Driving Test Success All Tests (2006/07 Edition)

I took my driving theory test back in March and used this CD to help me.

~~~What's on the CD?~~~

*Practical video*
When I first put the CD in it automatically came up with the video section which was all about manoeuvres in a car and shopping you how to do them. I got this CD the weekend I turned 17 and I had not started driving and so I was curious at first and watched it intently. However I struggled to remember ...
...it was difficult to imagine driving and soon it became very boring. There is also a whole practical driving test, this was just as boring. In fact, truth be told, I used to watch it just before bed time when I had trouble sleeping and it would send me to sleep. I had the intention of starting to drive but I never quite got around to it so just like everything else I am meant to do I ignored it. So February came around and I decided to start driving ... more

I took my driving theory test back in March and used this CD to help me.

~~~What's on the CD?~~~

*Practical video*
When I first put the CD in it automatically came up with the video section which was all about manoeuvres in a car and shopping you how to do them. I got this CD the weekend I turned 17 and I had not started driving and so I was curious at first and watched it intently. However I struggled to remember everything they told me without actually sitting in a car and it was difficult to imagine driving and soon it became very boring. There is also a whole practical driving test, this was just as boring. In fact, truth be told, I used to watch it just before bed time when I had trouble sleeping and it would send me to sleep. I had the intention of starting to drive but I never quite got around to it so just like everything else I am meant to do I ignored it. So February came around and I decided to start driving and booked my theory test (which has a one month waiting list) and so it was time to dig out the old CD. In it went again and automatically came this annoying video.

*Theory*
It may well have been because of my computer that it automatically played the video but when I closed it and actually clicked on the CD I was asked to install the software and so I did. It was fairly quick downloading and when it did I found the theory part. Firstly there are two options depending on whether you are a teacher and plan to give it to lots of pupils or if it is just for you. Anyway I choose just for me and typed in my name and got to choose a car and colour so I choose a blue sports car, snazzy and like hell would I have such a car. You have the option of password protecting it as well. On the main menu you have several options on what you want to do. You can either practise or have a mock test. There are also a statistics option where you can look how well you have been doing in both practise and tests. It shows you the progress over time and has a pass line and you can clearly see how often you pass. On this page it also shows the questions you get wrong more than once.

QUESTIONS
Now in the actual test there are 50 questions and you need 43 to pass. On this CD it is set automatically to 20 questions in the practise. The twenty questions practise is good and you can do them several times. If you click on a question it reads out the question to you. In the mock test it has the questions followed straight by the hazard perception (which I will come onto). You can change the number of questions to 50 so you have a real idea of whether you would pass or not. You can also choose to have just questions relating to signs or questions you get wrong more often if you want. You can also change the number of questions which can be anything from 20 to 100. You can also give yourself a limited amount of time. It is automatically set to 40minutes. After you have done the questions you can look back at the answers and once you have checked them you can look at your mistakes and look at the correct answer. It also has a highway code handy which you can use to look things up. In the mock test there are 35 randomly chosen questions followed straight by the hazard perception. There are also some unofficial questions which you have to select to be asked them, I unselected them as I did not want to do them as they would never come up. They have all the questions you could possible ever had. There are over 1000 questions available and if you do them all you cover every single question that will come up on your test.

HAZARD PERCEPTION
To pass the hazard perception test you need 44 out of 75 from fifteen questions. Each question is marked out of five. There are over 125 clips of hazard perception taken from a variety of places and scenes all in different situations and conditions. The principle behind hazard perception is when you see a hazard developing you click, if you click right at the beginning you get 5 and it progresses all the way down to 0. If you click too late you get 0. You need to click it before it is a hazard however. In the practise tests you get three clips each one is about a minute. After you have done it you will know your score and you can watch the clip again and it will show you where the hazard is. In the mock test you do hazard perception straight after the questions as you do in the real test. Before each clip you get 10 seconds to prepare and then you watch the clip which is about a minute long. There are 14 clips and so one contains two clips. There is no sound in the hazard perception clips. When you finish the mock test you can not review the questions or the hazard perception.

~~~My opinion~~~
I found the questions repetitive and only did 640 before I could not do any more. Many questions were in my opinion obvious but there were some harder ones. My aim was to do all the questions however in reality I was never going to do this. Hazard perception was also fairly easy in my opinion and I only failed it once in the practise tests when I was unsure of what to do. However I found it highly irritating I could not pause it or skip the clips so I had to sit there watching it all. I actually fell asleep watching it once embarrassingly enough. However it did prepare me for the questions in the exam. Although there are lots of clips after about ten attempts it told me that some clips would be repeated even though I had loads left. I think this is because they are randomly generated. I never completed all of the hazard perception clips either, I did about 70 but none of these would come up on the test it was just for practise. The CD does guarantee a pass or your money back if you fill in some form but I did not bother. It also tells you that you have to complete all the questions and hazard perception questions otherwise you will not have this guarantee.

~~~The test~~~
3rd March I took my theory test. If you pass you have two years to take your practical before it expires. You must take both parts of you license to the test otherwise you will have to rebook and repay. The questions are exactly how they are in the CD except it is touch screen. I had some questions that I had done before and I actually panicked on the first question for some reason. You can take a break in between the questions and hazard perception if you want, I just went straight on. For this it is exactly the same you get 14 clips and you have to click when you think you need to. You get the test results at the end and for me the CD did its job. I got 50/50 in the questions and 64/75 in the hazard perception. I took my oractical in June and to be honest I did not use the CD as the videos bore me, however I still passed so I do not beleive the CD is useful for the practical, just a good driving instructor.

~~~Other information~~~
This CD is always on offer if you look around. I got mine for £7 from Woolworths. You can buy it from most places and the normal retail price is £9.99. There is also a 2007/2008 version which has come out. It only works on windows 98/XP/2000. It also offers low cost car insurance from Endsleigh for new drivers.

Thank you for reading 

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