It's not often I read a newspaper. This week though I've had a couple of free copies of The Times and a particular story in Thursday's edition, about proposed changes to the driving test, caught my eye.
The on-line version of the story has been re-worded for some reason - maybe to give a work experience kid something to do - but the gist is the same. The sentence that caught my eye in the print version says 'The DfT consultation paper, entitled Learning to Drive, also proposes to stop publishing the questions for the theory test, meaning that candidates would no longer be able to memorise the answers without understanding the principles.'
For anyone who is unaware, the driving theory test for cars and bikes consists of a set of multiple choice questions, of which 43 from a selection of 50 must be answered correctly, followed by a hazard perception test in which only about 60% of potential hazards need to be spotted. The multiple choice questions can be downloaded, bought or practised on-line, while mock tests for the second part are also available in numerous places, such as here.
The proposal sounds reasonable then doesn't it? After all, the questions are derived from the Highway Code and multiple choice quizzes are never the hardest in the world, often relying more on common sense than knowledge. Almost everyone who pays their £28.50 (!) must pass easily with minutes to spare right?
Wrong. The actual pass rate for the driving theory test in the UK is less than two thirds.
<sigh>
4 comments:
Tha stat is a bit unfairly weighted towards the dummies. It that includes all the people who take it multiple times. If you pass the test on your first go, that's it. If you pass on the fifth time, your negative scores have 4 times the weight.
A better statistic would be the number of people who pass it first time. I'd be it's still be depressing. I took the written test, and as you say, passed it with loads of time to spare.
Agreed. But someone who took the test five times would have ended up paying over £140 for that part alone! If intellect is tied to earnings (in general terms) you wouldn't think the 'dummies' would be able to afford to do that, or hence to drive at all :-)
LOL
My wife and I have a pet theory that we developed just this past week. It seems everybody we know that failed the drivers test at least once but still managed to eventually get it are currently the worst of drivers that we personally know; a fair share are doctors or lawyers, teachers, successful entrepreneurs, or IT people etc. so it doesn’t seem to matter about education, intelligence or economics.
We have concluded that if you fail the road part of the exam just once you should probably never be allowed to drive…. LOL
I feel safer when I am driving the roads in Europe or the US than here in British Columbia! By the way this is our Victoria Day long weekend, happy holiday, and please say hello to our Queen that lives in another country….
:)
Do I get to post even if I fail the word verification once? LOL
Hi David, I will come back to read more, however, just dropping by to thank you for recent visit on my blog. Hope all is well, and at glimps you got some interesting posts here. Anna :)
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