What happens if you fail the Australian citizenship test?

Last reviewed 12 August 2026 · Reviewed by the AussieTizen editorial team

Independent study tool · Not affiliated with the Department of Home Affairs

You sit the test again. A fail does not end your citizenship application by itself — the Department of Home Affairs arranges another appointment for you, and you take the test again there. This guide covers what counts as a fail, what is actually published about attempts and failure rates (less than you might think), and how to prepare so the next sitting is the last one. New to the rules? Start with the Australian citizenship test format guide, then come back for the re-sit side.

What counts as a fail

Two separate conditions decide the result, and you must meet both. You need at least 15 of the 20 questions correct (75%), and every one of the 5 Australian values questions correct — the rules set out on Home Affairs' learn about the citizenship test page. Falling short on either one is a fail, so the first thing to work out after a bad day is which condition caught you: the overall score, or a values question. They call for different preparation, and the values gate catches people who otherwise knew the material well.

Is there a limit on attempts?

As at 12 August 2026, the Department of Home Affairs does not publish an attempt limit anywhere on its citizenship test pages. That cuts both ways: we will not tell you there is a cap, and we will not tell you there is no limit — neither claim is on a current official page. Treat any site that quotes you a specific number of chances with caution.

The live test pages also say nothing about how needing more than one sitting affects an application. Anyone stating a rule about that is not quoting a current official page. If you are worried about your own situation, the department's correspondence about your application is the only answer that counts.

How many people fail?

Nobody can tell you, because Home Affairs does not publish pass or failure rates for the citizenship test. The percentages quoted on practice sites are guesses. What the format itself tells you is where fails come from: the values gate turns a single wrong answer on 5 particular questions into a fail, regardless of an otherwise strong score — which is why preparation time is better spent there than on chasing rumoured statistics.

What happens next

The Department of Home Affairs arranges your next appointment and tells you the date, place and time — you do not book a re-sit yourself. It does not publish a standard waiting time between sittings, so plan around the department's own correspondence rather than forum estimates. On cost, Home Affairs' words about the test are: There is no extra cost to sit the citizenship test. The citizenship application fee that you paid includes the test. (learn about the citizenship test). Its pages list no separate fee for a repeat sitting.

However long the gap is, use it deliberately: a focused review is what turns a near miss into a comfortable pass.

How to prepare for the re-sit

A second preparation round should look different from the first, because now you know what went wrong. Rebuild it around that knowledge:

1. Rebuild from your mistakes, not from page one. Re-test yourself on every question you got wrong until you can answer each one cold, then widen back out to the full material.
2. Drill the 5 values questions to 100%. If a values question caused the fail, this is the whole game: on values, 75% is not a pass mark — anything less than all of them correct fails the test.
3. Sit full timed mocks before the real thing. 20 questions against a 45-minute clock, in the real shape — so the format holds no surprises the second time. Home Affairs itself notes that practice questions will be different on the day of the test (prepare for the test), so the goal is to know the booklet cold, not to memorise answer letters.

Everything you drill should trace back to the official study booklet, Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond — Home Affairs has never released the real questions, so ours are original ones written from the booklet.

This page explains re-sitting the Australian citizenship test and is for study and preparation only. It is general information, not immigration advice, and does not determine your eligibility for citizenship. For official rules and any updates, rely on immi.homeaffairs.gov.au; official Department of Home Affairs guidance controls if anything here differs.