The Australian citizenship test: the pass mark, the values questions, failing and resitting, and who is exempt

MARN 1576536

The format

The test is sat on a computer at a Department office or an approved venue, after the applicant's identity has been checked, and consists of twenty multiple-choice questions to be answered in forty-five minutes. The questions are drawn from the Department's publication Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, which covers Australia's democratic beliefs, its laws and government, its people and history, and the values the Department has set out as Australian values; the test asks nothing that is not in the booklet. Results are given at the end of the appointment. The test is in English, with no interpreter, and the applicant may ask for a question to be re-read but not explained. The citizenship guide sets out where the test sits in the application.

The pass rule and the values questions

The pass mark is seventy-five per cent, fifteen correct answers of twenty. Since November 2020 the test has also included five questions on Australian values, drawn from the values section of the booklet, and the applicant must answer all five correctly to pass; a score of nineteen with a values question wrong is a fail, and a score of fifteen with the five values questions right is a pass. The values questions are about commitment to the rule of law, freedom of speech and association, equality of men and women, the rights of the individual, mutual respect and tolerance, and the responsibilities of citizenship, and they are written so that a person who has read the section recognises the answer the booklet gives. Applicants who prepare from apps that predate 2020, or that do not mark the values questions, are the ones who fail with high scores.

The interview before the test

The appointment begins with an interview, in which an officer checks the applicant's original identity documents against the application, confirms the personal details, asks whether anything has changed since the application was lodged, travel, address, employment, relationships, charges or convictions, and asks the character questions again for the record. It is the point at which an applicant discloses a change the Department does not yet know about, and the one at which a discrepancy between the application and the documents is raised. The interview is not assessed as a test, there are no trick questions, and most take ten minutes; the test follows in the same appointment. An applicant whose documents do not match the application, a passport renewed since lodgement for instance, brings both.

If you fail

An applicant who fails is told at the end of the test, is given the overall score, and is not refused; the application remains open and the Department arranges a further appointment, usually some weeks later, at no further charge. The applicant rereads the booklet, with attention to the values section, and sits again. The test questions are drawn from a bank, so the second test is not the first repeated, and an applicant who failed on one area of the booklet cannot study only that area. A fail has no other consequence: it does not affect the applicant's permanent visa, is not recorded against character, and does not change the residence count.

Sitting it again, and the limit

The Department's practice permits the test to be sat again after a fail, and again after a second fail, with an appointment arranged each time. The regulations do not fix a number of attempts, but the Department's policy treats repeated failure as evidence that the applicant does not meet the knowledge and English criteria, and an applicant who has failed several times, commonly three, may have the application refused on that ground. A refusal on the test is reviewable at the Tribunal within the period on the letter, and a fresh application can be made at any time, with the charge paid again and the test sat again. In practice an applicant who has failed twice prepares differently before the third attempt, with the booklet, an English class if the barrier is the language, and the practice test on the Department's site rather than a third-party app.

English

Citizenship by conferral requires a basic knowledge of English, and for most applicants the test is how the Department assesses it: an applicant who passes a test written in English has shown basic English, and no separate English test is required. The booklet is published in a number of community languages for learning, and the Department encourages applicants to prepare in their own language, but the test itself is in English only. An applicant whose English is the barrier rather than the content prepares with an English class, which many councils and community organisations provide free for permanent residents, and sits when ready; the application can wait, as long as the residence requirement remains met. The English scores guide covers the visa standards, which the citizenship test replaces at this stage.

Who is exempt

• Under 18 at the time of application, who are not tested at all.
• Over 60 at the time of application, who do not sit the test and are not assessed on English, though they attend the identity interview.
• Permanent or enduring physical or mental incapacity that means the applicant cannot understand the nature of the application, or cannot demonstrate a basic knowledge of English or an adequate knowledge of Australia, evidenced by a medical report in the Department's required form.
• Hearing, speech or sight impairment that prevents the applicant from sitting the test in its standard form, who are assessed by an adapted test or an interview.
• Holders of certain humanitarian visas who have suffered torture or trauma, or who have limited literacy in their own language, aged over 18, who may complete a Department-approved course instead of the test.

An exemption is claimed in the application, with the evidence, and the Department confirms it before the appointment. An applicant who turns 60 before applying is exempt; one who turns 60 after applying is not, because the age is taken at application.

Preparing

1. Download the current edition of Our Common Bond from the Department's site; older editions and third-party summaries are missing the values section or have it wrong.
2. Read the testable section twice, and the values section three times.
3. Use the Department's own practice test, which is written to the real format, rather than apps of unknown date.
4. Bring the original identity documents listed in the appointment letter, and the current passport.
5. Tell the officer at the interview about anything that has changed since lodgement, before being asked.

The criteria around the test

The test is the part of the citizenship application that applicants worry about and the part that fails fewest of them. The criteria that refuse applications are the residence requirement, counted to the day, and the good character requirement, applied to the whole record, with the identity requirement a distant third; an applicant who has met those has, in the ordinary course, only the booklet between them and the ceremony. The residence guide and the character guide cover the two that matter, and the calculator gives the date.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Section 21 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (the knowledge, English and values requirements and the exemptions), the Australian Citizenship Regulation 2016, and the Department’s published test arrangements and the current edition of Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, as at the date above; the Department’s practice on repeated attempts is policy and the current published position governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.