Mistakes to Avoid When Taking Your Theory Test

The driving theory test essentially stands as a barrier between you and the full practical test. If you aren’t able to demonstrate your understanding of the rules of the road, you aren’t going to be allowed to put that knowledge, or lack thereof, into practice.

That means the theory test is extremely important and you need to ensure you are fully prepared before you take it. After all, 50 percent of people who take the test fail, so you can’t expect to walk in and pass by virtue of taking the test.

Your preparation will involve a lot of revising and practicing. However, you also need to ensure you don’t end up falling into some of the common traps that tend to trip people up. Here are a few of the mistakes that you should avoid when taking your theory test.

In The Event Of…

Some of the worst questions you will face in your theory test start with the words “In the event of…” These questions have a tendency to trip people up because they call on you to place yourself into a hypothetical situation that you are unlikely to find yourself in during the course of your driving lessons. They are difficult to revise for too, especially if you focus solely on nailing the Highway Code. The best way to tackle these questions is to ensure you revise using mock tests, so you can encounter some of them and start to figure out the logic behind them. Also, speak to your driving instructor about hypothetical scenarios to find out exactly what you should do.

The Hazard Perception Test

Once you have the question portion of your theory test down, you have a couple of minutes to compose yourself for the hazard perception test. These 14 interactive scenarios can render a high test score moot if you aren’t prepared for them. The key here is to understand the difference between a “potential hazard” and a “developing hazard”.

A potential hazard is any situation that could lead to a hazard, however, in most cases it does not. For example, somebody standing at a crossing is a potential hazard because that person may choose to step into the road too early. That potential hazard does not become a developing hazard until the action of stepping into the road begins.

The hazard perception test is used to determine how well you react to developing hazards, so rein your clicks and don’t click in anticipation of hazards that don’t end up going anywhere.

Road Signs

You can understand all of the rules of the road and still end up being tripped up by road signs. Not all are easy to understand on sight, so you need to spend some time revising them to make sure you can answer quickly and move onto the next question. Generally speaking, focus your revision on the signs that contain no words. Such signs aren’t always intuitive and going into your theory test assuming you will be able to guess their meaning will likely lead to failure.