Well, to start, I’m a young kid, 15 and 6 months to be exact, and I’ve been diligently studying the Arizona driving manual(which, strangely enough, hasn’t been updated since 1987). I think I’ve got a decent knowledge of the laws, and I’ve driven quite a bit. But, I’m just wondering if there are any questions that would catch me off-gaurd, and how everyone did on their driving tests. My cousin just got his license, and he’s almost 19. Of course, he’s extremely babied by his mother, to the point that, even though they live in Litchfield Park, she drives him all the way to Tempe every day to go to college at ASU. Anyway, how did everyone else do on the tests?
This’ll probably head over to IMHO in a bit, but I’ll keep ya company for the trip over. 
At the ripe old age of 23, I took my permit test about two months and a half ago. If the Arizona test is anything like the Hawaii test, you have absolutely nothing to worry about if you’ve studied the manual. I don’t know if the same goes in Arizona, but here, there are four different tests, and they all contain about twenty multiple choice questions. The order of the questions differs, as do the questions themselves, but ALL the questions are lifted from the hundred-something printed in the manual.
There are no trick questions, and the answers can pretty obvious. There wasn’t any time limit that I was aware of, so you can take the test at your own pace.
I passed the test on my first try with a perfect score. It didn’t take me more than ten minutes to complete it, and it was not hard at all.
You’ll do fine.
Yeah, you pretty much have to be clueless to fail the written permit test (at least here in Massachusetts). An actual question from mine, several years ago:
When is it OK to throw garbage from your car’s window? a. never b. always c. when no one is around d. when you’re on a major highway.
I’m not trying to be comical here; that was an actual question. The fact that you studied should make it even easier; you have nothing at all to worry about if your state is anything like mine.
Don’t forget the stuff in the manual that isn’t directly related to the rules of driving – how many days you have to report it to the DMV after you’ve sold a car, for instance. It’s easy to get so caught up memorizing the speed limit in an alley and when you’re allowed to turn left on a red light that you miss little facts like that.
At 28, I had to take the test a couple of months ago because I moved from another state. Actually, I moved from another state several years ago, and was sort of breaking the law driving around all this time with the old license. Finally, I decided to get my new license because my old one was about to expire.
The one I took in TN for my learner’s permit was a joke(as was the driving test for the real thing, but that’s another story). There were about 10 questions, you had to get at least 7 right, and they were all pretty simple with obvious answers.
I had to take a written test again back in 1998 when I moved to MS. I had no idea that I was going to have to take it, showed up at the DMV before work, rushed through it so I wouldn’t be late and got all the questions right.
Basically, if you’ve studied the manual some, you should have no problem at all.
The tests and their difficulty vary by state, so our comments here probably won’t be helpful… and arguably this belongs in a different forum anyway.
The Illinois written test always includes a bunch of questions with “real life situations”, and the multiple choice answers always include “honk your horn” and “drive very fast to get away from the dangerous situation”, and those are NEVER the right answers, so you’re immediately down to 50% chance if you’re just guessing randomly.
The Illinois tests allow very few mistakes, however, and especially not on road signs – brown square, red octagon, etc.
However, in all the times I’ve taken the test, I’ve only seen one question on “how many feet should …” something happen (headlights shine or whatever), although that’s a lot of the memorization of the Rules of the Road booklet.
OTOH, my wife wanted to keep her Illinois Drivers license when we were living out of state for several months, so they sent her a copy of the test AND the booklet. It thus became a open book test. Bizarre. Of course, it was Illinois, where slipping a $20 to the examiner has always been an alternative to taking the test.
In New York, you barely have to be literate to pass the written test. It was five questions, and took about 40 seconds.
At least here in Iowa, there is always a question on the written test about legal blood alcohol level and DUI, I think most states have a similar practice so memorize the legal limits and you’re guaranteed to pass that one…
Also pay attention to the diagrams of what lane to stay in when turning, those are always tricky, that’s the only thing I missed on both a written exam and a driving test (darn it officer, I swear I stayed in the right lane!)
I think whatever GQ value this thread might have had has been answered. Off to IMHO for more driving test stories.
Oh, except that the NY test is 20 questions, not five. But yeah, bare literacy and a lick of common sense were sufficient.