This is embarrassing to write but I've failed the New Jersey written permit test twice now and I'm really frustrated. First time I got a 73% and needed a 80% to pass. Second time I got a 76%, so I'm improving but still not there. I've been using the DMV practice tests online and I keep getting tripped up by the same types of questions even after reviewing the answers.
The questions I keep missing seem to be in two categories: the specific distances and time requirements (like how many feet from a fire hydrant, how many seconds of following distance in different conditions, that kind of thing), and then the less common traffic situation questions that I've just never thought about before. The everyday stuff like traffic signs and basic right-of-way I'm generally fine on.
I'm 17 and this is my first time going through any kind of licensing process, so I don't have anyone in my family who's recently been through it to ask. My parents got their licenses in other countries and keep telling me it should be easy, which is not helpful. The test has 50 questions and you can miss a maximum of 10 — that's where I keep landing, at 11 or 12 wrong.
Has anyone found a specific approach that helped for the NJ test specifically? I don't want to just keep taking practice tests if that strategy isn't working. I feel like I'm missing something about how to study the material rather than just doing more of the same thing.
Get the actual NJ Driver Manual from the DMV website and read through it, not just the practice questions. The practice tests draw from the manual and some of the questions test specific wording that you'll only recognize if you've read the source. It's boring but it works.
The specific numbers are the key — exactly 25 feet from a crosswalk, 10 feet from a fire hydrant, 50 feet before a turn signal, 3 seconds of following distance in normal conditions. Make a flashcard set just for those values and drill them separately from everything else.
That's what pushed me from failing to passing on my third try.
76% is really close. You're probably missing 12 questions which means you only need to fix 2 of those to pass. At this point it's really targeted — figure out the specific rules from your last attempt that you got wrong and memorize exactly those. You're not far off at all.
I failed once before passing and what helped me was categorizing my wrong answers before studying them. Like, is it a number I didn't memorize, a rule I didn't know existed, or a question I misread? Those need different fixes. Sounds like yours are mostly the first two, so focused memorization of the specific values should help a lot.