The whole story.

No, I really didn't keep from posting just to experiment with everyone...it started out as building suspense, but quickly progressed to forgetfulness (Sunday) and then to laziness (Monday). And the laziness continued to today, since initially I didn't even bother posting the whole story about the experience.

So here it is. With pictures!

As I mentioned in a previous post, it all started with getting the official book that the test is based on and studying through the week.

Saturday morning we were up at about 8am; I had a banana and a last minute look at my citizenship timeline.

Before we left Clevedon, we had the important step of withdrawing the test fee (£35):



The ride to the test centre in Bristol was quiet and slightly tense.


We arrived to the area a bit early, so we sat in the car and Mark asked me random questions from the book. Then, at 10 am, the test centre opened, and it was time to go in!


Once inside, I filled out a simple form saying who I was and I paid my money.



Mark then wasn't allowed to go any further, so we don't have any more pictures of the inside. I took a picture of the waiting room with my phone, but I don't know if I should post it, in case it's some kind of State secret. But I have to say, there was a mural of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, so it wasn't all that intimidating. Although Eeyore did have a bit of leer.

I sat around in the waiting room for a while, reading a story by Alice Munro (that doesn't bear any significance, just a little bit of extra color). The other people who were taking the test came in one by one, until there were six of us in total. It was a nice mix of nationalities; kind of like United Colours of Bristol. No one talked to each other; I think we were all trying to make sure the statistics we had crammed in wouldn't fall out of our heads before the test started.

We were called into a separate testing room, one at a time, to have our details inputted into the computer system. Then, once everyone did that, we were all called in together. The testing room had about eight computers in it and was pretty shoddy, to be honest. Each computer had a set of headphones (so you could listen to questions if you wanted to) and an instruction sheet about how the test worked taped to the desk. The thing that initially drove me crazy was that the sheet taped to the desk was crooked. Sheesh.

Anyway, they ran through the rules (no standing, no looking at other people's screens, no talking). We then took a practice test with really easy questions to make sure we knew how to use the system and all that.

Then, the test began. It was a mixture of multiple choice and true/false questions. I signed a little waiver saying that I wouldn't divulge any material from the test, so I guess technically I can't say what the questions actually were. But suffice to say, it was a mix of easy ones and less easy ones and I did get a couple of statistics questions. I might have been able to pass without studying, but it would have been a much closer thing. As it stood, there were about 5 questions (out of a total of 24) that I wasn't absolutely sure about the correct answer, and even those I was pretty confident about.

They give you 45 minutes to complete the test, but everyone was done after about 15-20 minutes. We had to leave the room when we were finished with the test, and once everyone was back in the waiting room, there was a little bit of a pause and then each person was called into the room individually, to hear whether or not they had passed. I was the second person in, and the moderator person just said "congratulations, you passed" and gave me a little printout that said "congratulations, you passed" with a boring red stamp on it. They don't even tell you what your score was, so I have no idea if I got everything right or if I only squeaked by or something in-between. But of course that only matters if that sort of thing is important to you, or if you are trying to out-do someone else, and since I don't know anyone else who has taken the test, I wouldn't be able to gloat anyway.

So I came out of the test centre all smiley, where Mark was waiting for me.



It wasn't as traumatic as it might have been, and I have to say that all in all it wasn't that stressful, even for someone who has an uncanny ability to make any situation unnecessarily fraught. So they must be doing something right.

Now the next step is to fill in the application form and send it in with the test certificate and lots and lots of money. They say that at the moment it is taking them about four months to process applications, so if I get it in before Christmas, I may actually be naturalized by the end of March (if they approve my application, of course).

Crazy!