the UK theory test

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August 13, 2012 at 6:39 pm

#699092
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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I failed my driving test in the early 90s by a surprisingly narrow margin (though I clearly wouldn’t have been safe to drive had I passed!) just at the time of the changeover and wasn’t able to retake it before this was brought in. I recently started learning again and TBH this seems to be even worse than actually driving, I’m sure the old examiners only asked you what about 10 road signs meant, not 50.

And WTF is this hazard perception thing?

looked at in on youtube from official gov site and it showed footage of driving through central London what seemed like a episode of fucking ashes to ashes, half expected a stereotypical black kid with ghetto blaster behind his ear to be the hazard, at least for the civillian version (for metpol advanced drivers the solution would have been to quickly back away in case of collision and get the patrol car repaired “cash no questions asked” somewehre in essex before the political correctness mob found out).

seriously though how is this done? is it like a poltically correct version of one of them computer games for car driving, or do you click on a list of choices or something else?
August 13, 2012 at 6:43 pm

#956794
1

Garoldeep Singh

@garoldeep-singh

Member
Hazard perception test is retarded….if you can’t drive everything is a hazard, including you. I never did it I just started learning to drive, then realised I really didn’t want to drive as I thought it was boring and poo
August 13, 2012 at 6:55 pm

#956782
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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The only disadvantages with living and working in this region (where I otherwise get way more space, free time and a better quality of life) is that it is physically large, my work is out in the sticks, and the weather has recently gone all to shit (it is a coastal area and thus influenced heavily by maritime weather patterns) Where you live (and I once did) a bicycle can take you to London without being too knackered… and trains are cheaper and usually work, but even if I managed to find another similar job and move back to SE England its more upheaval in my life and I often think it might be a good thing I left the region behind anyway, too many distractions and risks.

Otherwise I would far rather be on two wheels than in a tin can with every idiot around either trying to get in your way or crash into you (at least on my bike I can notice these idiots quicker), but my responsibilities have increased and I have to attend office and operational sites more for various reasons – especially with broadband becoming more flakey and less resilient in spite of “speed improvements”. I think the theory test was brought in as a condition of drivers being allowed the freedom of 20-27 countries when they pass rather than 1 but once again we have implemented it in a half-arsed manner…
August 13, 2012 at 7:36 pm

#956799
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
Hazard perception is all about defensive driving. It’s a bit shitty the way they have done it, but if you read up about what you should know for defensive driving, you’ll know what to look out for.

The theory is just mainly common sence with a few road signs chucked in for good measure … I had mby 5 duplicates of questions with the questions and answers just mixed about. It may well have changed now as I know they beefed it up since I did it mby 5 years ago.
August 13, 2012 at 7:37 pm

#956800
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
As long as you know your main sign categories, distances and general driving etiquette (the regulation version of it tho, not “flash to say thanks” etc.) then you kinda should do ok. The rest is common sense if you got the basics down, bar the odd obscure question.
August 13, 2012 at 7:41 pm

#956783
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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cheers – hopefully shouldn’t be too bad – round here we get all the obscure signs like “caution, tractors and weasels in road” or similar and they are actually there out in the sticks…
August 13, 2012 at 7:43 pm

#956795
1

Garoldeep Singh

@garoldeep-singh

Member
I’ve seen shark Xing signs before, rather strange me thinks…….
August 13, 2012 at 7:51 pm

#956801
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
@General Lighting 491510 wrote:

cheers – hopefully shouldn’t be too bad – round here we get all the obscure signs like “caution, tractors and weasels in road” or similar and they are actually there out in the sticks…

I’m not sure if theory test’s differ depending on your locale, but your actual driving test person may ask you what the picture of a tractor and a weasel with a big red line going through hit means as one of their questions, in which case you’ll be fine by the sounds of it. :laugh_at:
August 13, 2012 at 7:58 pm

#956802
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
It’s worthwhile investing in an official DVLA dvd test learning course with high way code book and question book included. Something like this …

Car Drivers

(You might be able to find it cheaper somewhere else)

All the info you should need about what area’s you should cover will be here …

How to prepare for your theory test : Directgov – Motoring

It’s really not as hard as people make out, you just have to be able to pay attention and understand when you might have to react to something (HAz awarness) and just reverberate shit you’ve read in the actual theory, and most of the questions are the same thing jsut worded differently to catch you out and see if you were paying attention, more then actually properly test your knowledge. You do wanna learn it all though as you’ll obv not know anything otherwise.

