Do you remember how much practice you had driving before you passed the test?

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EpsilonAmber@reddit

I think I had like 3 months of practice.

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unknowingbiped@reddit

My driving instructor was generally okay with me driving.

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just_a_wolf@reddit

I had a year of driver's ed class and about 2 years of having a learner's permit before I got my license. So quite a bit.

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Building_a_life@reddit

Lots. I had been driving legally on private farm roads and illegally on rural back roads for at least two years.

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kwerdop@reddit

I drove a lot as a teen before my exam, but I failed the first time cause I had some bad habits

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soda-pops@reddit

I was required to have at least 50 hours of driving (40 day 10 night) before taking the test. I and probably others had more though, closer to maybe 80 or 100.

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MsSamm@reddit

If you don't mind my asking, where did you relocate? Family is planning on Spain.

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kwerdop@reddit

When I was in Spain the driving required zero learning from my USA experience, other than learning the local signage

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soda-pops@reddit

central mexico!! one of my parents was born there and i got citizenship from them so it was a simple choice for us. i hear great things about spain though!

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MsSamm@reddit

I've heard good things about Mexico. I briefly went on a day trip to Tijuana and would return. It's a lively city with lots of energy.

Are you concerned with the water situation? The aquifers are the main source of water and thanks to persistent drought are running out. Mexico City is sinking 20 inches per year as the aquifer collapses. Once an aquifer collapses, it no longer has the space held for water, so if the drought period ends, water will ineffectively run off. People get potable water deliveries by truck, but it's expensive.

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soda-pops@reddit

yeah kinda. i live in a weird little small town in the middle of nowhere. cant brush my teeth with the tap water. showers are fine. have to always have bottled water, which i hate bevause of the plastic. its not ideal

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XayahTheVastaya@reddit

Fun fact, a private pilot license requires 40 hours

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Educational-Big-6609@reddit

Requires, yes, but few can be ready for the test in 40 (I was a CFI for a few years and have 2,900 dual given).

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Glum-Welder1704@reddit

Years. I drove until they caught me, then went for my license.

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Joenomojo@reddit

A full year. From 15 th b day to 16 th b day.

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Fred2606@reddit

I remember I didn’t have a huge amount of practice before my test, maybe just enough sessions to feel comfortable with the basics like parking, turns, and staying calm in traffic. What helped most was just consistent short drives instead of long stressful ones. For the learning stage before that, we also used DetsCourse to get the rules down before focusing on actual driving.

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The_Iron_Ravn@reddit

I took a written test at 15 for a learner's permit, at which point I could drive as long as I had an adult with me. Then I took a practical test at 16 for the full license. So the answer is either not a lot or quite a lot

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Cathode335@reddit

25 hours was required for me

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Whybaby16154@reddit

3 times: once with Dad, once with some boy that had to pop start his VW Bug and had me drive while he pushed- once with my sister-in law the day before and in the way to the road test.

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Extension-Respond289@reddit

man, I was so nervous for my test, I think I drove like 20 hours before it, lol. kinda felt like I was just winging it tho… passing felt like winning the lottery!

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Gmhowell@reddit

I drove a tractor for the first time at six years old. So those, farm trucks, etc for 9.5 years. Then probably 20 hours or so before being cut loose on the roads.

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AgathaM@reddit

Close enough for me, but I was 7 on the tractor instead of 6. I couldn’t reach the pedals before then. It was my grandmother’s farm so it was just weekends or summers.

When I drove the truck, I had to sit at the front of the bench seat and look *through* the steering wheel over the dash.

When I was 15 and had my permit, I was on the farm during Easter. I wanted to go to church, so my uncle just gave me the keys to his car and sent me on my way. My mom was a bit upset at that one.

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Gmhowell@reddit

My father was four. His father told him to stand on the same side as the clutch so that he could see where he was steering. My city born mother for some reason thought this inappropriate so made my father wait until I could see while standing with one side on either side of the tunnel.

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Spam_Tempura@reddit

Bro, same. Just one of the perks of being a farm kid.

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lonestar659@reddit

I took a class for a few weeks then passed it first try.

