Theory Test Guide

[Liono]

In order to put off doing the work that I am supposed to be doing at home I have written a brief guide to the bike theory test. I still need to add in a section about Hazard Perception, and a list of useful links, but I will post what i have done so far. Any comments, criticisms etc would be most useful so I can make alterations as necessary.

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Theory Test Guide

About the Theory Test
As of November 2002, all riders wanting to gain their motorbike licence now have to complete a theory test in addition to the practical test, however the theory test must be passed before you take your practical test. The fee for the theory test is currently £20.50. Although they are fairly similar, you still have to do the motorbike theory even if you have passed your car theory test previously.

The test can be taken at any one of a number of regional test centres, there seems to be one of these in most major cities and towns in the UK. You can either book the test online at https://www.dsa.gov.uk or you can call the DSA on 0870 01 01 372. To book the test you will need to have your driver number (written across you licence) and a credit/debit card.

The Format of the Test

The theory test comes in two parts:

i) a 35 question multiple choice section which you answer using a touch screen – you must get at least 30 marks to pass this section.

ii) a hazard perception test, which requires you to watch a video clip and click the mouse when you spot a hazard, click it if it develops and click it again if you must take action. There are 75 marks available for the 14 clips shown. You must score at least 44 to pass this section.

You need to pass both the multiple choice AND the hazard perception to pass the theory test. If you fail one section you will have to re-do the whole test again.

Passing the Multiple Choice
Different people seem to approach this section in different ways. I reckon your main options are:

i) Don’t bother with any revision and hope to fluke it on the day: A good approach if it works, as it would be the cheapest and quickest method to use. It is quite possible that people who have done their car theory and who know a bit about bikes would benefit from this method, but there are some questions in the test which I suspect a lot of bikers might not necessarily know.

ii) Buy the official book of theory test questions: Quite a few places do a book of official questions, including the DSA. These vary in price and format. Some are just a list of the questions with the answers written at the back of the book, others are broken into nice sections with explanations of why the answer is correct. This comes down to personal choice. Look at how the book is laid out and see which style you prefer. If you won’t bother reading all of the explanation it probably isn’t worth paying a bit extra for a book with this in. Also try to see how the answers are laid out, some put them in blocks at the end, others after each question – will you try to ‘cheat’ by looking at the answer for the next question, or even see it accidentally, if the answers are in blocks?

When you use the book, it can be useful to take a section at a time and test yourself by writing the answers down. At the end of the section go back through and check to see how well you did, and see if you can pick out any questions which you are struggling with. You will soon find that 90% of the questions are common sense, so you will be able to answer these straight off. Some of the others, like stopping distances and legal requirements, might require a bit of revision. If this is the case, concentrate on these areas rather than wasting your time going over the easy questions loads of times.

iii) Use the CD:I personally haven’t used one of the CDs for the bike test as I much preferred the book. Some people might prefer the ‘interactive’ element offered by the CD, or might feel that it is more realistic due to the test itself being computerised. The CDs can be useful for doing mock tests to get an idea of how well you might do, but if you do loads of these you will end up repeating the easy questions over and over without concentrating on the ones you found difficult. Again, using the CD is just personal preference. I liked the way that you can flick through the book, others may prefer the realism of the CD.

Note on using the Highway Code: Some people have said that they used the Highway code to revise for their theory test and although this is, of course, absolutely necessary reading for riding and the practical test, I think that for the theory alone people would be best to stick to the book or CD. The reasoning behind this being that the theory test only can ask questions from the official list. If you have revised from this then you should know the answers, whereas revising the highway code simply fills your head with other information that you don’t need for the theory. Please note that the Highway code is still essential reading, but purely for the purpose of passing the theory it is simply overkill I feel.

Other Points
As you read though the questions you will soon notice that a lot of the questions are repeated, with only slight variations in the wording of the question or answer options. This is a good thing, as in your revision you are effectively covering 3 or 4 questions in one! Look out for these when revising – if you have answered a similar question you don’t need to waste your time on one exactly the same.

Some of the questions require some knowledge on your part, and are tricky to guess, stopping distances being a prime example. However, it is very possible to make an educated guess at the answer to many of the questions. For example, if one of the answers contains the words ‘slowly’, ‘carefully’ or especially ‘safely’ you can bet it is probably the right one. If you go with the option which seems the safest and most cautious you will generally be correct.

When you sit the multiple choice take your time about it. You can ‘flag’ questions about which you are unsure so that you can come back to them at the end, so use this if you find that you cannot quite get the answer to a particular question – the answer may come to you later. As with any exam, remember to read the question carefully and fully to avoid silly mistakes. 40 minutes is quite a long time for 35 questions, so you should have a bit of time left at the end for any questions which you flagged.

Good luck