An email alert has just been sent out by the DSA. You can view it here.
It reminds everyone that from Monday 23 January, the Theory Test will not consist of questions that have previously been published anywhere else. This change has been introduced to stop people memorising the answers, and to make them at least try to understand what it is they are supposed to be learning.
Until now, the questions would have been easily available in the exact form they would be asked on the Theory Test itself. However, as of today the only questions published will be practice questions – not the actual ones.
The email quotes Mike Penning, the Road Safety Minister:
“By bringing a stop to publication of theory test questions we aim to encourage candidates to prepare by learning each topic area thoroughly rather than just memorising the questions and answers.
“The intention is to improve candidates’ knowledge and understanding of driving theory, so that they are more able to retain and apply it when they are on the road.”
Bearing in mind Penning’s involvement so far – and the fact that his “in-depth knowledge” of the driver training industry apparently comes form his daughter, who Penning considers to be the only young person in the entire universe ever to have taken driving lessons, and who fed him a few stories about her training – I doubt that the change will have quite the outcome he thinks it will.
There are around 1,000 questions in the question bank. I can absolutely promise you that the number of people out there who, since the Theory Test was introduced, memorised them all can be counted on the fingers of one hand!
Most young people don’t do anywhere near enough revision for the Theory Test, and they only pass because it is so bloody easy. I know several of mine who have passed it without a single minute of revision – and certain web forums, where immature student types hang out, are rife with childish advice along the lines of “don’t revise or buy any study materials – you’ll pass it easily without them”. Passing is all that matters to them.
The problem with the Theory Test is that it is dumbed down. For example, there are a load of questions in it all about whether you can use a mobile phone when driving. The answer is “no” – but the questions are just convoluted re-wordings of the same fundamental question with the same fundamental answer. The only thing that is going to change is that there will be a heap of different re-wordings for the test itself, and another heap for the “practice material”, where there was only a single heap before! Big deal.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for turning the test into something which actually requires learning in order to pass it, but it was never that in the first place. To be worthwhile, it has to be challenging. And to be challenging, it needs to be relatively difficult to pass. But there are too many bleeding hearts out there who wouldn’t want that – and that includes ADIs as well as politicians anxious to secure votes.
This change is just fiddling with an item which, in the context of the proposed “benefits”, was already faulty. No one has the guts to throw the baby out with the bathwater and introduce something which is better.