PREPARATION FOR THE TEST
Once you receive ‘A Look At Canada' booklet from CIC , you can start preparing for the test. Since, in some places (e.g. Ontario), the process time is not long, you can expect to get test date within 2/3 months of applying. If you haven't received the booklet you can still read it online or download it from CIC website- http://cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/look/index.asp
Once you go through the book, you will realize that you already know some information covered by the book. One quick tip - don't read it overnight before the test day. Chances are you won't remember some of the information or will be confused once you see the answers.
Key area to focus while reading –
1.Remember names, places & dates:
For example -
- The beaver is one of the symbols of Canada.
- On July 1, 1867, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia joined together to create the new country of Canada. This is known as Confederation
2.Be clear on certain information as not to confuse one with the other.
For example – Among Aboriginal Peoples living in Canada about 69 percent are First Nations, 26 percent are Métis and five percent are Inuit.
First Nations: First Nations describes all Aboriginal people in Canada who are not Inuit or Métis.
Inuit: Inuit are Aboriginal people who live in Canada's North, which includes Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Northern Quebec and Labrador.
Métis: Many early French fur traders and some English traders married First Nations women. Their descendants are called the Métis people.
3. Make sure your geography is right. Don't mix up province from one region to the other.
For example- Canada is a country of 10 million square kilometres. It five distinct regions: 1. Atlantic Region; 2. Central Canada; 3. Prairie Provinces; 4. West Coast; and 5. North.
Some of us have this mindset that whenever we see Canadian West, we will automatically include Alberta with British Columbia. Make sure you read the question carefully because it will read WEST COAST not WEST. So don't make fool out of yourself and include AB in West Coast.
As dumb as it might sound, some of us have hard time remembering out of 13 province and territories, which ones are province and which ones are territories. I hope you will prove me wrong and will correctly name all province and territories.
4. Make sure you know the Government. Remember that the Queen is our Head of State, and is part of Government, followed by House of Commons and Senate. Don't just name House and Senate as Government. Make sure you understand the difference between bill and law. Learn about responsibilities of various levels of government (federal, provincial and municipal). Don't say something like federal government is responsible for garbage collection or something like MP and MLA is the same the person. I have also seen people saying thing like Provincial Prime Minister instead of Premier or vice versa.
5. Find the name of the MP of your area and name of the riding. If you don't know you can easily find it from Parliament Canada or Elections Canada website by entering your postal code -
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
http://www.elections.ca/scripts/pss/FindED.aspx?L=e&PC=&image.x=20&image.y=11
Find answers for all the questions listed on page 31 of the booklet- Do You Know Your Elected Representatives? I am not sure, if they will ask you about the MP, since the test questions seemed to be generic for the whole province. Still, it's good to know who you MP is, that way you can bug him/her later on.
6. Federal Elections, Voting Process: Make sure you grasp the information listed here as there will be 3 questions from here. Remember information like who to contact in case you are not listed on voter list.
7. Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities: this is most crucial part of the test. There will be two questions from this section and you MUST correctly answer both. Otherwise you will FAIL the test, no matter how many answers you got right. I would strongly suggest grasping the information listed in this section, and if possible memorize them. There is not point in failing the test for two questions.
8. Towards the end of the booklet you will find a section on Citizenship Test: Questions. Use the following preparation guide for the answers. http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/Booklet.pdf
9.Once you read the booklet you can try some practice test in the following website, which has around 116 practice test questions, derived from A Look at Canada, 2006 edition. http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/
Some of the test questions were exactly the same as the practice test questions listed on this site.
DOCUMENT CHECKLIST FOR THE TEST:
Don't forget to bring all the documents that are mentioned in your notice to appear:
1. Notice to Appear (Don't ignore this document as there will be a case ID on the notice which you will have to put in the answer sheet)
2. PR Card and Landing Paper/ Confirmation of Landing
3. Two piece of government Issued ID, showing your name, picture and signature - e.g. Driver's license, SIN Card, Health Card etc.
