Had to Retake the DMV Test? Join the Club
The last time I took a written test to renew my driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles, I was surprised that all six people in line ahead of me failed it. Not that I’m boasting about passing; I was on my second try.
On a recent visit to the DMV office in Westminster, I asked an official if most people pass the written test for a driver’s license.
“Yes,” he said, “eventually.”
If you or someone in your family will be taking the written driving test this year, be forewarned: It’s not as easy as it looks.
The DMV headquarters in Sacramento reports that about 6 million people in California
take the written test each year. And 3 million of them don’t pass it the first time around. On the second try, about 25% of the total fail again--and another 10% fail the third time. That’s more than half a million people stumped. (It’s three strikes and you’re out. You can reapply, but you’ve got to pay another $15 fee.)
And here’s what’s puzzling about it: The DMV gives you all the answers up front. They’re in a 97-page booklet called the 1999 California Driver Handbook.
So why don’t more people pass?
The biggest reason, said state DMV spokesman Evan Nossoff, is that most of us don’t spend enough time studying the handbook. We walk in the door cold, pick up a handbook, go off in a corner to skim through it, then confidently march over to take our test. We assume that since we’re good drivers, common sense will dictate most of the answers. I watched numerous people take the test at the Westminster DMV, and all of them went through that same ritual.
Here’s Nossoff’s advice: Don’t walk in cold.
“Call us for an appointment and ask us to send you a copy of the handbook,” he said. “Then study it carefully overnight before you come in.”
A couple of more reasons so many of us fail, says the DMV:
One, some of us just freeze up during tests. We haven’t done much test-taking since our school days, and we didn’t like it much then either.
Two, we can blame the DMV. It admits it needed to improve the clarity of some of the questions.
Last year the DMV conducted a study to reevaluate its tests, based on consumer complaints, Nossoff said. The result was that some questions have been rewritten just to make them easier to understand.
This does not mean the questions are any less difficult. The DMV expects us to be knowledgeable drivers. That means we’re supposed to know everything that’s in the handbook.
But there’s a dual purpose to the written test. Yes, the DMV wants to measure what we know about driving. But it also wants to teach us what we don’t know.
“Taking the test is supposed to be a learning experience,” said Nossoff.
The DMV says it can’t prove that knowing the handbook will save lives. “But it will at least make you more aware of problems on the road,” he said.
Most of us can renew our driver’s license by mail. But we all must be tested every 15 years. Written tests are also for those new to California, or getting a license for the first time.
The driver’s handbook is printed in 31 languages. The tests themselves are printed in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Tagalog. For other languages, the DMV will find a translator to assist you during the test.