The Theory Test for Car Drivers review

Clare Hopping

We review The Theory Test for Car Drivers, an informative app that will prepare you for your driving theory test

Published on Sep 4, 2009

The driving theory test is one exam we'd like to forget. The thought of sitting in that exam room with sweaty palms, trying to remember who has the right of way at a crossroads, and how far to fill your car battery up quite frankly, fills us with dread.

Thankfully, you can use your iPhone as a learning aid with the Theory Test app, although its options aren't the most in-depth out there.

The Theory Test for Car Drivers is essentially a bank of driving theory test questions and there's little else to it. The test mode simulates the test itself with 50 questions to answer within 50 minutes. There's no review option though if you want to go back on your answers as there is on the real theory test.

Practice Test runs along the same lines, although you can choose how many questions you want to answer, and it instantly tells you whether your answer is right or wrong.

Even the revise section only provides you with questions split into the different categories. Abel's idea of revision is simply to present you with the whole bank of questions in each category for you to answer. It's really not the most inspirational way to learn, or, we think, the most effective. In fact, it's repetitive and you'll soon get bored.

There's also very little explanation as to why that answer is correct or incorrect. If you do provide an incorrect answer, a box will pop up to tell you what the right answer is, but don't expect too much detail here.

For example, when we answered the question 'In which THREE of these situations may you overtake another vehicle on the left?' wrong, the app gave the explanation 'At certain times of the day, traffic might be heavy. If traffic is moving slowly in queues and vehicles in the right hand lane are moving more slowly, you may overtake on the left. Don't keep changing queues to beat the traffic.' Hmm, didn't really help us identify the correct answers, or understand why it might be dangerous.

If you're looking for an app just to help you pass your driving test through memorising the correct answers rather than having an understanding of driving, Theory Test is an app worth downloading especially as it'll only set you back £1.79.

If you actually want to learn anything about road safety, or the technical aspects behind driving a car, you'll have to look elsewhere.