How the questions are made

Every question is written from Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, the Department of Home Affairs resource the real test is based on. No other source is used. We are currently on the 2026 edition (source version 2026-08).

After you answer any question — in practice, in a mock exam, or on the study guide — you can see the exact part, section and page it is drawn from, and the edition it was checked against.

Questions are drafted with the help of an AI model working only from the source text, then reviewed and approved by a person before they are published. Nothing an AI produces reaches you unreviewed — that is enforced by the publishing pipeline, not left to good intentions: the build step refuses to publish a question bank that contains any question without a recorded reviewer and review date. Every question, Values included, goes through the same pairing — AI-assisted triage, then one person's final approval — recorded against that question so it can be checked.

Review checks, for every question:

• the marked answer is correct and directly supported by the source
• the wrong answers are plausible — a real applicant could believe them — not obvious throwaways
• the wording is plain, and the question tests understanding of the fact rather than a trick of phrasing
• the explanation is accurate and the part/section/page reference is right

In September 2026 the entire 500-question bank was rewritten and re-reviewed on these criteria and republished as dataset version 0.3.0.

These parts of the mock exam are the same as the official test:

• 20 questions
• 45 minutes
• a pass mark of 75% overall (15 of 20)
• all 5 Australian values questions must be correct, or you fail

One difference: our questions currently offer four answer choices, while the current official practice test presents three. We are evaluating moving to three to match. We do not claim our questions are taken from the official test — they are study material written from the same source.

The question bank has a dataset version, and every question has its own version number that increases whenever its text changes. Both are visible: the dataset version and source edition are in the site footer, and each question shows its version after you answer.

When the Department publishes a new edition of Our Common Bond, the bank is rebuilt against it and the version numbers move forward.

Every question — in practice, in mock-exam review, and on the study guide — has a “Report a problem” link. A report records which question and version, and a category (wrong answer, unclear, typo, outdated).

Reported questions are investigated. A confirmed problem is fixed at the source, the question's version is bumped, it is re-reviewed and re-approved, and the bank is republished. Your past attempts keep pointing at the version you actually saw, so your progress is never silently rewritten.

CitizenCoach is operated by Parteek Singh Slathia, trading as CitizenCoach (ABN 48 642 177 226), a sole trader based in Australia. It is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Australian Government. More on the about page.