The format
Everything about the format is fixed and known in advance:
- 24 multiple-choice questions
- 18 correct answers to pass, which is 75%
- 45 minutes
- £50 every time you sit it, so a fail means booking and paying again
Why people fail
Most of the test is memory, and most of the memory is history. 415 of the 811 questions in our bank come from the history chapter, because it is by far the densest part of the handbook: centuries of monarchs, wars, laws and dates.
The second trap is the choose-two question. Some questions have two correct answers and you must select both — one right answer earns nothing. 43 of the questions in our bank are this type.
The third is confusable pairs: two dates a few years apart, two people from the same period, two places with similar names. They are easy to tell apart at home and easy to mix up against the clock.
What makes it manageable
It is multiple choice, so you are recognising the right answer rather than recalling it from nothing. The questions are based on one book, so the pool of facts is finite. And the format never changes, so you can rehearse it exactly.
How to know you are ready
Sit full-length mock exams under the real time limit, and judge yourself on the last few rather than the best one. Our readiness score counts you as ready when your last five mock exams average at least 12 percentage points above the pass mark — a margin that absorbs a bad day.
Until you are there, spend your time on the chapter you score lowest in, not on rereading the one you already know.