There’s actually an element of luck involved! As it’s random questions to a certain extent, you just wanna hope you not get a load of nasty ones about signs like you mentioned.

with the test pack I linked to, they have “mock” tests of both theory and hazz … once you done them a few times and are passing 9 out of 10 times, then your chances of passing at the time are 9/10, assuming nerves don’t take over, which is a possibility.

It’s really not that much different to a basic key skills test: read this paragraph and select what out of 3 or 4 answers is the correct one. Except you’re expected to have done the reading already and of memorized it.
August 13, 2012 at 8:13 pm

#956784
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

Moderator
Staff
there might be a copy of that at work (they keep them for the foreign staff) though must check if its the latest one. am also going to buy the latest edition of that book called DRIVING – read it in the 80s and 90s but it was Dad’s old copy (still valid then), will have to actually go into town and find a bookshop for that as its changed loads (Dad’s old one had all them symbols on the front you got in 1970s cars like the one for the choke – I’m learning in a diesel and don’t think even petrol cars have manual chokes these days…)
August 13, 2012 at 8:17 pm

#956803
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
I’ve not seen a manual choke for a long time, even the old cars don’t seam to have them now lol.
August 13, 2012 at 11:21 pm

#956785
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

Moderator
Staff
just tried the theory mock test online, its 43 out of 50, scraped through with 44. Some proper foolish mistakes on two – got (of all things!!) the difference between advisory and compulsory cycle lanes mixed up, and the level crossing lamps (I think the example on the test was for even more rural areas where there isn’t the full barrier, I’ve never seen a amber one round here, they go flashing red and make the neenaw sounds but there is amber aspect on them what never turns on :crazy: unless network rail has changed them – and there are loads here). and also got the damn arm signals mixed up as they are of course different on two wheels – never seen anyone in a car use them.

my instructor does the new format where they ask you to drive to certain places / follow directions. I even got asked about some random sign and it was horses and trailers (luckily my mate wizard1luv on TL is a traveller who does all the bling for them sorts of horses and had a trailer and he comes from round here so I knew the sign straight away raaa )
August 14, 2012 at 1:03 am

#956804
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
You can easily nail this kinda test the same way they taught maths GCSE when I was at at school. They used to give loads of past papers to use as practice exams for a couple of months before your actual exam. Because they were so similar you would get used to the lay out and way the questions worked. They covered pretty much the same thing in all of them but just asked different questions about the same thing. I know the DVLA test can stump you with some random ones but the proper DVLA test learning kit will have a data base of all the latest questions. If you do it enough you’ll see it’ll come up with the same kinda things over and over, and when you can see this you’ll easily be able to pass the actual test. I think it was about 10-15 out of 50 questions that were “strange” questions and the rest were standard (by my guestimation).
August 14, 2012 at 8:07 am

#956790
1

tactical

@tactical

Member
I had to do the hazard perception test for my Cat A. Had no clue what it was about but DaftFader is right. It’s pretty easy once you’ve done a few example tests. I think you can get a copy of the DVD from the library (do they still exist?). For the test itself all you’re doing is clicking the mouse button when you see a hazard. So click EVERYTHING. There’s only one hazard per clip (or was 5 years ago when I did mine) but as long as the time interval between clicks is reasonable I don’t think they flag your attempt for trying to spoof the test. Car in front brakes: click; car coming opposite way indicates right: click; kids playing on the pavement: click. You’ll get used to picking out what constitutes a hazard pretty quickly the more videos you watch and really you could just watch car chases in films and do the same. Pile of cardboard boxes by the kerb: click; two men carrying a plate of glass across the road: click.

Good luck GL. You’ll be fine.
August 14, 2012 at 10:26 am

#956805
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
You do have to be careful with clicking too much though as it can flag for doing it wrong.
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