These questions are devised by Red Squirrel Publishing, who have no connection with the Home Office, and not by trained question setters. The above have been selected for their level of difficulty/obscurity while the handbook clearly highlights the key learning points which on which test questions would have been based. It would be interesting to know what you would choose to include in such a handbook.

K L Castle , London, England

I am 56 years old, born and raised in Britain. This whole test and the layout of the questions is an insult to any intelligent human being born and raised on this island.

If any government, present or future, wishes to stop or slow down the issue of British Citizenship and the influx of immigrants into the UK, they should have the "back bone" or "balls" (if you really want it in British) to say so and not dance around with "Mickey Mouse" type tests that can only be compared to statements such as, " got more chance of going to the moon on a boomerang".

Our laws in the UK state that it is an offence to discriminate, yet here we have a government issued test that promotes the opposite . . . . . . . "issue a test chaps that will keep these fellows out of our country ". . . . was this Blunket or some back room civil servant who had the brain wave to go this route and I ask, over how many pints of beer ? Who wants to lay claim to being British with fiascos like this . . ?????

C Pulsakowski, Caldicot, Gwent

I've never read such a load of rubbish unrelated questions. These are not related to being a british citizen. Possibly 7 of them have some relationship to show that a citizen has a vague understanding of the Uk. I was taught Mother's Day is approx 9mths before Christmas.How about asking Joe Public what sort of knowledge the average guy needs? ie.what countries make up the Uk, principal cities,something about counties,the difference between a monarchy and a republic. Why single out proportion of roman catholics, when we are acknowledged in europe as a protestant country. I'm uk born and bred, a pensioner.. I wounldn't pass. I suppose I could be sent back to ancestral roots in Scotland??!

Roderick, Birmingham, UK

I scored 10. Oh dear!
The thing is, most of these questions are completely irrelevant. "How many young people are there in the UK?" Sorry, maybe I should be completely clued up on the last Census to be British! I here by give up my Passport.

David Davies, Darwen, England

My wife of 3yrs gave birth to my 2 children, both of whom have British Passports, she herself is South American yet she has to take this stupid test and fill out humiliating paperwork and pay 700 pounds to stay with me and the kids.
Question in Visa App: Have you ever met your husband? There's not even space for, how many kids do you have in your marriage, nearest Q, How many kids do you include on this app for residence.

All visa and immigration Apps and test are set for the economic migrant.

I'm British by birth and heritage, if I want to bring the mother of my kids to live with me in this country, who the hell has the right to stop me or put us through stupid tests just to be PC?

Chris, Hitchin, UK

I don't want to speculate but if I was a prime minister who'd messed up on immigration policy I might needed a way to reduce immigration ahead of, say, a general election without backtracking on my policy of allowing free movement of labour within the EU. I might then conceive of a test that was so hard that no one could pass it and thus reduced immigration without making me seem incompetent. I could also define the test in such a vague way that I could give an easier test to doctors, engineers and other likeable sorts without anyone noticing. The best bit of this plan is that everyone would attribute the ridiculous nature of the test to silly government bureaucracy, have a good laugh at my expence and then forget about the whole thing. *shrugs*

Bob, Liverpool,

You actually tested people to know what we all know?

Farrukh, Woking, UK

What's the point of this if you can't mark it afterwards? Where are the answers?

Joan, essex, UK

Well I found the answers and got 14, mostly by guesswork not because I actually knew the answer. This is a farce. Most of the questions are totally irrelevant to life in the UK and will prove nothing. Typical waste of time and money by this government.

Joan, essex, UK

M JC Brown, You're right - some of the answers to these questions may be wrong or imprecise. However this is not the fault of the question-setters. Instead, the problem is with the government’s study materials.
This was picked up last year in the press - http://www.guardian.co.uk/immigration/story/0,,1764292,00.html

All the questions shown here have been derived from the official text produced by ABNI (the Advisory Board on Naturalisation and Integration) on behalf of the Home Office.

This means that anyone taking the test must learn the facts as stated in the official text or risk failing the test altogether.

Henry, London, UK

The article contradicts itself in saying that this is the test all immigrants must pass and then going on to say that the questions were selected for their "obscurity". In any event I got 12 of 24 correct and I've never set foot in Britain.

Bob, Oklahoma, USA

It would be "nice" if immigrants knew some history and social statistics but surely a test should attempt to indicate whether they know somehing of the laws and customs of the land and agree to live by them.

Expat M Hassell, Los Angeles, USA

I got a fairly disgraceful 10 correct--then again, I'm not British. Still, while a few of these questions seemed somewhat fair (example: I suppose the minimum wage law and the dog law could be considered somewhat relevant), a lot of these are very strange. What difference does it make how many people have used illegal drugs? The kinds of questions the test should be asking should be the kinds that help people to become more effective citizens, i.e; ones that pertain either to laws or the historical reasons why Britain has laws and customs that could affect their daily life.