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baalroo@reddit

6-8 hours or so.

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kshucker@reddit

Drivers Ed was a mandatory course and then you needed to have 40 hours (I believe) that were logged while you had your permit.

I had about 5 hours under my belt and fudged the rest. Passed my driving test on the first time.

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aquay@reddit

about two weeks, but i learned in a pontiac fiero which had a stick shift. i must've stalled 1000 times... oy vey.

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Tandom@reddit

For my state, you get your license at 16, but at 15 you can take the written test to get a learners’ permit that allows you to drive when there is an adult in the front seat with you. I had gained a year’s experience before taking the test on my own.

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Federal-Employee-545@reddit

About six months.

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No-Market-4906@reddit

In the 6 months between getting my permit and full license I drove every time we had to go somewhere and my little brother wasn't in the car. I'd guess that totaled 300 hours.

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zoppaTheDim@reddit

Somewhere between one and two hundred hours. About three months spending weekends and some week nights driving with my Dad, while taking driver’s ed where you got maybe an hour a week.

Looking back, it was a great summer, we’d hit garage sales mostly and I learned how to get my car out of a ditch.

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Educational-Big-6609@reddit

We can get a learner’s permit for up to a year. I did in Minnesota and I drove a ton (probably 100 hours or so) plus did driver’s ed.

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juan_humano@reddit

By the time I got my license, I was old enough that there was no minimum hours requirement. Just the writen and practical tests. So hey, anyone out there struggling to clock those practice hours, just wait until you are 28 and the problem solves itself (at least in Texas)

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Decent_Cow@reddit

Not very much. For people over 18 in my state, there is no requirement to have a certain amount of behind the wheel experience before taking the road test. These requirements exist, but only for people under 18. I probably had less than 10 hours to be honest.

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CeeCee123456789@reddit

When I was a kid, the age was 16 and there were no amount of hours. Later, they introduced a graduated license program.

I had maybe 5 hours split over 5 years. I didn't get my license until I was 20. 🤷🏾‍♀️

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2Asparagus1Chicken@reddit

We don't practice

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Silent_Hastati@reddit

I uhhh... was driving without a full license (learner permit only) for several years before taking the road test.

Probably not a representative sample.

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ncconch@reddit

Do dirt bikes count?

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Top-Web3806@reddit

So my high school gave us free driving lessons which I took. I don’t recall how many times we went driving but it couldn’t amount to more than like two hours tops. Once I got my permit my mother took me out one time, we got into an argument, and no one took me out driving again. Fast forward six months later, I’m finally eligible to take my driving test. My step father took me out one day before, I had forgotten basically everything at that point, but I passed the following day.

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Familiar-Ad-1965@reddit

About 10 years.

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frickenfantastic@reddit

4 hrs with instructor and about 30 min with mom and maybe 15 min with dad… did have a partial quarter of book learning in high school in addition to the actual driving

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RIPdon_sutton@reddit

In 1989, on my 15th birthday, my grandfather drove me to the dmv to take the written test for my learners license. I drove back home. First time behind the wheel of a car. He didn’t flinch. Just let me drive his 87 crown vic. Zero practice.

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devilbunny@reddit

When I was at that point, you could take the written test and get a permit at 14, but it was only valid for a certified driver’s ed instructor and car. At 15, if you had completed driver’s ed, you could road test on your birthday and get a full license (no restricted license in the early 90s). I hadn’t been been able to get my road hours in so I got a any-licensed-driver-over-21 permit on 15th birthday. No minimum hours required, you just had to have that for a month to take the road test.

My parents made me drive everywhere that month, starting with taking us home on the interstate (first time on that) in a minivan with crosswinds. We had done parking lots before, so I was smooth with the mechanical part of driving. Dad made me change the tire for the spare and then put the real tire back on alone (no cell phones for teens back then; he didn’t even have one yet and really could have used one) and show how to jump a car off before I was turned loose.

Only finished driver’s ed for the insurance discount. Didn’t need it otherwise. My road “hours” were a 30-minute drive on various road types, after which the instructor said “yeah, you know how to drive, passed”. I had been driving myself everywhere for a couple of months at that point.

