Life in the UK Test a few tips

[mrdee0]

Hello,

I've been a long time reader of this forum and it has been a long process bringing my wife over (few years now).

Anyway we have been at the stage of applying for citizenship and since the rules changes she is required to sit the Life inthe UK test (she did an ESOL course which would have negated the need to do the test but damn- rules changed).

Anyway my wife set about preparing for the test. She can read english but she only went to school upto age 16 so 'study' is a new concept to her. We read these forums of people saying the test is easy and its 'common sense'. But for many people it is not so easy and so you must tackle it.

We got some books together and she struggled reading the official guide and a number of other books to help with the test. For many this test is hard, especially if English is not your first language. The books are quite dense and it she was quite depressed with it all but persevered for two months before taking the test. She read the books, took practice tests, made notes, everything you can think of.

She failed the test. After many tears and trying to motivate her again we applied to test a new study guide and so tried a different tact as described in the book.

This is what she did.

She read the official guide again over a week-just a general relaxed read. Then she read the revision guide which explained things clearly and also really cut down on the amount of text. To her it all became so much more manageable to have the material structured to make things easy to remember and also to have things so clearly explained.

When she then read back over the official guide she realised the jigsaw was coming together in her mind. So she spent a week back on the official guide and then finally two weeks just using the revision guide. The main thing she found was that the revision guide shortens and summaries what she needed to learn into bite sized pieces. She was taking a lot of tests at the same time (go citizen -free from the library).

It was a joy to see her confidence grow and we both had tears of joy when she passed her test!
Hope this is of help. I would suggest people visit the Library and try out different books- the revision guide for us was a godsend! That book is called 'The Life in the UK Citizenship Test Ultimate Revision Guide 2016' . The Library can get you a copy of it. I have seen a similar revision guide before however I found it was out of date so this 2016 Ultimate Guide is upto date. Good luck to all.

[Casa]

Congratulations to your wife. Also. listening to the questions through headphones during the test is often helpful for anyone who finds the written word difficult. You can request this.

[ohara]

When I did mine, you didn't even have to ask for the headphones, they were just there if you wanted to use them

[mrdee0]

Congratulations to your wife. Also. listening to the questions through headphones during the test is often helpful for anyone who finds the written word difficult. You can request this.

Yes there was a CD that came with one of the other books that had spoken questions. But she found this more difficult compared to the written word. It depends on the person some people may find it easier, but for my wife her brain found it hard work to listen and understand compared to reading and understanding the text. The essential thing is understanding exactly what the question is asking- that is the first hurdle to overcome, and second of course is the hurdle to find the correct answer.