Driving in China can be a pain, for reasons I hardly need to list here (but will, since Web Logs were created for just this sort of venting) – traffic, severe traffic, traffic caused by fights between traffic cops, traffic regulations, traffic accidents…. Luckily, China’s Ministry of Public Security has an extensive test to prepare this country’s would-be drivers for the stress, frustration, and Weltschmerz of the road…
Behold the ministry’s new driving test questions, which went into place last year, as brought to us by the website Chinese Driving Test. Some samples:
Before we continue, a quick note that this is a real test with questions that are very much not a joke. As the creator of the website emailed us in reply to a question, “Sadly [this site] is not supposed to be hilarious or satirical, but perhaps it should be.”
Of course, according to some, the test apparently isn’t this easy and stupid. As NPR’s Frank Langfitt wrote in January (about flunking the test three times): “The night before my test, I decided to take a practice one online. There were 100 questions drawn from a pool of nearly 1,000. You had to get 90 correct to pass. I got a 65 and started to panic.”
The site Chinese Driving Test includes 973 sample questions, which might make for fine study material. For more information:
The Chinese driver’s test comprises 100 questions randomly selected from a pool of over 900. You will be given forty-five minutes in which to answer all the questions and you need to score 90 or more to pass.
The first forty questions require you to give a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to a given statement. The remaining sixty questions are multiple choice with four options.
Note that new motor vehicle driver training teaching and examination syllabus came into force on January 1, 2013. It makes for painfully dull reading but if you really want to see it, here it is. (If the syllabus isn’t boring enough for you then head over to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Road Traffic Safety.)
(H/T Hannah L.)
Waitaminutewaitaminute… All those people driving in China have passed a TEST?
Mind. Blown.
Yea, I had a similar experience to Frank’s. The thing is, I think taking it in English actually makes the test harder because the translations can be so confusing (on top of the fact that many of the questions are flat out silly as you’ve shown here).
For fun, I created a 10-question practice test for anybody who wants to see how they would fare on the test.
http://www.farwestchina.com/pass-china-drivers-test
Yeah, like the other commenters, I had my own encounter with the driver’s test in China. In 2012 I think the questions were even more esoteric and pointless. Things like testing your knowledge of how to deal with bleeding in an upper limb, how a fireman should put out a fire, “rescuing a wounded person who has been poisoned by toxic gas”, and my favorite which was the section on how to deal with your car if it’s sinking in water (advice includes putting a plastic bag tightly over your head).
Here was my full list of the <a href="http://www.rubberonroad.com/2012/09/driving-license-some-insight-into-poor-chinese-driving-habits/"funniest ones from the 2012 practice book
Problem with the link above:
Here was my full list of the funniest ones from the 2012 practice book
I took the test in 2013 after the new curriculum came out. I agree with Josh that taking the test in English was harder due to poor translation. I was able to pass after 2 tries. I highly recommend using the online tests as most questions on the actual test are word for word out of the online test.
Yeah, the test is not easy at all. While some questions are just ridicolous and obvious, others are seriously hard.
I took the test last year. The first time I took the test in English and failed. Then I found the whole question bank in Chinese on the internet (that year’s questions had not yet been released in English), revised and took the test in Chinese, and passed.
I wrote a blog post about my experience here:
http://www.thecapitalinthenorth.blogspot.com/2013/05/getting-chinese-driving-licence.html
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In my opinion, the test for Chinese is not difficult if you do lots of exercises. And maybe Chinese are accustomed of doing lots of exercises before testing. Therefore, they may encounter many similar exercises so that the passing rate is very high. At least my friends and my family passed the test for only once. However, the next driving test is a nightmare for many Chinese. Because they have to drive on the road. But lack of practical exercises on the road, the passing rate is lower than the first test. And then they have to take part in the supplementary tests. In short, Chinese tend to master the theoretical knowledge, while it’s harder for them to operate practically.
Of course, for English speakers, as mentioned above, there are some mistakes of translation that make foreigners confused.
I am a Chinese who also took the text in this Aug. Some of the questions might seem meaningless (like those in pictures) while others really need efforts to prepare for, such as asking you to tell traffic signs, limited speeds in different situations, etc.
Narsfweasels (well I’ll just take it as your name..) asked whether all divers in Chinese had taken the test. Well I see what you mean… But unfortunately your satire hits the truth… Some of them hadn’t. But now Chinese government becomes stricter and stricter with the problem, so many of those old drivers also have to take driving test now. Some of the learners in my driving school could easily pass the practice test since they’ve driven for many years already. But the theory test is really an annoying obstacle for them since they are usually not that young to remember new things easily and have kept bad driving habits for long. And in fact, that’s why I think the theory test is of great importance, even those seem-to-be-silly questions. A driver of many years should not know some basic traffic knowledge… That’s frightening… It is necessary to send them back to the driving school! And as for lots of silly questions just like the one showed in the 3rd picture, I think they make us aware of the attitude that we are supposed to have when we are on the road.
I have attempted the first time and passed it as well, It is easy when you understand the pattern in the Chinese driving question bank.
you need to do some mock up tests around 10 times and see if you are getting above 90.