English Chess Forum

"Depends on your definition of newcomer, I guess"

As I currently live in the countryside, probably less than 30 years residence within a mile of the village?

The point was that some of the questions seem unfair. OK, it's multiple choice to make it easier, but the first two questions don't seem relevant and nearly anybody trying to answer them would have to guess an answer from four - it's not even easy to eliminate any answers (which you can in some other questions). As an aside the first fish and chip shop apparently only dates back to 1863. Interestingly, there are about 8500 fish and chop shops in UK and about 9000 curry houses.

Q7 is a bit ambiguous - as I think any trader can insist on any form of payment. I don't know why we have £50 notes, as so many places refuse them.

Of course the "i" might have deliberately selected a few daft questions to make their point that it wasn't a fair test.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 01, 2021 1:45 pm

"Q7 is a bit ambiguous - as I think any trader can insist on any form of payment.

A better question might have been something like "You've eaten a meal in a restaurant without agreeing in advance how you are going to pay for it. There's a sign on the door saying the restaurant accepts payments in cash, by debit card and by credit card. Can the restaurant refuse to accept your payment using Scottish banknotes?"

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:54 pm

David Williams wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:42 am

but 'legal tender' has got NOTHING to do with paying for things in shops.

Other than that most shops operate on the basis that it has.

But they don't, do they? Nearly all shops in England and Scotland will accept Scottish notes even though they are not legal tender. I doubt if there is a single shop in Scotland that insists that payment must be in Royal Mint coins, banknotes not accepted, as even English banknotes are not legal tender in Scotland. Some shops in England will not accept cash at all, even though English notes and coins are legal tender.

The point we keep skating over is the suspicion that the candidates have been given a factbook to read in preparation for the test which contains the sentence "Scotland has its own banknotes, which are [ or are not ] valid across the UK".

In which case, the required answer is clear.

Candidates are not given anything, but they can buy

£7.99 for a pdf doesn't sound great value... Do applicants have to pay an entry fee every time they take a test?

Actually for tests in London, they could give bonus points for finding your way round on the Tube. (A very distinguished American professor arrived late for a meeting as the Circle line confused him.)

I am quite familiar with these tests as my wife had to do them and agree that the knowledge the home office considers to be 'common' is generally pretty atrocious. Those questions posted here are actually some of the better ones - I have seen rubbish about obscure Scottish clans, Irish landmarks in the middle of nowhere, questions about EastEnders from the 90s and it all feels designed to ensure maximum failure rates and guarantee they can continue to extort any non EU immigrants and rake in huge profits.

And that's before we even start on the English exam, which is so fiendish I doubt most of the dwellers of the 'pedants United' thread would even pass!

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 29, 2021 6:12 pm

1) How tall is the London Eye? (282 feet, 373 ft, 443 ft,562 ft)

When I went to school in the 1970s and 1980s, the curriculum was fully metric. We did conversions from imperial to metric and vice versa as part of the maths and physics curriculums, but we were told we should rarely need to use "feet" later in life, as such units were obsolescent.

I guess the country is heading firmly backwards in its senescence. Even the bloody online Guardian has now reverted recently to giving me the weather in degrees Fahrenheit - usually the tabloids would give the winter temperatures in degrees Celsius and the summer temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit, in order to clumsily invoke some sense of heightened reality. Soon it will be back to tanners and farthing. That'll give them something to complain about, as they struggle to remember their duodecimal and dodecimal times tables.

Paul McKeown wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:34 pm

Soon it will be back to tanners and farthing.

And about time too, I say!

Michael Farthing wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 09, 2021 11:40 am

Paul McKeown wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:34 pm

Soon it will be back to tanners and farthing.

And about time too, I say!

Be careful for what you wish (Pedants United please note).

Your namesake, former ECF Chief Executive Andrew Farthing, had the nickname "Aintwortha" bestowed upon him by a prominent critic of the ECF.