Didn’t get any long-distance until that summer, when my parents told me to take us to the beach and not get lost along the way (about 4 hours each way). They watched but said nothing, let me figure it out on my own. Good way to learn. Figuring out that you’re lost, and where you went wrong, and how to fix it now that you are, is valuable even with GPS.

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racingfan_3@reddit

I drove a tractor at a young age. At age 9 gpa taught me how to drive his 47 IH pickup. At age 15 I got a learners permit on my birthday. On my 16th birthday I took my driver's test and got my driver's license. I did take drivers Ed in high school for a yr only because our parents got to save money on our car insurance if we did.

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Inspi@reddit

I got my learner's 2 days after I turned 15 and once I got the basics I was basically my parents chauffeur because I took every chance I got to drive. I then got my full license 3 days after turning 16.

I easily had hundreds of hours.

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Antitenant@reddit

I did Driver's Ed because I was trying to get my full license before 18 (already had my permit), but because of the scheduling, my 18th birthday had already passed by the time I completed it

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machagogo@reddit

About 6 hours of official "practice" at driver's ed. Not much if any with my parents, several more hours of "took my or my friends parents cars out for unlicensed joy riding at night while they were asleep" worth of driving. Many years of go-kart and quad/trike riding.

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iapetus3141@reddit

Probably ~10 hours after I got my learners permit. Then I procrastinated for a couple of years without driving. Then I practiced for about 5 minutes before the test

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donuttrackme@reddit

Not really. It was several months for sure.

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Wolfsburg78@reddit

Not much from what I remember. When I got my license in the late 1900s we were only required to take Drivers Ed in a classroom for a couple hours a few after school for a total of like eight hours. Then you drove with an adult for a few months (I think you had to wait 90 days between getting a permit and your license), then took the road test. I was the last Drivers Ed class to only require 8 hours, it is now a 33 hour formal class. There was no record keeping of your driving though, so you could have no hours or a lot of hours, didn't matter back then.

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GSilky@reddit

We would take my grandma's car all over when she would take a nap. That was pretty much how my siblings and I learned to drive.

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General-Winter547@reddit

My sergeant walked into my barracks on a Saturday and asked to see my drivers license. Neither me or my room mate had one. He drove us to the dmv and we both passed. I hadn’t driven anything in years, and had only driven for a few weeks in high school drivers ed.

We were both driving numbers with night vision goggles a week later, and 5 ton trucks pulling ammo trailers the week after that.

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

I don't remember, but it was a lot, way more than the minimum (I think 25 hours) that was required. As I recall I got my learners permit in the spring, did school drivers education course which I finished in early June, then spent most of the rest of that summer driving my elderly great uncle who was living with us at the time while undergoing cancer treatment around sight seeing, etc. Often for an hour or more per day most days until school started up in September.

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JJacobJingleheim@reddit

I was a late bloomer and had no one to teach me when I was ready. Plus, I graduated early and skipped drivers ed. So I paid for 12 hours with a driving school, and I passed the test immediately after my last lesson. I could have taken the test with no practice since I got my permit at 18. (Florida)

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ITrCool@reddit

Our father taught us kids. We took 3-4 months practicing in an empty parking lot and driving surface streets and finally highways, with our driver’s permit and dad in the seat next to us, before dad felt confident enough in us to say “go take your test”.

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BizarroMax@reddit

Never took one. We had a driving class in high school. If you got a B or higher you could skip the test and they just gave you a license.

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Sowf_Paw@reddit

I never had a driving test, only a written test.

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qu33nof5pad35@reddit

Yeah, I spent some coin getting lessons.

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El_Polio_Loco@reddit

Lots, probably 30 or 40 hours.

I loved driving and my parents were gracious enough to let me do it most of the time when I was with my permit.

Then two or three weekends I went out with my dad and just drove around the city driving, parallel parking, and driving around parking lots in reverse.

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dangleicious13@reddit

Which test? I don’t think I drove at all before getting a learner’s permit at 15. I drove all year until I got my driver’s license at 16.

