Post
by FromThere2Here » Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:21 pm
Hi, everyone. I just took the test at the Great Portland Street centre -- and passed.
My experience:
I arrived about 15 minutes early for the appointment, waited about one minute, and was shown into an office where they took my 34 quid and checked my passport. (No other ID needed.) The whole process took 5 minutes.
They then immediately took me to their main area, which has a bank of about 30 computer stations, and sat me down to take the test.
There's a mandatory four-question practice test. Don't panic if the questions are unfamiliar. I don't think they come from chapters 2, 3, and 4 of Life in the UK. (All regular test questions did, however.)
During the regular test, you can go back and forth as much as you like, as there are both "back" and "next" arrows.
Some thoughts on the questions:
-- Sorry, but I'm not going to reproduce the exact questions. The test rules specifically state that you agree not to reveal the exact questions.
-- Definitely study chapters 2, 3, and 4 of LIfe in the UK. I'm pretty up on current events but still could only have answered perhaps one-third of the questions without studying the book.
-- I found the test to be extremely fair. The Home Office weren't interested in tricking me or in testing my knowlege of statistics. I had memorized all statistics from chapters 2, 3, and 4 -- right down to the number of church-goers in Scotland. That was overkill. At most, the test contained four or five statistics questions, and all of these were high-level statistics, rather than detailed ones.
-- Instead of focusing on detailed statistics, make sure your understand the politics and voting system, the people of the UK, the rights and responsibilities of citizens, and laws (as covered in chapters 2, 3, and 4.
Finally, I'd suggest that you take your time. I completed my test in about 5 minutes, but decided to go back and review my answers. About halfway through, the computer crashed! (Thank you, Bill Gates, for my first heart attack.) After two attempts, the staff were able to recover the test. They later explained that clicking too quickly on the back arrow can crash the test.
So, in summary... Study hard but not obsessively. Relax. Take your time. And good luck to all.
