Switching from user mode to kernel mode

Question

In my operating systems class, I\'m asked whether switching from user to kernel mode is privileged. This is not OS-specific. At first I thought yes, but it seems like a big

Answer 1

That is a typo introduced in the 8th edition and kept in the 9th. In the seventh edition, page 19, it says instead:

"The instruction to switch to user mode is an example of a privileged instruction."

Which clearly makes a lot more sense.