Hi all,
I took the Life in the UK Test this morning at Harrow College. Good news first: I passed! They don't tell you what your score was, but I was certain about 22 of the 24 questions, and I made educated guesses about the other two. I mostly studied by taking practice tests online (
http://www.220soft.com/PracticeTests/main.html), and only read through the chapters of the Life in the UK book once to see if there was anything there that I'd missed (there was, so I'd suggest looking over the book at least once). (Before I went for the test I was consistently getting between 20 and 24 right on practice tests, in case anyone wants to compare how they're doing.)
The experience at Harrow was very good. From the Harrow on the Hill tube, exit left toward Lowlands Road. When you get to the main road, turn left and the college is a short walk (no more than 2 minutes) up the road on the left side. Go to reception and they'll direct you to the testing room.
My test was scheduled for 10am, and we were told to get there at 9am. To allow for tube issues and the ever-present possibility of getting lost, I left lots of time, and wound up at the test center 20 minutes early. They were very friendly and opened up the room anyway. Other people started coming in shortly thereafter.
Around 9am they checked my ID (passport) and took my payment (debit card), and a few minutes later checked me into the system and sat me down at one of the testing computers. I then waited as they checked everyone else in. There were about 20 people taking the test, and not everyone arrived right at 9am, so the whole process of checking in took until about 9:50am.
They asked if anyone wanted a pen and paper (I declined), then had us go through a little practice test to make sure everyone got how it was all supposed to work, and then off we went. I got through all the questions in about 4 minutes, then checked my answers slowly, then skimmed through them once again. I was done in about 8 minutes. There were no distractions, no noises from outside, and the test center people were very attentive to what was going on and responded quickly if anyone needed help.
As we finished, we got a number (I was 3, as two people had finished before me). When my number flashed up on a screen on the wall it was time to go get the results. Numbers 4 and 5 also went in with me, so me, a guy from Hungary and a woman from Sri Lanka all found out together that we passed. We shared a little "Yay, immigrants!" moment, then they gave us our pass letters and that was it.
I'd recommend Harrow as a test site; it was well appointed and well organized, and the people there were professional and friendly. What more could you ask for?
One last thing: on June 1st, 2011 the fee to take the test goes up to £50. Sorry to end on a down note.
