rachel120

Okay, so for you folks in the US, please tell me if my license exam experience is normal or not normal.

So the written portion was 100 questions, and they had hundreds of questions to choose from to give a random test to everyone. You had to study the manual forwards and backwards because while there were obvious everyday stuff, there was also the less known and less encountered stuff. Same testing standards for learner's permit and for the written portion of the driver's license. To this day I remember the only question I missed during the written portion for the actual license - "When driving in heavy fog do you have your lights a) off, b) on low beams, c) on high beams?" There never was any fog where I lived in the state and that's the kind of obscure stuff that you had to know to pass the test. The test was considered "cutting edge" for the time because it would show videos of things like your view when backing up or your view when driving along and ask questions based on the video scenario presented. Several classmates failed the written portion the first time through because the stuff being asked and the sheer number of questions exposed gaps of knowledge. (They would then actually read the manual carefully before trying a second time. One girl failed it three times before finally passing the written portion.) The reason why I had a pretty good grasp on cycling laws and only had to learn the state variations is because a significant portion of the state driving manual covered both bicycle laws and motor vehicle laws for sharing the road.

Having gone through a written exam that asks about fog and seeing so many classmates fail because they didn't carefully read through the state driving manual, it seems like you really have to know your stuff to pass the written portion. Was my state unusually strict in the knowledge level that was required? My husband just says that he doesn't recall the exam being that difficult in the state he was licensed in.