Our Common Bond
Our Common Bond: the booklet behind every citizenship test question
Pick a part of the booklet in the practice set below, or all four at once, and check what you already know before you start reading.
Independent, non-government site: tests, applications and appointments are handled only on the Home Affairs website.
Your score
0 / 0
0 / 10 answered
Pick an answer to start
| Practice set of 10 questions, target 75% |
| You can still miss 2 |
Practice questions adapted by Radif Partners from Our Common Bond. Not the official test questions.
Questions adapted from Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, © Commonwealth of Australia, CC BY 4.0, by Radif Partners.
Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond is the resource booklet published by the Department of Home Affairs, and Home Affairs says every question in the citizenship test is based on it. Only its testable section counts, and that section has 4 parts: Australia and its people; Australia's democratic beliefs, rights and liberties; government and the law in Australia; and Australian values. It runs from page 7 to page 43 of the 2020 edition, roughly 12,600 words including a glossary of 52 terms. The 5 values questions of every test come from the fourth part, and all of them must be answered correctly. The booklet is free to download in English and in 40 community languages, although the test itself is in English only. Our practice bank turns the same facts into 229 questions written in our own words; the official test questions are not published.
How long to read Our Common Bond twice?
Two full readings
9 days
| Part 1 (pages 7 to 16) | 3 days |
| Part 2 (pages 17 to 22) | 2 days |
| Part 3 (pages 23 to 32) | 3 days |
| Part 4 (pages 33 to 39) | 2 days |
| Glossary (pages 40 to 43) | 1 day |
Based on about 12,600 words in the testable section, shared by page count.
Questions, dates and fees by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How questions and dates are built
What the booklet is, and what it is not
Our Common Bond is a study booklet, not a list of questions. Home Affairs writes that all of the information needed to pass is in its first four parts and that nobody has to buy any other package to succeed. The department also says it does not endorse outside material that promises a pass. Our practice questions follow that rule: they come only from the testable section of Our Common Bond and are rewritten in plain English, so they help you learn the facts rather than memorise an answer key. The real questions are drawn at random and are never published.
The four testable parts at a glance
| Part | Pages | Main subjects | Practice questions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1: Australia and its people | 7 to 16 | First Australians, settlement, Federation, states, symbols, national days | 63 |
| Part 2: Democratic beliefs, rights and liberties | 17 to 22 | Rule of Law, freedoms, equality, duties and privileges of citizens | 51 |
| Part 3: Government and the law | 23 to 32 | Voting, Constitution, Parliament, the three levels, courts and police | 64 |
| Part 4: Australian values | 33 to 39 | Values in daily life: law, freedoms, equality, respect, community | 51 |
| Glossary | 40 to 43 | 52 terms with example sentences | spread across parts |
Parts 1 and 3 are the longest and full of names, dates and numbers. Part 2 is short but dense, because nearly every sentence is a principle. Part 4 repeats many ideas from Part 2 but turns them into situations: what you should do if a neighbour plans a crime, whether a religious rule can override the law, whether a woman with better skills may get a job ahead of a man.
How the parts feed the test
A test has 20 questions. 5 of them come from Part 4 and must all be right, and the others are spread across the rest of the booklet. To pass you need 15 correct answers overall, so the margin is small: 5 mistakes at most, none of them on values. In practice this means two things. You cannot skip a part, because any of them can supply several questions on the day. And Part 4 deserves more than its page count suggests, because a single slip there fails the whole test.
Reading it efficiently
The calculator under this section estimates how many days two full readings take at your pace. A method that works for most people:
- First pass, for meaning. Read one part a day without notes. If English is not your first language, read the same part in your own language first; the booklet exists in 40 community languages (see the page on translations).
- Second pass, for facts. Write down every number, date, name and list: 11 ships, 12 senators per state, the three levels of government, the four responsibilities of a citizen.
- Practice by part. Use the set above with one part selected until you score well, then mix all four.
- Full tests last. Finish with the timed mock test to get used to 45 minutes for 20 questions.
Traps that come from the booklet itself
Some facts look alike and are easy to swap. Victoria is the smallest mainland state, but Tasmania is the smallest state. The Senate is the States' House, the House of Representatives the People's House. Legislative, executive and judicial are the three powers; federal, state and local are the three levels. Voting is compulsory in federal, state and territory elections and in referendums, but the booklet says it may not be compulsory in local elections in some states. The topic pages, such as the states and territories page, set these pairs side by side.
Where to download it
The English testable section and the translations are on the Home Affairs Our Common Bond page. The test preparation page adds a podcast and an official practice test. Nothing else is required, and the department warns against paying for unofficial material.