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Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit

40 years ago I think I had to do 25 but maybe it was 35. It’s been a while. My kids had to get 50 prior to getting a license.

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Mediocre-Oil-5322@reddit

I drove with my permit for a full year before I took the test. I passed on my first attempt, though.

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SouthernGentATL@reddit

Same for me but before that I learned to drive with my cousins on dirt roads through my Uncles farm. I’ll never forget the three on the tree!

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BlindBanditt@reddit

77 C10 Chevy checking in!

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river-running@reddit

I failed the test at 16 after in-school driver's ed and about six months of regular practice and didn't bother retesting because I didn't have access to a car and didn't see the point. Finally decided to get it over with at 23 and started practicing again for a month or two beforehand.

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IPreferDiamonds@reddit

My Dad (illegally) let me drive all the time at age 14. This was back in the early 80s. So I had lots of practice before taking the test at age 16.

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SkiingAway@reddit

In terms of legal on public roads time? Probably at least 100 hours, had to have my permit for a year and mom pretty much handed me the keys every time we went anywhere that year and told me to drive.

In terms of operating a vehicle time.....I don't know, a lot. I'd always wanted to drive and had spent pretty much as much time behind the wheel or handlebars of basically anything with a means of propulsion that I could get my hands on as a kid.

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Endy0816@reddit

Not really, but only learned ilater in life too.

Home was within sight of my school and went into military shortly after graduating.

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brownboots2026@reddit

A few hundred hours because I had to wait until I met the minimum age for my license.

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ZaphodG@reddit

I was a teen at the Arab Oil Embargo when the speed limit was reduced to 50 mph and 55 mph. I got an out of state learner’s permit at age 15 in Vermont where the family had a ski vacation home. I was the designated driver for the 3+ hour drive on winter weekends. I was told to drive 70 mph. If I got pulled over, I handed the police my paper learners permit that didn’t have any kind of license number or photo. They couldn’t give me a ticket.

I probably drove 10,000 miles before I took my test at age 16. I’d been driving lawn mowers, go carts, dirt bikes, and boats for years so a car at 15 was just something else to drive.

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devilscabinet@reddit

My parents took me out to practice every couple of days for a few weeks, then I took Driver's Ed (I think they had us drive about 3 hours in total).

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SnowblindAlbino@reddit

I learned to drive at 11, on forest roads, in case of an emergency when we were out hunting. So did that probably 8-10 hours a year while far too young to get a permit. Then got a permit at 15 and started driving a lot more, probably 4-5 hours a week for a year. Also had to take driver's ed in high school that year, which included a required 15 hours behind the wheel. When I got my license at 15 I had probably driven a few hundred hours at least, including some legs of long distance (cross country) road trips.

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Comfortable_Break387@reddit

Very little. I did driver's ed, but it was a class with no practice. I was woefully under prepared but somehow still passed my first time. I took my test in Oklahoma but moved back to California shortly afterwards. Ironically, my San Francisco friends didn't have to parallel park as part of their test, but I did in parking lot abound Oklahoma.

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turdferguson3891@reddit

They used to require that in California but got rid of it right around the time I took my test in the 90s. They switched to making you get on and off the freeway for like one exit.

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turdferguson3891@reddit

I don't really remember in hours. I'm old but back when I got my license you needed to 15 1/2 for the learner's permit and then you could take the test at 16. There wasn't any kind of madated behind the wheel hours back then you were just supposed to practice with your parent or some responsible adult with a license. You had the option of going to a driving school but it wasn't required. Back then some high schools still provided driver's ed but mine had gotten rid of it so I did go to a driving school for a few weeks.

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Weird_Squirrel_8382@reddit

120 hours, I was anxious and hated it, but my husband is persistent. he made me practice until I wasnt shaky anymore.

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NYOB4321@reddit

Got my learner permit at 16. Took driver's ed. Practiced with my parents.

Because I took driver's ed, I was able to get the full license at 17 rather than 18.

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MsSamm@reddit

People loaned me their cars before I had my license. I went to the store to get alcohol and cigarettes.

