Immigration
The Australian Citizenship Test: 20 Questions, 75 Per Cent, and the Five You Cannot Miss
The Australian citizenship test has two pass conditions, and the one most people quote is by some distance the more forgiving. The Department of Home Affairs requires at least 15 correct answers out of 20, which is 75 per cent overall, and it separately requires every one of the five questions on Australian values to be answered correctly.
The second condition changes how the first should be read. An applicant who answers 19 of the 20 questions correctly has scored 95 per cent, twenty points clear of the overall mark, and still fails if the one wrong answer falls among the five values questions. An applicant who scores exactly 15, with every values question right, passes. On its own, the percentage predicts very little about the result.
This guide works through the format of the test, sets the two conditions side by side and describes the material the questions are drawn from. It then covers preparation using the department’s own resources, the appointment itself, and what follows a pass. It draws only on Home Affairs pages, and it is general information rather than migration advice.
The format, as Home Affairs sets it out
The test is short and tightly defined. Home Affairs describes it as 20 multiple choice questions, answered on a computer, with 45 minutes allowed. It is conducted in English only. It carries no separate charge, because the cost is included in the citizenship application fee, so there is nothing further to pay at the appointment.
Not every applicant sits it. According to the department, most applicants aged 18 to 59 take the test, while others may have an interview instead. The department’s page on the test and interview is where to confirm which applies, and the distinction matters before any study plan is drawn up, because preparing for a timed multiple choice test and preparing for an interview are different tasks.
Forty-five minutes for 20 questions allows a little over two minutes for each one, which is a generous allowance for multiple choice. Time is rarely the constraint that decides a result. Accuracy on one particular subset of the questions usually is, and the next section explains why that subset carries so much weight.
The check at this stage is a single one: confirm from the Home Affairs page whether the test or an interview applies, before deciding how to prepare.
Two conditions, side by side
Both conditions must be met at once. Home Affairs states them as an overall score of at least 15 out of 20, and a perfect score on the five Australian values questions. Placed next to each other, the difference in how much error each one tolerates becomes plain.
| Overall score | Australian values questions | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions counted | All 20 | The five values questions only |
| Required | At least 15 correct (75%) | All five correct (100%) |
| Wrong answers allowed | Up to five, provided none is a values question | None |
The overall condition tolerates five errors. The values condition tolerates none, and because the values questions sit inside the 20 rather than alongside them, a single wrong answer there fails the test however well the other fifteen went.
Three worked results show this more clearly than the percentages do.
- 18 out of 20, with one values question wrong: a fail. The overall mark is 90 per cent, but the values condition has not been met.
- 15 out of 20, with all five values questions right: a pass. Both conditions are met, the first by the narrowest possible margin.
- 19 out of 20, with the only wrong answer on values: a fail, at 95 per cent.
Any score reported as a single figure, whether in conversation, in a forum post or on a practice site, leaves out the one detail that settles the outcome, which is where the wrong answers fell. Someone who says they got 18 has not yet said whether they passed.
The check to run on every practice attempt is to mark it twice, once out of 20 and once out of the five values questions, and to treat anything short of five out of five as a fail, whatever the total says.
What the questions are drawn from
A single source defines the content. Home Affairs lists four areas the test covers: Australia and its people; Australia’s democratic beliefs, rights and liberties; government and the law in Australia; and Australian values, which the department describes as based on freedom, respect and equality.
Every question, the department states, is based on the testable section of Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, the official resource book. That wording narrows the field in a useful way. The questions come from the testable section, so that is where most study time belongs, and the values material within it deserves the closest reading of all, since it is the only part of the test with no margin.
The four areas do not carry equal consequences. An error on government and the law costs one mark out of 20. An error on values ends the attempt. A reader planning study time can reasonably treat the values material as the first priority and the other three areas as the place to build the overall margin.
There is a limit to what anyone can know from outside the department. Home Affairs does not publish the questions that will appear on the day, and nobody outside it can say which ones a given sitting will draw. Practice sets on social media that claim to show the real questions cannot be checked against anything, and the department advises applicants to prepare with its own resources. A list of answers memorised from an unofficial video may cover the wrong ground, or the right ground in wording that differs from the booklet’s.
