I was listening to a discussion in the test centre waiting room last week about the merits – or otherwise – of the Driving Theory Test (introduced in the mid-90s) over the previous method of testing driving knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For anyone who doesn\u2019t know, in the \u201colden days\u201d when you took your driving test, the examiner would ask you a couple of questions at the end. I can remember one of mine being the blue \u201ckeep left\u201d sign, and vaguely another sign, produced from a ring-bound set of laminated cards. There might have been a question about parking – but it was a long time ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you believe some people, the previous method guaranteed 100% God-like knowledge of the Highway Code for the entire lifespan of every person who passed their driving test back then. The current method, on the other hand, is apparently responsible for every road accident, the global warming problem, and possibly several major natural disasters since its inception. The Hazard Perception Test (introduced in 2002) just added knobs on to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s worth setting the record straight on this subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main reasons the previous method was replaced was that it most definitely did not ensure God-like knowledge. Nor did what little knowledge was gained stick for more than about 5 minutes after someone passed their test. Far from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People generally don\u2019t set out to not<\/strong> know the Highway Code (HC). Even for those who have ever bothered to read it all the way through somewhere in the distant past, the memory fades unless there is a valid reason to keep remembering it or updating it. They\u2019ll remember things like what a big \u201c30\u201d in the middle of a red and white circular sign means (whether they choose to obey it or not is a different matter). They see it every day. But ask them how far away from a junction they should park, or what they should or shouldn\u2019t do at a humpbacked bridge, or even how big a gap they should leave between themselves and the car in front, and most will have only the vaguest of ideas at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driving instructors have a better reason to know the HC in detail, but even then not all of them do (it\u2019s arguable that none do – certainly when you start bringing interpretation<\/strong> into things). That\u2019s because anything other than a very basic understanding requires effort – considerable continued effort – in order to maintain knowledge at a current and correct level. Often, the only stimulus to refresh knowledge for an instructor comes as a result of being asked a question by a pupil, followed by thumbing through the HC (and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowledge of the HC has always<\/strong> been a problem, though. I suppose the big difference is that 20 or 30 years ago, more people would have considered learning it as something worthwhile than you\u2019re likely to find today. Hell, 30 years ago, more people could actually read, and had attention spans measured in the hours rather than the seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But humour aside, comprehension is<\/strong> a major issue. It always has been for a significant portion of society. I\u2019m not talking about people with special needs; I\u2019m talking about typically-educated, normal people who simply don\u2019t understand what they are reading when they aren\u2019t really interested. Not everyone out there is a Top Gear fanatic, who drools over the latest Audi models and who has wet dreams about being given a Race Day gift voucher at Silverstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Put simply, the old method was probably worse than the current test simply because it only asked a few questions. It was certainly no better, for precisely the same reason. People could afford to gamble on not knowing it in detail, and they certainly didn\u2019t need to understand it, because the questions asked were not all that varied – a lot less varied than with the modern-day Theory Test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much is made of the suggestion that current learners can memorise the answers, and this is the official reason why the DSA has recently stopped publishing the actual test questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n