Alex, Lyndhurst, NJ

Of course there is a problem with people who (very understandably) emigrate to a Western country for a materially better life, but who don't know anything about the country they will probably live in for the rest of their lives and will raise their children in. This test however is obviously not the solution. It is meant to stem the massive tide of immigration, not to select the 'good' immigrants.

Hein Maassen, Leidschendam, The Netherlands

We don't need to kick out our own, they're leaving in droves already.

judy, Liverpool, england

Well I failed that completely...... Oh,and there is a link to the answers on the left hand side of the page, towards the beginning of the article

Hannah, Suffolk,

Unbelievable, quite literally unbelievable, that there are people in the Home Office who would think a single question from the above had anything to do with being British. But then of course in terms of relevance to the country the Home Office isn't in Britain, it's a private little enclave of self-serving bureuacrats which exists as a totally separate entity from both the country and reality, like the Vatican which, being divine, doesn't see itself as being in Italy.

eric campbell, harrogate, uk

Brilliant. Performance in this test is inversely proportional to the chance of gaining citizenship.

Doing well in exams like this just isn't British! It's there to weed out smart-arsed foreigners. They can probably do sums, as well.

Ray Warren, Dartmouth,

sorry - its 18 not 19 where I think the bulk of the population would give the same answer - but it's not on the list because that isn't what the Government thinks its for

Keith, London, UK

Most of these question are irrelevant to daily life in the UK. How many politicians would pass the test?

P Brooks, Crawley, UK

Question 3 - (c) and (d) are the same.
Question 5 - Anybody who knows anything about the UK knows that the number people saying they are Christian vastly exceeds the number who are - by any reasonable definition - so I doubt anyone knows the correct answer.
Question 9 - I suppose the correct answer is (D) - even though it is patently untrue.
Question 19 - do you think maybe they should maybe exclude questions whether the Government's opinion differs from that of 90% of the population?
Maybe we should submit all Members of Parliament to it before they are allowed to take up their seats - then we would quickly see the back of this beaurocratic nonsense.

Keith, London, UK

So, nothing about spitting in public, fishing in private waters and eating the catch, walking down the middle of the road, pinching women's bottoms without permission, etc.? All the stuff that Cambridgeshire Police are reportedly spending so much money on educating people about?

Though I guess the natives would score just as badly on that test, too....

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Clearly most existing British citizens would fail this test. So is being British being able to answer these questions many of which are just stupid. How does knowing the percentage of step families in UK mean that you deserve to be British? Many of these questions are more appropriate to the game shows where the audience shouts higher higher or lower lower to encourage the game players.

So my lovelies we asked 100 people how many took drugs. Err 40% So is it higher or lower? HIGHER HIGHER HIGHER!!!! (So sorry BRUCE!!)

Come off it what a stupid set of questions. How about questions which relate to everyday living in the UK such as how to sign up with a doctor, what age do chiidren have to go to school etc..

Michael, Wokingham, UK

Had to have been devised by a civil servant - nothing to do with the real world.

Margaret Cummings, Grantham, UK

I am an ex-pat and only managed to get 14 right. This test appears to have been set by someone employed by Trivia Persuit! These questions have little to do with what qualifies one to be a citizen of the United Kingdom. Still so much red tape!

Robert Smyth, Tulsa, USA

This is pure unadulterated Nulabour bureaucracy and like most of their policies has no bearing on real life.

Josh Martin, Oxford, England.

How about government ministers taking the test. Those failing should resign from government.

ltsao, London, UK

Whatever...let's hope that nobody's smart enough to circulate these questions, with appropriate answers, to hopeful immigrants for personal financial gain...a knowledge of our customs and cultures is certainly not an issue here.

Ann Expat, rhodes,

The Labour Party

a) Speak of British Values and Citizenship without understanding what they mean
b) Enjoy adding petty, useless bureaucracy to every aspect of life
c) Don't have any idea how to control immigration
d) All of above

Voice of Reason, nottingham,

What a pile of junk compiled by a pile of junk Government. This confirms to me that the "establishment" is on an entirely different planet to the actual Public in this Country. Why not have a sensible immigration policy like Australia's ,where immigrants have to have something to contribute to this Country !.

Simon, London, UK

These questions have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with being British. But I'm English so what do I know about it?

Roger Sykes, Christchurch, New Zealand

Where are the bloody answers? LOL

jp, B'ham,

It is a pity that some of the answers are wrong.
For example the monarch may marry whom He "damn well pleases" It is an heir to throne may not marry a non-protestant

Britain has a legal and written constitution -- it is just that most of it is not written on single sheet of paper. For example Magna Carta and the Act of Settlement are important legal documents in the English Constitution. The Acts of Union with Scotland(1707) and with Ireland(1801) are very important in the British Constitution.

The questions are pretty irrelevant as the ignorance of the question-setters shows. But we should at least be teaching the truth -- I wonder how many of the other answers are wrong!

M JC Brown, Northwood, U.K