4. All current and all old passport(s) and travel document(s).
THE TEST DAY:
Make sure you know the location ( including exact room name/ number) where the test will take place in advance. Arrive ahead of time- at least 30mins, so that you have sufficient time to figure out exact location of the test room. In some cities, CIC office is located in federal building and sometimes it takes time to find out the exact room. Moreover, during my test, I have seen some of the applicants are being asked to bring additional documentation to show their presence in Canada / absence from Canada.
They will/might go through your passport(s). For most people, I haven't seen officers checking passport stamps. Officers were mostly depending on words of the applicant rather than going through the stamps. I think for one or two people, they checked couple of stamps. If you have specific query on stamps, you should call CIC call center.
Make sure you review all the dates you listed on your application as your absence from Canada. I have seen them asking questions based on dates on application form. For those who didn't know - the officer will have your actual paper application along with all the documents you supplied.
Make sure you have some sort of supporting information/document (s) handy - i.e. proof of time you were inside/outside of Canada. They might ask you questions like - how long you are living in current city, all the places you lived before, how long you were outside of Canada, why did you apply for citizenship, do you intend to stay in Canada after you become citizen, where do you live, where do you work, how did you come to this office today, where your family is living. For those who were outside of Canada on and off or for long period of time, be ready to explain you absence.
Be prepared to explain all your absences before you applied for citizenship and after you applied for citizenship. Almost everyone, including myself was asked about absence from Canada after applying for citizenship. It seems the absence from Canada after applying for citizenship is a big issue for them.
THE TEST
The test on your city/ province might be different. This is for general reference only.
- The test consists of 20 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ).
-Out of 20 questions, you must correctly answer 12 questions. You must answer all the questions. You will get 30 min to answer 20 questions. Most people finished the test within 10min. It took me around 4 min to answer all the questions.
-They had 8 set of questions, so your questions won't match with people sitting around u.
- Out of 20 questions, there will be 2 questions on Citizenship Rights & Responsibilities (Question 16 & 17), and you MUST correctly answer both, otherwise u will fail the test, regardless of how many right answer you have.
- There will be 3 questions on ‘Federal Elections' (Question 18-20), out of which you must at least get one answer right, otherwise you will fail the test, regardless of how many right answer you have.
Good luck!!!
Once you receive ‘A Look At Canada' booklet from CIC , you can start preparing for the test. Since, in some places (e.g. Ontario), the process time is not long, you can expect to get test date within 2/3 months of applying. If you haven't received the booklet you can still read it online or download it from CIC website- http://cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/look/index.asp
Once you go through the book, you will realize that you already know some information covered by the book. One quick tip - don't read it overnight before the test day. Chances are you won't remember some of the information or will be confused once you see the answers.
Key area to focus while reading –
1.Remember names, places & dates:
For example -
- The beaver is one of the symbols of Canada.
- On July 1, 1867, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia joined together to create the new country of Canada. This is known as Confederation
2.Be clear on certain information as not to confuse one with the other.
For example – Among Aboriginal Peoples living in Canada about 69 percent are First Nations, 26 percent are Métis and five percent are Inuit.
First Nations: First Nations describes all Aboriginal people in Canada who are not Inuit or Métis.
Inuit: Inuit are Aboriginal people who live in Canada's North, which includes Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Northern Quebec and Labrador.
Métis: Many early French fur traders and some English traders married First Nations women. Their descendants are called the Métis people.
3. Make sure your geography is right. Don't mix up province from one region to the other.
For example- Canada is a country of 10 million square kilometres. It five distinct regions: 1. Atlantic Region; 2. Central Canada; 3. Prairie Provinces; 4. West Coast; and 5. North.
Some of us have this mindset that whenever we see Canadian West, we will automatically include Alberta with British Columbia. Make sure you read the question carefully because it will read WEST COAST not WEST. So don't make fool out of yourself and include AB in West Coast.
As dumb as it might sound, some of us have hard time remembering out of 13 province and territories, which ones are province and which ones are territories. I hope you will prove me wrong and will correctly name all province and territories.
4. Make sure you know the Government. Remember that the Queen is our Head of State, and is part of Government, followed by House of Commons and Senate. Don't just name House and Senate as Government. Make sure you understand the difference between bill and law. Learn about responsibilities of various levels of government (federal, provincial and municipal). Don't say something like federal government is responsible for garbage collection or something like MP and MLA is the same the person. I have also seen people saying thing like Provincial Prime Minister instead of Premier or vice versa.
