driving theory test

[Oliversmumsarmy]

My friends ds has failed his theory test again (4th attempt).

The issue is the questions on stuff neither myself or his mum or anyone I know who drives has ever come across ever in rl.

There is a whole section on what I would say refers more to being a paramedic.

How to perform cpr and how to treat a burns victim if you find one lying in the road.
Personally the questions are too simplistic.
Re the burns victim. It doesn't say how the person got the burns, if it was an electrical burn, is the exposed power supply still in the vicinity in which case pouring water on the burn could kill the person and yourself. If it is an acid burn it could be caustic soda so unless you have an unlimited supply of water you could make it worse.

In the latest attempt there was virtually uproar in the test centre as no one passed and he said people were complaining that they had taken the test 10 or 12 times and still not passed

The last time he took the test the questions were all about car engines. Again no one I know even looks under the bonnet.

He is a very good driver, his driving instructor is itching to put him in for his test, has been since August. His mum is shelling out hundreds on driving lessons just so he can keep up the practical side. He spends at least an hour every evening looking at the highway code and doing the tests on the app. He passes them because they are about mainly driving.
He is passing the hazzard perception bit with flying colours

How many burns victims has anyone come across in their years of driving.

5 of us having spent 150 years of driving have never come across a single victim

[BackforGood]

I'm far too long in the tooth to have taken a theory test, but 2 of my dc have done it in past 2 yrs, as have several nieces, nephews and load of my friends d and dcs' friends. I have to say I'm surpised at the balance of questions he is reporting. My dc (not academics nor great studiers) all thought it was pretty straightforward - in fact only reports I got were of how ridiculous some of the multiple choice question answers were - their opinion was that if you had been looking about you when been driven over the previous few months and then taken in things when practising your own driving, it was all pretty obvious. Yes, you have to study it and practice questions and learn things, but it wasn't 'academic'. I think it was the 'assessing risk' scenarios they found most challenging when they they first started practising.

[Dancinggoat]

Both my kids are dyslexic and passed it first time. One of their friends passed on the 8th time.

My two practiced online. They listened to the questions and read the questions. I also sat with my D and read her the questions.

When they take the test they used the head phones to listen to the questions.

I have to say they studied for this more than their GCSE’s ! They had to go over it so many times to get it to sink in.

[7Seas]

Totally agree with you OP. Some of the multiple choice questions are ridiculous. And there are thousands of them. I do believe alot of it is down to luck on the day with your questions.

[TeenTimesTwo]

Official book here

DD could also 'read the book 50 times without it going in'. Which is why DH sat down with her and went through every single question.

[TeenTimesTwo]

There aren't 'thousands' of questions in the test bank, just under 1000.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I did say in my op he studies for it every evening doing the tests over and over.
Whilst lots of people are dyslexic he was so badly affected that he didn't read till he was in senior school. He is amazing if you ask him to do anything with his hands but ask him to read or learn anything and he really struggles.

their opinion was that if you had been looking about you when been driven over the previous few months and then taken in things when practising your own driving, it was all pretty obvious

So how many bodies have they seen in the road to practice on.

In RL some of the answers to the questions would get you either killed or you could end up killing someone .

If you see a person lying in the road on a country lane from my point of view you would not get out of your car. You lock yourself in and call the police.
If you see the incident happen on a busy street yes to trying to assist but you would call 999 and take instructions from them. Pouring water on someone who has electrical burns could end up getting you killed. You dont know where the electricity has come from so pouring water around bare wires is not what you should be doing.

Pulling bits out of people's wounds could end up killing them.

I have been driving 35 years and I did the test on line and failed miserably.

I can drive thousands of miles per week, I drive in central London with no fear. I have driven in many foreign countries. My insurance company considers me a safe driver. But if I had to pass my test now I think I would stumble at the first hurdle.

The issue is you drive a certain way for your test then you pass and then you drive in the real world.

A friend at the age of 37 passed her test recently and really she shouldn't have.
She works herself up into a complete state just to drive her DC to nursery a couple of miles away then drives to the station where she gets on a train to work.
I feel safer in the car driven by friends ds than I do with other friend. She is an accident waiting to happen.

[ILikeyourHairyHands]

I took my theory and Tuesday last week and got 49/50.

I think you're possibly overthinking it with your scenarios about electrical burns etc.

The majority of it is common sense, I did about 20 online practice tests, the same questions or variations in a theme do seem to crop up repeatedly, there's a couple of practice tests on the DVLA site and a few of the questions were word for word identical to ones that cropped up on my test.

I hate to say this, but if his dyslexia is so severe it may not be safe for him to drive as he will have trouble reading road signs surely?

Otherwise I think there is an option for people to take the test with headphones so the questions are read out. Would he find that better?

[Redken24]

I studied every hour for two minutes. Use the app take the mock tests. Every time you fail on the app take a screenshot so you can "revise"

[WaxOnFeckOff]

He might be studying but not effectively. I think he just needs to practice the questions and give the answer they want without over thinking it. I've for quite a few of the tests and invariably get 100%. I've got the odd speed limit for a van type questions wrong. I don't always answer what I know I would do in reality. I answer what I believe to be what they want me to answer. It's multi choice and some of the options are clearly ridiculous.

[ILikeyourHairyHands]

Anyway, the question about burns victims is ' For at least how long do as burn have to be cooled if a casualty has suffered burns?' (Or words to that effect), then it asks a) 40 mins b) 5 mins c) 20 mins d) 10 mins.

The correct answer is ten mins, which you would know if you'd done a few practice tests.

I have no idea why you're bringing the possibility of electrocution into it, it's a very straightforward multi-choice test with no ambiguity.

[ILikeyourHairyHands]

Excuse typos, I'm sure you get the general idea!

[ILikeyourHairyHands]

I did take it once before and got 50/50, but stopped lessons for various reasons and it laspes after two years so had to re-take. I would say, compared to the previous rest 45/50 questions were very basic things that crop up repeatedly when doing practice tests and 5/50 were wildcard questions just to check you'd actually bothered to learn anything!

[TheFairyCaravan]

My kids passed their's first time with almost perfect scores. They used the official app to practice as well as the book.

They went to a normal comp and the vast majority of their mates passed it first time too.

[HamSandWitches]

I've passed 2 and both times I've only got a couple of errors. The first time was years ago and I used a book. I done in again 2016 and paid £10 for the DVLA revision site which I thought was brilliant. It's a case of remembering the right answers due to revising. The DVLA site stores all the answers you get wrong so you can go back to them. My brother failed his 5 times because he refused to revise and must have thought he could wing it but once he passed the theory he then passed the practical first time so by not revising he added weeks on to do resits

[HamSandWitches]

On the DVLA site if you get them right you know the answer so u can just concentrate on all the ones you get wrong until you get them right which might work out better if he has already been using stuff instead of just doing repeat tests with questions you know the answer to iyswim