(no subject)

[robinbloke]

British? Want to see if you'd be able to pass the entrance exam?

Look here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3077964.stm

[Poll #175725]

Comments

Ooops...

[tacohell.livejournal.com]

I'm screwed... you'd better send me back to Mars...

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

You forgot a zero-option, muppet-boi :P

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Actually the LJ poll creator ate it somehow, I did put a '0' in. Wierd.

Re: Ooops...

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Mmmm chocolate.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

"You must be at least this british to use LJ" ?

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Well, you're leading the pack at the moment.

Urk, I swear your LJ icon blinked at me a moment ago... too much sugar, or more likely not enough.

Only 8, I'm obviously a foreigner in disguise.

[ua-meruti.livejournal.com]

It would appear I don't know the date of Her Majesties birthday (sorry ma'am) and I obviously know nothing of employment law.
Oh well.

Seriously in some ways this is a good idea, immigrants/asylum seekers will not be kicked out of the country if they balls this up, they just won't be able to vote or have a british passport. Bugger all Brits vote anyway and a lot of asylum seekers are doing their damndest to get into the country, most aren't in a hurry to leave again. This encourages them to learn a bit about where they're living, and whay they're letting themselves in for which can only be a good thing.
It's certainly better than Norman Tebitt's splendid "Cricket" Test which apparently was to see which cricket team any applicant cheers for. So Norman, having a bit of an off-day were we?

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

immigrants/asylum seekers will not be kicked out of the country if they balls this up

No, they'll be kicked out before they get a chance to take it, request asylum, appeal, or generally try and exercise any human right. If they somehow get in in the first place, which it seems is now impossible to do legally.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

Thread, damn you...

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's similar to the driving test, as in you get a book with the answers.

[faerierhona.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

I got 10!!! And I wasn't even born here!

Only 3

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I claim being an ignorant continental as the reason!
Sad thing is I only got Nelson's column, the Queen's Bday and Cockney right...

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

At about 4:00 the BBC couldn't even spell Cockney right, don't know if they've corrected it yet. And I didn't know the queen's birthday, but then I don't really have to send her a birthday card or anything so I don't see why I should know it.

I dislike the question about prime ministers being a "spot the odd one out who wasn't in the Labour party". It sounds a bit...sort of "Ah, you may know many details about the history of this country and want to bring the magic of the subject to children for years to come despite us not paying you enough to live on - but do you know our version of the history of this country? No? Well then, you're obviously not worth keeping." Also why do they only want people to learn the history since 1945? What's wrong with before that?

I do like the bit about teaching people about sexual equality though. That is a good thing.

[silja.livejournal.com]

I did badly, only got 5.

Try the real US citizenship test here- I got 76%:
http://www.vkblaw.com/law/natzq.htm

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

Some of the questions seem fairly sensible, like the bits on employment and trading law: these could plausibly be relevant to everyday life in Britain. But other questions just seem pointless eg. the Queen's birthday, or recognising Nelson's Column. I mean, it's not like that's actually going to be important for living in Britain, is it?

6

[k-lioness.livejournal.com]

Hey! 6/10 isn't bad for a non-citizen who's only been here for 18 months! Don't worry, I have no interest in applying, that would mean I'd have to pay your taxed (yeesh!).

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

You realise this therefore qualifies you to be the Queen, Prime Minister and overlord of the country?

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Looks like a damn good bell curve. I think people have been guessing. We should all be deported. ;)

[faerierhona.livejournal.com]

well, I have been offered, but turnit it all down in favour of telemarketing :-)

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Ah Bell curves, statistics... I only guessed on a couple of them, ahem. Then again I only got 4 right anyway.

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

mmm, pub quizzes...

[olithered.livejournal.com]

Is that the same as a standard distribution?

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Bell curve, normal distribution, Gaussian distribution, binomial distribution - all look roughly the same (bar continuity: the binomial is discrete, the others are continuous). But I've never heard of a standard distribution.

[olithered.livejournal.com]

I think I must have meant "normal distribution" then.