The check here is to open the testable section and mark the values material, so that the five questions with no margin are prepared from the text they come from.
Preparing with the department’s own material
Home Affairs points applicants to four free resources. Set side by side, each does a different job, and none of them replaces reading the testable section of the booklet.
| Resource | What it offers | What it does not offer |
|---|---|---|
| Our Common Bond booklet | The testable section every question is based on, available in 40 community languages | A test in those languages: the test is English only |
| Our Common Bond podcast | Listening practice alongside the booklet | A measure of what has been retained |
| Official practice test | A sample of the format and the style of question | The questions asked on the day, which are different |
| AMEPOnline citizenship modules | Guided online study on citizenship topics | A substitute for the testable section itself |
The language row is the one most often misread. Publishing the booklet in 40 community languages helps an applicant understand the material, but the test is conducted in English only. An applicant who studies in another language should also read the English version of the testable section, so that the terms on screen on the day are ones they have already seen.
The practice test has a defined limit as well. The department describes it as a sample: it shows how the test looks and how questions are framed, while the questions on the day will be different. A perfect practice score therefore measures familiarity with the format. It does not show command of the whole testable section, and it should not be read as a prediction of the result.
Home Affairs also states that it does not endorse external courses or paid apps. That does not make every outside resource wrong, but none of them has been checked by the department, and the applicant carries the risk of any error they contain. Where a free official resource covers the same ground, the case for paying for an unofficial one is weak.
The check is to sit the official practice test once early in preparation and again close to the appointment, timing the second attempt against the full 45 minutes.
At the appointment
Identification is the most avoidable point of failure. Home Affairs asks applicants to bring photo identification, such as an Australian driver licence or a proof of age card. Certified copies and electronic images are not accepted. An applicant who arrives without acceptable photo identification will have the appointment moved, according to the department’s test and interview page.
The exclusion of electronic images is worth reading literally. A photograph of a licence saved on a phone is an electronic image, however clear it is, so the physical card has to come along. A moved appointment means a new date and a further wait, which is a poor trade for a card left on the kitchen bench.
The check, the night before, is to put the original photo card somewhere it cannot be forgotten, and to confirm it is the card itself rather than a copy.
After a pass
A pass completes one step, not the application. Home Affairs states that processing continues after the test. If the application is approved and the applicant is required to attend a citizenship ceremony, an invitation letter is sent about four weeks before the ceremony, and the department notes that wait times for ceremonies vary.
The sequence can be set down plainly: the test is passed, processing continues, a decision is made, an invitation follows where a ceremony applies, and the ceremony is attended. This guide gives no processing times, because none are stated on the pages it draws on, and any figure quoted from elsewhere would date quickly.
Citizenship also sits alongside other arrangements a household may already rely on. Family supports such as the child care subsidy carry their own residency rules, which are set out separately from the citizenship process. The sensible course is to read each set of rules on its own terms, rather than assume that a decision under one carries across to the other.
The check after a pass is to keep the test confirmation and all correspondence together, and to make sure the department holds current contact details so the invitation letter arrives.
On the morning of the test
Most of what goes wrong on the day is covered by five checks, each of which takes a few minutes at most.
- Photo identification: the original card, not a copy and not a photo on a phone.
- The values material: one more reading, since those five questions allow no error.
- Timing: 20 questions in 45 minutes leaves room, so read each question twice before answering.
- The practice test: a last run of the official sample, marked out of 20 and out of five.
- Arrival: early enough that the identification check does not eat into the morning.
Most people remember fifteen correct answers as the pass mark, but the five out of five is the condition with no room for error, and it deserves the larger share of the preparation.
Sources: Learn about the citizenship test, Department of Home Affairs (https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/learn-about-citizenship-interview-and-test/learn-about-citizenship-test); Prepare for the test, Department of Home Affairs (https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/prepare-for-test); Learn about the test and interview, Department of Home Affairs (https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/learn-about-citizenship-interview-and-test)