COULD I answer the ten questions from the Life in the UK test? (Echo, Jul 22).
Yes, I could, but, then again, I was a teacher of history for 44 years.
As such, I always understood that exam questions were designed to find out what a student knew, not to trick him into making mistakes or to present him with choices that are so close, even an expert would have to think twice.
For example, asking the length of time England was a republic was bad enough, but then expecting anyone to be able to choose between ten, 11, 12 (what happened to 13?) and 14 years is, in historical terms, a totally irrelevant exercise.
And the sheer malice of including a question on Henry VII but giving choices that pushed the candidate in the direction of his more famous son, makes me wonder if it would be better not to ask when the Christians first appeared in Britain but, on the showing of this test, when did they all leave?
Jo Jones, Darlington
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