5. Find the name of the MP of your area and name of the riding. If you don't know you can easily find it from Parliament Canada or Elections Canada website by entering your postal code -
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
http://www.elections.ca/scripts/pss/FindED.aspx?L=e&PC=&image.x=20&image.y=11
Find answers for all the questions listed on page 31 of the booklet- Do You Know Your Elected Representatives? I am not sure, if they will ask you about the MP, since the test questions seemed to be generic for the whole province. Still, it's good to know who you MP is, that way you can bug him/her later on.
6. Federal Elections, Voting Process: Make sure you grasp the information listed here as there will be 3 questions from here. Remember information like who to contact in case you are not listed on voter list.
7. Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities: this is most crucial part of the test. There will be two questions from this section and you MUST correctly answer both. Otherwise you will FAIL the test, no matter how many answers you got right. I would strongly suggest grasping the information listed in this section, and if possible memorize them. There is not point in failing the test for two questions.
8. Towards the end of the booklet you will find a section on Citizenship Test: Questions. Use the following preparation guide for the answers. http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/Booklet.pdf
9.Once you read the booklet you can try some practice test in the following website, which has around 116 practice test questions, derived from A Look at Canada, 2006 edition. http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/
Some of the test questions were exactly the same as the practice test questions listed on this site.
DOCUMENT CHECKLIST FOR THE TEST:
Don't forget to bring all the documents that are mentioned in your notice to appear:
1. Notice to Appear (Don't ignore this document as there will be a case ID on the notice which you will have to put in the answer sheet)
2. PR Card and Landing Paper/ Confirmation of Landing
3. Two piece of government Issued ID, showing your name, picture and signature - e.g. Driver's license, SIN Card, Health Card etc.
4. All current and all old passport(s) and travel document(s).
THE TEST DAY:
Make sure you know the location ( including exact room name/ number) where the test will take place in advance. Arrive ahead of time- at least 30mins, so that you have sufficient time to figure out exact location of the test room. In some cities, CIC office is located in federal building and sometimes it takes time to find out the exact room. Moreover, during my test, I have seen some of the applicants are being asked to bring additional documentation to show their presence in Canada / absence from Canada.
They will/might go through your passport(s). For most people, I haven't seen officers checking passport stamps. Officers were mostly depending on words of the applicant rather than going through the stamps. I think for one or two people, they checked couple of stamps. If you have specific query on stamps, you should call CIC call center.
Make sure you review all the dates you listed on your application as your absence from Canada. I have seen them asking questions based on dates on application form. For those who didn't know - the officer will have your actual paper application along with all the documents you supplied.
Make sure you have some sort of supporting information/document (s) handy - i.e. proof of time you were inside/outside of Canada. They might ask you questions like - how long you are living in current city, all the places you lived before, how long you were outside of Canada, why did you apply for citizenship, do you intend to stay in Canada after you become citizen, where do you live, where do you work, how did you come to this office today, where your family is living. For those who were outside of Canada on and off or for long period of time, be ready to explain you absence.
Be prepared to explain all your absences before you applied for citizenship and after you applied for citizenship. Almost everyone, including myself was asked about absence from Canada after applying for citizenship. It seems the absence from Canada after applying for citizenship is a big issue for them.
THE TEST
The test on your city/ province might be different. This is for general reference only.
- The test consists of 20 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ).
-Out of 20 questions, you must correctly answer 12 questions. You must answer all the questions. You will get 30 min to answer 20 questions. Most people finished the test within 10min. It took me around 4 min to answer all the questions.
-They had 8 set of questions, so your questions won't match with people sitting around u.
- Out of 20 questions, there will be 2 questions on Citizenship Rights & Responsibilities (Question 16 & 17), and you MUST correctly answer both, otherwise u will fail the test, regardless of how many right answer you have.
- There will be 3 questions on ‘Federal Elections' (Question 18-20), out of which you must at least get one answer right, otherwise you will fail the test, regardless of how many right answer you have.
Good luck!!!
