Pass you test with Henry Dillon as the guide (Life in the UK Test - Study Guide - Henry Dillon)

Member Name: kelebhutu

Product:	Life in the UK Test - Study Guide - Henry Dillon
Date:	09/05/09 (317 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: value for money, easy read, informative, readily available, concise,free online test access

Disadvantages: none its helped me pass with a 100%

I am one of those people who actually hate anything to do with any exam. I hate the fact that you have to cram in so much before you can actually sit for an exam.

So when I heard that I would have to take an exam in what life is like in the UK prior to our application for a dual-citizenship , I was mortified . Those of you who have known me on dooyou for some time now must be knowing that English is my third language and though I often get complimented on how well I can speak the language I would have rather hidden under the duvet with an English novel than sit an exam to prove anything.
Its one thing to live in a country for the past seven years and learn everyday things bit by bit and an entirely different thing to be questioned on exactly how well you know about those issues.

==A bit about the test itself:==

As of 2nd April 2007 you need to book the test ' Life in the UK ' online if you intend to apply for any type of British citizenship and settlement. There is usually upto a week's waiting time . Having sorted that out we needed to quickly learn everything we could about living in the UK.. this included topics like the Church and religion, History, Schooling , Various lisence , Banking and finance, Political parties, working in the UK, various important dates and events and a lot more.

You usually get to answer 50 multiple choice question within an hour.

I needn't have worried as the test in itself is a very easy affair for someone who had read through some concrete study material , both my hubby and I each scored 50/50 after having read nothing else but this small green handbook thanks to the author Henry Dillon.

==The book :==

I did a bit of research and quickly saw that there was no way my hubby who works full time would be able to spend hours reading/ revising loads and loads of essays and we knew most of whatever was going to be asked any way having lived this long in the country . There are so many books out there, all of which seemed to claim so much I did not know which to go for and which to leave and then time was short too .
On the suggestion of a friend who had recently passed the exam we bought the green handbook called 'Life in the UK- Study Guide: The Essential Study Guide for the Life in the UK Test ' 3rd edition(the latest one,, valid for tests taken after 2007) by Henry Dillon and published by the Red Squirrel publishing house.
I bought it from WHSmith at £8 and can be bought from Amazon and other booksellers at around £5.50-9 . It seems already a100,000 plus of copies of this book has been sold.


You'll have to take my word for whatever I say next as I am the one whose passed with a full 50/50 , jokes aside this book was god sent.

This is a book written in accordance with the rules of the British home office .
The book is a green -navy paperback roughly about 20 x 15 x 2 cm and has 210 pages . The print is of generous size and the pages are of very good quality and the book stayed intact at least for the month or so we needed to go through it. My little one often launched herself on it and threw it away to replace it with a book of her choice ever so often and the pages have been able to fend off the attack.

Of the 208 pages the book has a few introductory pages informing you as to how you should go about about preparing yourself for the test , what you could expect at the test centre,what sort of paperwork to expect from the British homeoffice once you've passed the test etc.

It has 150 actual pages of printed information which are divided into six chapters. At the end there are ten printed sample tests , an equivalent of 240 questions. When you buy this book by default you get an access code to an online set of some few hundreds of sample tests which were brilliant in themselves. The language used by the author is easy to follow and understand.


I found that the best feature of this book were the easy to understand diagrams that explained difficult topics and left a visual imprint in the memory. There are easy diagrams, chats and pie-graphs that explained some statistical aspects of study very well for example I don't think I could remember the ratios and numbers of people of different religions and ethnic minorities and their distribution in England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland etc.

In the chapter that deals with the various important dates in the British history is a concise chart that helps one concentrate on the important dates alone which is brilliant.

After each chapter there is a short summary that highlights the sentences of importance and thus it is very easy to remember exactly what is to be remembered and once you have gone through the chapters you could just focus on the summary for a quick recapitulation.

Also provided at the end of each chapter are a few questions that test you as to whether you remember the focus-points in that particular lesson or not.

It took me one thorough read and a quick revisions to get confident enough to start answering the questions.


==Online Question bank:==

There are nearly 2500 different multiple choice questions in the question bank. You do have to key in the exclusive code from the book and then log on with your log-in id..
You can choose to answer the tests based on a chapter or choose to answer a set of random questions.

The test has a timer which is in a count-down mode ..usually you get 60 minutes for 50 questions in the actual test and it is based on this .
At the end of the test you get back your score and the correct answer to any question you have got wrong . This is really helpful as you can check up the answer at once instead of hunting about in the book.
It keeps a track of how you are progressing. The score you get on these mock tests are roughly about the same as what you end up getting in the real test.

==My opinion regarding the book after the test:==


Most , but not all of the questions asked in the test were in this book in one form or another.

I am glad my hubby and I did not waste precious revision time ready through lengthy volumes that are found in some other books.

This book sieves out what parts actually matter and explain these very nicely.

I found that the best feature of this book were the easy to understand diagrams that explained difficult topics and left a visual imprint on ones memory.

That there was a free subscription to a very vast online question bank (2400+) did loads to boost my confidence. It was like sitting for a mock test with the added benefit of getting to learn the answer at the end of the test.

It has a cache of hints and tips to help you avoid common mistakes

Though my hubby did most of the paperwork yet I think the introductory part enables you to understand a bit about the forthcoming Home Office processes and paperwork too.

I have already recommended this book to several of my friends all of who have passed the test at their first sitting and have come back to thank me... so I would seriously recommend every person intending to take the settlement test to invest in buying this book , you won't regret it. To be really honest this was a much easier read than the book published by the home-office that had lots more information and details but was not ideal for people who have less time on their hands or don't have the patience to read through hundreds of pages.
Its not easy to prepare for a test of this magnitude but I sincerely hope this reveiw has made the choice of the right study material for those who are trying to lay their hands on one easier for you.

== A Tribute ==

Just before writing up this review I was trying to hunt up some material on Henry Dillon the author of this lovely little book , funnily I did not find anything much on him except for his ancestry and that he has also written similar books for the Australian citizenship test .The book doesn't say anything about him either. So just wanted to say thank you to the author, its made my passing the exam dead easy.

==Futher read:==
I don't think you would need any more reading material after this self-sufficient read , however if you still feel in-confident you can buy the book Life in the United Kingdom: Official Citizenship Test Study Guide: A Journey to Citizenship - Study Guide which is retailed at £5 ish and is released by the Home office or if you want you could also practice questions off from the red book of Henry Dillon Questions and Answers for British Citizenship and Settlement Tests (Paperback) .

Summary: This is one must, must have book if you want to sit for any british settlement /citizenship test