Because I was only home from school for a couple weeks, my mother signed me up for a couple lessons at a diving school. They always had a couple slots reserved for NYC road tests, and I was able to get one within 2 weeks. Otherwise it would have been a month.

The driving instructor had me driving backwards on empty roads. A lot. It was a skill I've used often. Backing down a winding gravel road with a steep drop on one side, narrow long driveways, driving backwards to avoid a flooded out road, when there isn't enough room to turn around, etc. It's a useful skill.

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Vandal_A@reddit

I think my state required half a year with a learners permit, some amount of hours logged and signed off on by adults, and graduating from a class on the subject

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OhThrowed@reddit

By the time I took the test, I'd already been driving for two years,

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EmmalouEsq@reddit

I didn't need driver's ed. I passed my written exam, and I had a learners permit until I took the driving test a month later. Oh, and I was 14.

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WhoWouldCareToAsk@reddit

Nothing special. I was already driving in the rural areas before getting proper license. Got advice from older brother who explained a few edge cases (backing around the corner, parallel parking, etc.) and went on to pass the test on the first try.

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BoBoBearDev@reddit

I drove to school with my dad in the car for 6 months. And I have a driving tutor to make sure all the missing pieces are taught.

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RichLeadership2807@reddit

Idk I think it was 20 hours daytime and 10 night time before taking the test. After taking driver’s ed of course.

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famousanonamos@reddit

A whole lot because my parents let my permit expire before they took me to get my license, so I had to get a new one and wait the 6 months again.

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Willing_Calendar_373@reddit

I got my motorcycle permit on a Monday. The DMV person said they had a road test the next day if I wanted. So I took it.

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AwkwarsLunchladyHugs@reddit

Yep. I lived out on the prairie as a kid, my uncle taught me to drive his pick up truck when I was 11 (out on the rural roads, there wasn't any traffic really, and no police out there).When I got into high school, we had moved into town, so couldn't do that anymore lol.

I had to go through a 6 week course in school for driver's ed. Then when I got my permit at 15 and a half, I had 6 months to practice before getting my license. I drove as much as I could in those 6 months.

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Positive-Avocado-881@reddit

I was required to do 10 hours with an instructor and 40 hours with a parent. Plus 6 hours of observation of an instructor and another student. I probably would have been fine with just my parents teaching me.

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Lost-Humor-5964@reddit

I was required to have my permit for 6 months and take a 4 hour class. During that 6 months I drove maybe 6 times total with my parents. Took the actual driving test on my birthday in my grandmother’s sedaan. Didn’t drive again at all until 8 months later my friend needed help moving and wanted me to follow behind the truck with her car. That’s where I really learned 😂 9 trips back and forth across town

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Happy_Macaroon2726@reddit

Took Drivers Ed in high school, got my learners permit and got my full driver's license 3 months after I completed Drivers Ed.

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imlikleymistaken@reddit

Starting driving on a ranch around 10yo. After getting a permit at 15 id say I conservatively drove 14,000 miles in the year before my 16th birthday.

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waynehastings@reddit

I had a learners permit as soon as I could get it, and got a lot of driving in with my parents. I had my driver's license by the time i took driver's ed in high school, so even more practice.

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theflyingpiggies@reddit

Obligatory “this will depend on the state”.

In Colorado, you take a written test to get your permit. Once you have your permit you’re only allowed to drive while an immediate family member over the age of 18 is in the car.

To prep for that written test you go to like 2-3 days of 6 hour drivers ed classes or something like that - no driving involved, just sitting in a school library and listening to cops and DMV employees give you a presentation about laws and whatnot.

Then, while you have your permit, you’re also required to do 6 hours of driving with a police officer. Usually broken up into two 3-hour sessions.

You’re also required to hit I think like 50 hours of driving with a family member before being allowed to take the drivers test and get a license. But I know a lot of people who just fudged that. There’s no like monitoring system on that, you just have to fill out the hours that you drove on a sheet.

So to answer your question, I would guess I had probably about 70 or so hours worth of driving a car before I took my test.

(These were the requirements as far as my memory serves back when I was getting my permit/license about 8-10 years ago. Things may have changed, and I may be misremembering the specifics in terms of hours and stuff)

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