How many questions are in the Australian citizenship test?

How many questions are in the Australian citizenship test?

There are 20 questions. They are all multiple choice, and you answer them on a computer or tablet.

Five of the 20 are about Australian values. You must get all five right, and you need at least 15 of the 20 right overall. Both rules apply together.

Which 5 questions matter most?

The five values questions are part of the 20, not extra. They come from Part 4 of the booklet, which is about Australian values such as freedom, respect and equality.

Think of the pass rule as two doors. Door one is 15 of 20, which is 75 percent. Door two is 5 of 5 on values. You can get 15 right and still fail if one of your misses is a values question. We explain this with examples in how the test is scored.

Home Affairs does not say how the other 15 questions are spread across Parts 1 to 3. So do not study one part and skip another. Read all of them.

How much time do you have for each question?

You have 45 minutes for 20 questions. That is 2 minutes and 15 seconds for each one, if you share the time evenly.

You will not need that long for a question you know. A fact you remember takes a few seconds. The extra time is for the questions that use words like "not" or "except". Read those slowly. Our guide to trap words shows what to look for.

If you take the Assisted Test, you have 90 minutes instead. How long the test takes covers that in more detail.

Where do the questions come from?

Only from one booklet, Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond. The testable part has four parts:

• Part 1, Australia and its people
• Part 2, democratic beliefs, rights and liberties
• Part 3, government and the law
• Part 4, Australian values

Nothing in the test needs a book, website or course from anywhere else. The booklet is free and you can read it before your appointment. Our guide to the whole booklet shows how it is built, and the Part 4 page covers the values that decide your result.

How should you prepare for 20 questions?

The number is small, so each question matters. A short, steady plan works better than one long night.

1. Read one part of the booklet at a time.
2. Say the main ideas out loud in your own words.
3. Try a few practice questions on that part.
4. Write down what you missed and read that section again.

When you have read all four parts, do a full practice with 20 questions and a timer. Our free practice test has 20 questions, 45 minutes and the same pass rule, so you can see how the real pacing feels. It is practice, not the real test, and the real questions will be different.

Do a full run more than once. The second run shows you whether your weak spots are gone.

Next step

Take the free practice test once, without notes. Note your score and which questions you missed, then open the matching part of the booklet and read it again.