The learner’s test is a written paper split into three sections. You are scored on each section separately, and passing overall is not enough on its own. This is the single most important thing to understand about the test, and the thing most people get wrong.
The three sections
| Section | Questions | Pass mark |
|---|---|---|
| Rules of the road | 28 | 22 |
| Road signs, signals and markings | 28 | 23 |
| Vehicle controls | 8 | 6 |
| Total | 64 | 51 |
You have 60 minutes.
You must pass every section
Getting 51 out of 64 does not mean you passed. You need 51 overall and you need to clear the mark in each individual section. Fall one question short on vehicle controls and you have failed the whole test, even with a strong score everywhere else.
Look at what those section marks demand as percentages:
- Rules of the road: 22 of 28 is 79%
- Road signs: 23 of 28 is 82%
- Vehicle controls: 6 of 8 is 75%
There is very little room. On road signs you can afford five wrong answers out of 28. On vehicle controls, two out of eight.
What each section covers
Rules of the road is the largest body of material. It covers what you must do at intersections, following distances, speed limits, overtaking, parking, right of way, what to do at an accident, and the documents you must carry. It is the section with the most to read, but it is also the most intuitive, because most of it is reasoning about traffic rather than memorisation.
Road signs, signals and markings is the opposite. There are hundreds of signs across regulatory, warning, guidance and information categories, plus road markings and traffic signals, and knowing them is mostly recall. This is the section with the highest pass mark and the largest volume of material, which is why it is worth the most study time.
Vehicle controls is the smallest section and the one people underestimate. It asks you to identify the controls of the vehicle and say what each does. Only eight questions, but you can only get two wrong.
The controls section depends on your code
Rules and signs are identical for every licence code. Vehicle controls is not.
A motorcycle has nine numbered controls in the manual and a motor vehicle has eleven, and the numbering does not line up between them. If you are writing for Code 1, studying the car controls will not help you, and the reverse is equally true. Which code covers what is set out in Learner’s licence codes explained.
A note on these numbers
The three Department of Transport manuals define the syllabus, but none of them states a question count or a pass mark anywhere. Those live in the testing regulations, which are a separate document.
The figures above are corroborated by published study guides and by candidates who have sat the paper, and they are what this site’s mock tests use. But we would rather tell you they are unofficial than present them as something they are not. If your testing centre tells you different, believe the testing centre.
Practising the real structure
Reading about the structure is not the same as sitting it. A full mock test runs all 64 questions in the official split, on the 60-minute timer, and scores you per section, so you find out whether you would have cleared every section before it counts. If you would rather drill one section at a time first, practice tests let you pick.
