Life in the UK test results, reference number and pass rates

Two systems, one cut-off date

The reference checker under the summary sorts you into one of the two rows from the date you passed. The switch happened on 17 December 2019; anyone who sat the test before that holds a letter rather than a number by email.

The letter rule for naturalisation

Guide AN draws a second line, a little earlier in 2019 than the switch to reference numbers, for what you must send with a citizenship application. Passes after that line are given as a test reference number on the form. Passes before it were confirmed by letter, and you must provide that letter with your application. An older pass therefore means finding the original letter, or explaining in writing that it is lost. Guide AN gives the exact cut-off date.

Using the pass in an application

gov.uk is clear that a previous pass is enough: you do not take the test again if you passed it before, for example for settlement, and now apply to become a citizen. The Home Office uses the reference number to check the result, so it must be exact. Copy it directly from the email rather than retyping it from memory.

A few habits avoid trouble later. Save the results email as a file as well as in your inbox. Write the number and the test date in the same place as your other immigration records. If you change email address, forward the message to the new one first. Your settlement application, your citizenship application and any application for a family member may all ask for the same details, sometimes years apart.

If the letter or email is lost

gov.uk's instruction covers the older letters: send a letter explaining that you have lost it with your citizenship or settlement application. Say when and roughly where you sat the test and in which name you booked, especially if your name has changed since. Guide AN repeats the same instruction for naturalisation. For a pass after 17 December 2019, the first step is to look for the results email; if it cannot be found, explaining the situation in your application is the route gov.uk sets out for a missing letter.

If you did not pass

A score below 18 out of 24 gives no reference number. You can rebook as many times as you need, paying £50 each time; there is no published waiting period on gov.uk. Our page on failing explains how to work out which chapters cost you the points, and the checker below shows how far a given score sits from the mark.

Pass rates published by the Home Office

The Home Office does not show a pass rate on its test pages. The most recent figures we found on gov.uk are in its transparency data on Life in the United Kingdom tests, which runs from April 2010 to December 2013 and counts every sitting, retakes included. The Home Office notes that the figures were supplied by the test provider and were not checked in detail. Across those years the share of sittings that passed moved between 69% and 86%, and candidates sitting the test for settlement passed more often than those sitting it for citizenship in every year.

The last three quarters in the table, from April to December 2013, read 74%, 74%, 69%: lower than the year before. No later official series has been published on gov.uk, so any recent percentage you see elsewhere is not a Home Office figure. What these numbers do say is that roughly a quarter of sittings ended below the mark, which is why a few full mocks at 18 or more before booking is worth the time.

Sources: what happens at the Life in the UK Test (gov.uk), Guide AN, section 9.1 and Home Office transparency data.