I can't send my 2-year old down to the pictures by himself? I mean, he's got his gun with him...
I'm just glad we got our independence in 1492; otherwise right now we'd be speaking English!

[Joinee Varwell]

54%. Quite surprised I did so poorly. I agree with Worm, this is just rote learning rather than knowledge and understanding of the country. Knowing these facts won't actually prepare you for life in this country: it's the softer, less tangible stuff that will help you survive, like ettiquette, slang, customs, prices of basic goods, that sort of thing. And that's hard to test people on in any formal way.

[Platinum Joinee Plub]

I got 50% too so I'm outta here!

I do think the whole bank holiday question is a bit of a trick one...yes some are bank holidays and some are public holidays, but are we really trying to trick people *that* much?

[SJ Del (The Train Man)]

58%.
Suitcase packed.

[Lethal Biddle]

Joinee Hathorn, on 29 February 2012 - 04:46 PM, said:

Direct.Gov lists 7 Bank Holidays for 2012 and 6 for 2013-15 as (8/9 BH's and PH's) Christmas and Easter are classed as Public Holidays. So who is technically wrong?

As I always understood it the Mondays are the bank holidays & all the other days are just public holidays. Although culcturally the two have become completely synonymous.

[Lethal Biddle]

Joinee Varwell, on 29 February 2012 - 07:02 PM, said:

I agree with Worm, this is just rote learning rather than knowledge and understanding of the country. Knowing these facts won't actually prepare you for life in this country: it's the softer, less tangible stuff that will help you survive, like ettiquette, slang, customs, prices of basic goods, that sort of thing. And that's hard to test people on in any formal way.

Is that partly the point though? As well as encouraging you to learn important information to integrate you into British culture is it not also a test of how dedicated you are to achieving that? How willing you are to embrace & learn even the most arbitrary & ridiculous articles of British history & culture?
I'm assuming this is just a sample & that the real citizenship test is more than 24 questions. Or that maybe 24 questions are selected at random from a vast score of "recommended reading" that people are given... I hope so. I don't know how it works.

[Joinee Varwell]

Lethal Biddle, on 01 March 2012 - 11:19 AM, said:

Is that partly the point though? As well as encouraging you to learn important information to integrate you into British culture is it not also a test of how dedicated you are to achieving that? How willing you are to embrace & learn even the most arbitrary & ridiculous articles of British history & culture?
I'm assuming this is just a sample & that the real citizenship test is more than 24 questions. Or that maybe 24 questions are selected at random from a vast score of "recommended reading" that people are given... I hope so. I don't know how it works.

Hmm yes I think I see your point. I'm not one to knock the acquisition of mundane and pointless information; my head is full of it (and other things, you might say). I just wonder whether other more practical topics might be more useful in not only achieving the sense of dedication required but also a real understanding.

[Mr Phil]

38%. Felt I started strongly and then the questions got increasingly pointless and irrelevant.

They should test people on whether they're capable of finding out such information, rather than whether they already know it.

In question 22, did they really mean "people", or did they actually mean "adults"?

[Joinee Hathorn]

Well by their rationale, only 4-6% of us should be living here. It would certainly seem a little deserted if we lost 19 in every 20 people..back to where they came, oh hang on most of them are Brits.

[Poohbah (Gsq)]

I got 60-something percent. Mostly due to the power of fluke. I think I confidently answered one question. Oh and the two that HBR put the answers to on here (such a shameless cheat).

So in summary, I'm quite good at fluking multiple choice tests. But still bad enough at it then I think I'll just head back to Melbourne

[Thorners (a.k.a. Claire)]

54%. Hmmm, where to go?

[Mr Phil]

Joinee Hathorn, on 02 March 2012 - 09:05 PM, said:

Well by their rationale, only 4-6% of us should be living here. It would certainly seem a little deserted if we lost 19 in every 20 people..back to where they came, oh hang on most of them are Brits.

I think Acharde came over with the Norman invasion. So I'm going to be living in France. (Yes!)