One of the requirements for getting Danish citizenship is passing a test on Danish culture, society and history aka indfødsretsprøve. Since this was the only requirement I had missing in order to be able to apply for Danish citizenship I decided to go for it in the November/December session.
The Test
The test consists of 40 multiple choice questions, of which you need to get 32 questions, ie 80%, right. The test is done twice a year – in May/June and in November/December – in exam centres all over Denmark. The test is paper based and printed in quite big letters – my test paper consisted of 10 sheets for the 40 questions. You are then asked to make a cross in the box next to the correct answer.
35 of the questions are based on the ‘teaching material’ published by the Udlændige, Integrations og Boligministeriet in 2015. This material is divided into 4 chapters: Danish history (and themes related to Danish culture), Danish Democracy, Danish Welfare State and Denmark and the World. The last 5 questions are based on ‘current issues’ i.e. happenings in the newspapers over the few weeks and months before the test.
Preparing for the Test
The most simple way you can prepare for the test is, of course, to read the 148 pages that make up this material. However, I found it difficult to get my head around how to prepare by reading this very information-dense material. So I went out to look for other resources.
indfødsretsprøve.DK
The main external resource I found for preparing for the test is the website indfodsretsprove.dk. After paying for the site you get access to different kinds of tests, depending on the membership type you go for. I opted for the standard pakke, mainly as I wanted longer than 7 day access but was not as interested in the ‘nice-to-have’ features of the complete pakke.
I found this website a good way of preparing. I particularly liked the tests where you can see which date regions you are not strong in and which pages of the book you need to re-read. There are also a couple of things that can be improved, such as the very systematic way most questions related to dates are set (which meant I could guess which date is correct without reading the question). Nevertheless, a good resource, not least because there isn’t much else out there.
I should also say that the test questions seemed to be harder (or more specific) than in the actual tests. More realistic questions (though less comprehensive resources) are listed below.
Other Resources
One resource I came across unexpectedly which had questions closer in difficulty to the actual test was an IQ test based on the indfødsretsprøve. Consisting of around 200 questions, it goes through most of the relevant areas the indfødsretsprove focuses on. Going through the questions now I can recognise a number of questions that were also in the actual test.
Of course, past tests are also a good resource. Most major Danish news outlets publish the test on their website after the actual test is done, encouraging readers to try it out. These are the tests on TV2’s website:
After the Test
Once the test is over the next step is finding out the result. The Sonderborg test centre sent me an sms the day after the test was done in the afternoon, letting me know whether I had passed or not. The certificate indicating that you had passed could then be collected from around 2 weeks later from their premises.
And that was it! With this final requirement in place I could now apply for Danish citizenship!