![]() Scott and the Florida Cabinet unanimously agreed to allow the changes to the test in March 2014. "It makes you think through scenarios, rather than regurgitating statistics or facts," Dickerson-Walden said. Those new questions require people to know about safe driving distances, where they will find slippery roads, specifics of the state's texting and driving law, and what should happen if four cars arrive at a four-way stop sign at the same time. The 50 questions come from a pool of more than 1,000 to assure tests are different for each driver and limit chances of fraud. The new one has one 50 -question exam that mixes both, and drivers must score 80 percent or better to pass. The old test, used for at least 20 years, had 20 written questions and a separate 20 road sign question quiz. "I think the word is starting to get out that they are going to have to study," he said. "Most of it was basic common knowledge,'' Cross said.īesides tinkering with the test questions to deal with the low scores, the state is updating the state's driver's handbook and trying to make it more accessible on smartphones to encourage younger people to review it more frequently.Ī big part of the problem, Dickerson-Walden said, was how simple the previous test was and how easy it was to buy exact copies of the test online to assure passage. She did prepare by studying the Florida Driver's Handbook and taking online practice tests. The 21-year-old South Tampa woman, applying for her first driver's license, said she found the test easy. ![]() Jamyia Cross was less intimidated, breezing through the 50 test questions in less than half an hour. "She could barely concentrate,'' Munoz said. That and ambient noise distracted her, she said, with her daughter Yohanna Munoz translating for her. She failed last week taking the exam at the Falkenberg Road branch of the Hillsborough Tax Collector's Office.Īcosta, 39, of the Dominican Republic, said the Spanish translation on her audio device was a different dialect from what she is used to. ![]() "The intention was to make sure that people had the knowledge in order to learn how to drive," he said.įor Lina Acosta of Brandon, the state went too far in toughening things up. And since 2010, an average of 78 teen drivers have been killed on Florida roads annually.ĭickerson-Walden said the state did not set out to make the test harder. That grew by 35 percent to more than 36,180 by 2013, the most recent numbers available. In 2010, teens were involved in more than 26,000 traffic accidents, according to the DHSMV. The overhaul of what was viewed as an outdated exam came at a time when Florida's crash numbers for teen drivers had been getting worse. "We are doing everything we can to warn new drivers to be prepared when you come in to take it." "It was a shock to the system," said Dale Hoffman of the Hillsborough County Tax Collector's Office, which has seen only 42 percent of people pass the written exam through the first six months of 2015. And the numbers have been even worse in small counties like Lake and Holmes where more than four out of five test takers failed early in the year. ![]() That is nearly 20 percentage points behind the pass rate before the test was overhauled in January. Just 41 percent of the state's 310,000 test takers could pass the one -hour exam during the first six months of 2015, according to records provided by the DHSMV. Also reaping a payoff from higher failures and retakes: the Nevada vendor paid to develop the harder test, which receives more than $4 every time someone takes the test from a private company in Florida. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet far shy of the state's goal of a 70 percent passing rate.įailing can be a time-consuming and expensive problem for drivers, but it's a financial boon for private companies that offer practice courses and written tests online. It is more about pulling out questions that may not be clearly worded.Įven with those fixes, more than half of test takers in June either flunked or gave up, leaving Gov. He insists it is not a bid to make the test easier. "What we are doing is making adjustments to them or leaving them out," Dickerson-Walden said.
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