8 Tips to Pass Life in The UK Test
To receive a U.K passport and enjoy the perks of a U.K citizen as an immigrant seeking naturalization, you’re required to pass the Life in the U.K test. The citizenship test will only take 45 minutes to complete and all the questions will be obtained from the official handbook. In retrospect, you can prepare for the test by improving your English comprehension, studying the official handbook, attending citizenship classes, and taking practice questions.
However, as much as focusing on the bigger aspects like reading the handbook and answering practice questions are important, you also need to pay attention to the smaller things. Sure, they may seem trivial but they could go a long way to helping you pass the U.K citizenship test.
Without further ado, let’s have a look at some of the nitty-gritty tips if you want to pass the UK citizenship test.
- Arrive Early at The Test Centre
Try to arrive at the test center at least 30 to 45 minutes before the scheduled time. Remember, if you show up at the venue less than 5 minutes before the exam commences, you could get disallowed without a refund.
But if you arrive early, you will have ample time to prepare yourself and double-check your documents without a hurry; maybe even jog your memory by reading some of your study notes before the exam.
- Take Your Time to Answer the Questions
You will be given 45 minutes to finish the test; which is more than enough time to answer 24 questions. Make sure that you read and understand the questions before choosing an answer. If an answer is not obvious, you can skip the question and revisit it later. Just don’t spend too much time on one question until you run out of time.
- Some Questions Have More Than One Correct Answer
When answering the questions, you will have an option to select multiple choices. It’s possible for you to encounter a question with more than one answer; usually, it could be two correct choices. If that happens, you should choose all of the correct answers. However, before you answer, carefully re-read the question until you understand how you should proceed.
- Improve Your English Vocabulary
Even if you have good English knowledge, some of the test questions could be phrased with vocabulary that may be unfamiliar. For instance, you could come across words such as Fenians, allegiance, or the Cenotaph that you may not have a clue what they mean unless you read the glossary section in the official handbook.
Besides reading the glossary at the end of the handbook, you should check out the dictionary whenever you read a new word when studying for the citizenship test.
- Don’t Talk to The Person Sitting Next to You During the Test
The questions will be assigned on a computer which will randomly choose 24 questions sourced from a database with over a thousand questions. That means every candidate in the exam room will answer a different set of questions to avoid cheating. Hence, it’s pointless to seek help from the candidate sitting next to you during the test; if you get caught, your exam results will be nullified.
However, if you need any special assistance, you can raise your hand to signal the supervisor to come over for a request.
- You Can Listen to The Audio Version of the Test
When doing the exam, you can either read the questions or put on your headphones and listen to the audio version of the test. This is a helpful feature especially if you have poor reading skills or you want to have a better insight into a question. The computer can also read aloud all 4 multiple choices, but you will have to choose an answer using a cursor or a pointer.
- Don’t Panic If You Don’t Answer All The Questions Correctly
To attain a pass mark, you need to correctly answer 18 out of the 24 questions; or 75% and above. For that reason, don’t panic if you don’t know the answer to 2 or 3 questions. Just remember, don’t leave any questions blank if you don’t know the answer. It’s better to take a guess rather than leave a question blank. As long as you don’t make more than 6 mistakes, you won’t fail the test.
- The Practice Test Could Be More Difficult Than the Real Test
In most cases, the practice test is usually more difficult than Life in the U.K test. Put yourself up to the challenge by doing as many practice tests as possible with a high difficulty level before the citizenship test. Most of the practice tests can be done online or you can purchase the Official Practice Questions & Answers handbook. Once you start passing the practice tests consistently, the actual citizenship test will be easier.