Life in the UK test success!

Congrats!!!

Thanks, phatbeetle! 

Congrats travellingfrog.

Yes, the advice you have given here is good as 4 people were turned away at my centre too. In fact, I was initially asked to leave too. The administrator checked my passport and said my name is 'significally different' from that on the system.

I didn't put down my middle names, just first and last names but my passport has all my names. So I asked him to define significally different and told him that the system only requires first and last names as the fields are asterisked. Middle names are optional.

He looked at me and said "ok you can take the test" imagine if I just walked out without a fight.

Yeah read book twice and practice a few tests. Sure success.

^Wow, that's kinda scary.
My passport is still in my old last name.  I haven't had it changed to my married name yet.  I suppose I need to do that. 

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question.  What does FLR(M) mean?
I'm new to all this.  I'm an American living in the UK on a spousal visa and I've only been here a few months.

If you change to a spouse visa within the UK from another visa (like fiancé or work), you get Further Leave to Remain (Marriage) --> FLR(M).

Ahhh, so the ILR must mean Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Congrats, travelling frog, and thank you for sharing the information.

How long is your FLR(M) good for?

If my visa is good for 2 years, do I have to take that test at the end of that 2 years to prove I'm worthy to stay?

You said you took the online tests on the link your provided, but also read a book.
After reading the book, did you find the online test to be easy?
I took a crack at the test and did okay for someone who's only lived here a few months, but not good enough.

Ahhh, so the ILR must mean Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Yep - spot on .

How long is your FLR(M) good for?

FLR(M) is valid for the same amount of time as a spousal visa, but minus 3 months (because the spousal visa gives you 3 months leeway to enter the UK).

Under the old rules, the spousal visa is valid for 27 months and the FLR(M) visa is valid for 24 months. You have to spend 24 months in the UK on either visa in order to qualify for ILR.

[Under the new rules (those who applied for a spousal or fiance visa, or a first FLR(M) after July 9th 2012), the spousal visa is valid for 33 months and the FLR(M) is valid for 30 months. However, with the new rules, you have to live in the UK for 5 years to qualify for ILR, so in that case you have to apply for another 30 month FLR(M) after 30 months on either the spousal or FLR(M) visa.]

If my visa is good for 2 years, do I have to take that test at the end of that 2 years to prove I'm worthy to stay?

Yes - in order to qualify for ILR you must have:

- Lived in the UK on your spousal visa for 24 months (and still be married)

- Passed the Life in the UK test.

You can take the test at any time in the 2 years, but if you do not meet both of the above requirements before your spousal visa expires, you cannot apply for ILR and must apply for an FLR(M) visa to extend your stay in the UK until you do meet both requirements.

You said you took the online tests on the link your provided, but also read a book.
After reading the book, did you find the online test to be easy?

The test is only easy if you have read the official study guide and studied the facts in it... because all of the questions in the test are taken from the study guide.

I took a crack at the test and did okay for someone who's only lived here a few months, but not good enough.

I'm a born and raised UK citizen and when I took a practice test, I failed it spectacularly - and so do most UK citizens..... because the test isn't about how much you know about living in the UK, it's about memorising the facts in the official study guide (and I don't know the answers to half of the silly statistics questions they put in there)  .

Thanks, Joy! 

Exactly as ksand said.  It doesn't matter if you've lived in the UK for a month or all your life- it won't necessarily make the test easier or harder.     Watching the news or being informed on stuff isn't going to help either as the questions are all strictly from the Life in the UK book.   

Read the book, memorise the info on the chapters they test on (Chapters 2-6 of the book..... not the whole thing!) and then do practise tests online.  At first, the practise tests were still tough, but after doing them a bit, learning from my mistakes (the website I used tells you if you got the answer right or wrong immediately so you can learn from your mistakes) on the test and then re-reading the book to see anything I missed or forgot.    I took the book with me on test day for a last minute look-over.    I was most worried about the population stats and even though I think I had them (mostly) down by test day, I didn't get ANY questions about population.  Not a single one.    Of course, every test is different so I just as easily could have gotten multiple stats questions.....

As I said before, there's an official practise test app, but I didn't use it because it didn't look like it would work on my iPad Mini and I was finding other ways to study.  When DH came home from work, I'd greet him with 'guess what I learned today.....' and go on to tell him the random facts I learned whislt studying. 

You have to take the test before applying for ILR and you have to show the pass certificate for Citizenship, too.  The certificate never expires, so I figured it's better to do it sooner than later. 

Joy,

Don't worry about it at all. Ksand and Travelling frog are 100% right. read chapters 2-6 about 3 times (they are easy reads), do a few tests and bobs your uncle. Oh yeah, do pay particular attention to chapter 3, I had quite a few questions come from it

Joy,

Don't worry about it at all. Ksand and Travelling frog are 100% right. read chapters 2-6 about 3 times (they are easy reads), do a few tests and bobs your uncle. Oh yeah, do pay particular attention to chapter 3, I had quite a few questions come from it

Yeah- I forgot to mention that part!    The book is written for non-native English speakers, so it's pretty simply written.    Not necessarily easy to remember, but easy to read and understand.    Once I realised that, it was a lot less intimidating.