History: early Britain to 1066

Twenty questions on the part of the history chapter that comes before 1066 — the part most people skim, because it feels like background. It is not background: the test asks about it as precisely as it asks about the twentieth century.

Before the Romans

Three ages, three kinds of evidence. The Stone Age leaves villages such as Skara Brae in Orkney; the Bronze Age leaves round barrows, the earth mounds its people buried their dead in; the Iron Age leaves hill forts such as Maiden Castle in Dorset, the first coins struck in Britain, and a family of Celtic languages whose descendants are Welsh and Gaelic. The questions pair each object with the wrong age, so the useful thing to learn is the pairing.

Romans, Anglo-Saxons and the saints

The Romans stayed about four hundred years and left roads and towns. After AD 410 the Angles and Saxons came from northern Europe and settled most of what became England, while Wales and Scotland stayed largely outside their rule; their language is the root of English. Four saints are easy to swap round and are asked about for exactly that reason: Patrick in Ireland, Columba on Iona, Augustine at Canterbury in 597, and David, the patron saint of Wales. Sutton Hoo, the ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon king in Suffolk, is here too.

Vikings and the first kingdoms

Alfred the Great of Wessex against the Vikings; the Danelaw in the north and east of England, still visible in place names ending in '-by'; Kenneth MacAlpin uniting the Picts and the Scots; Cnut, a Danish king of England from 1016; and the Bayeux Tapestry, the embroidered story of 1066 with which the period closes.

Question types follow the real test: single answer, 'choose two', and 'which of these statements is true?'. None of these questions repeats the ones in this category's first history quiz — Stonehenge, AD 43, Boudicca and Hadrian's Wall are covered there.

How this differs from test day

This is a quiz only: twenty questions on one period, each followed by an explanation that names why the right answer is right and where each wrong one really belongs. The real test is different in shape: 24 questions drawn from the whole handbook, on a computer, in 45 minutes, with no feedback until the end. Use this to find the facts that will not stick, then go back to them — not as a stand-in for the test itself.

The questions and explanations here are Zestly's own, written from publicly known facts. No text is reproduced from the official handbook, which is a separate copyrighted publication and the only real syllabus.

• Match Skara Brae, round barrows, hill forts and the first coins to the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages
• Say what the Romans left behind and which peoples settled after AD 410
• Keep St Patrick, St Columba, St Augustine and St David apart
• Explain the Danelaw and recognise a Viking place name
• Place Alfred the Great, Kenneth MacAlpin and Cnut, and say what the Bayeux Tapestry shows

Practice material written by Zestly from publicly known facts of British history, for the period covered by the Life in the UK history chapter. No text is reproduced from the handbook Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents.