When studying to pass the theory test it is beneficial to have high expectations of your expected performance.
Practising is not the same as doing mock tests. You should first of all spend time, learning about the topics. There are plenty of very good resources available to enable you to do focused, methodical practice. As you learn, you will start to see patterns and themes that emerge. You will learn the importance of reading the question properly before attempting to answer it. When you do sufficient practice, you will naturally start to learn from any errors in your thought processes, and start to gain the knowledge required to help you be a safe, independent driver. Try and remember that the point of the theory knowledge is to help ensure that you can cope without having anyone supervising or accompanying you. Not only does theory knowledge keep things safe, but it keeps things legal; it ensures that there is a level of order on the public roads which is important. Try not to fall into the trap when seeing poor examples of driving and thinking that it is the norm; it is important to aim high in your standards – clearly, if everyone joins in with this goal it will maintain good standards of driving.
If you take this snippet from some practise recently done….
This is not in any way unusual to be achieving this type of pass rate. It is perfectly achievable to perform to this standard with some attention to HOW you are learning. Don’t just take a few attempts at mock tests and then book a theory test – this is not demonstrating a good attitude to learning, and certainly not maximising the chances of you passing the test. Theory tests are able to be passed on the first attempt – it is by no means difficult to pass first time, it just needs some focused study. By taking 2, 3 or 4+ attempts to pass the theory test, you are showing that you are not taking responsibility for achieving goals or minimising wasted money or time. This is hardly the attitude to take into the practical driving practise.
Aim high everyone. Pass first time – it will be good for your self-esteem.
It is perfectly possible to pass your theory test on the first occasion. Add up the amount of time you are taking to STUDY (this is not the time for doing mock tests). As a rough rule of thumb you should be aiming to do 14 hours of study as a minimum BEFORE you start to do mock tests. This amounts to half an hour of study per day for a month….. hardly unrealistic or impossible to do. Perhaps you could show some discipline in achieving your goals by substituting half an hour of time taken scrolling through social media, and replace it with theory study. You might be pleasantly surprised how quickly you will start to sense progress just by doing small snippets of study every single day.
Across the country, many people are failing theory tests (it has only a 40% pass rate) and there is really no reason at all why this should be the case – it has not changed in difficulty in recent times, there is no logical reason why the pass rate is as low as it is. It seems to be the case that people are losing the skill of knowing how to learn efficiently. Remember, as with anything in life worth doing, learning does take effort – it shows good character traits in being able to set high expectations and achieve them.
Review your coming day in the morning and the commitments that you have. Find a half hour slot in your day, write it down somewhere and STICK TO IT. Go into a place that is quiet where you will not be disturbed. Tell everyone around that you do not want to be disturbed, place a post-it note outside the door saying “Do not disturb for half an hour”. And then focus. Focus on the job in hand. No scrolling on phones, no video games, no music, no YouTube, no chatting with a friend online, just pure focus in study, where you can properly concentrate on the job in hand. It is possible to organise this; it just takes discipline. You will benefit from this type of study. You are attempting to learn a life-long skill where you will benefit from this learned knowledge every day of your driving life.
Good luck and take pride in your efforts.
