New alcohol & driving questions for theory test

shietpilot

RSA is adding new questions to the theory test from 10th October onwards.

Here is the document with the new questions: http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Press%20Office/DRINKING%20AND%20DRIVING%20%E2%80%93%20DRIVER%20THEORY%20TEST%20QUESTIONS.pdf

Here are some questions:

According to the pre-crash Report which gender was most likely to drink and drive and be involved in a fatal collision?
Answer: Males

According to the pre-crash Report which days of the week were people more likely to drink and drive and cause a fatal collision?
Answer: Saturday and Sunday

These questions, IMO seem to be completely irrelevant information for someone learning to drive. You can drink and drive on any day of the week regardless if you're a male or female.

Half of the questions on that PDF are actually just pointless bits of info you do not need. The only relevant bits are the level of BAC which is over the limit and the punishment you will receive from driving under the influence.

A load of numbers and percentages to remember that don't mean anything to you at all!

ironclaw

You are driving on a multi lane carriageway, which lane should you usually drive in?

That one single question could solve so many issues and should also be an instant fail if you get it wrong.

I see no merit in those questions what so ever. Learning off age groups and stats. How about 'What do the markings on this tyre mean'? Or 'You notice a bulge in your front tyre, what should you do?' There's so much scope for good here and its being squandered.

shietpilot

The funny thing is normally you have a couple of theory questions on the day of your driving test. I can imagine people failing the exam because they couldn't remember a few numbers from completely pointless stats! I think RSA are just adding pointless questions so they can release new theory test books and disks...

jimgoose

I saw that the other day. Something like 13 out of the 17 new questions are concerned with relatively abstruse findings from that report, and are of no benefit whatsoever in getting the desired point across to learners.

Mez1982

Will they have to make another new revised book/cd to accomodate these new questions ?

shietpilot

Mez1982 wrote: »

Will they have to make another new revised book/cd to accomodate these new questions ?

Most likely. Current the Facebook page says that if your test is due soon that you should also study the PDF. Really silly to be adding those questions to the test before they are even officially published in a book though.

SunnySun

I'm terrible with numbers but looks to me like these two questions contradict each other:

(Their punctuation is not great by the way in writing the questions :-) )

12. According to the pre-crash Report out of 867 fatal collisions how many had alcohol as a contributory factor?

Answer: 251-350. (330)

17. According to pre-crash Report in how many fatal collisions was alcohol a contributory factor?

Answer: 4 out of 10


867 divided by 330= 2.6

soiaf

SunnySun wrote: »

I'm terrible with numbers but looks to me like these two questions contradict each other:

(Their punctuation is not great by the way in writing the questions :-) )

12. According to the pre-crash Report out of 867 fatal collisions how many had alcohol as a contributory factor?

Answer: 251-350. (330)

17. According to pre-crash Report in how many fatal collisions was alcohol a contributory factor?

Answer: 4 out of 10


867 divided by 330= 2.6

Look at it this way and the numbers will make more sense.

867 fatal collisions.
1/10 of 867 is 86.7
4 x 86.7 = 346.8
So 4/10 (or 4 out of 10) of 867 is 346.8

So you could roughly say that 330 is four tenths of 867.

stesaurus

soiaf wrote: »

Look at it this way and the numbers will make more sense.

867 fatal collisions.
1/10 of 867 is 86.7
4 x 86.7 = 346.8
So 4/10 (or 4 out of 10) of 867 is 346.8

So you could roughly say that 330 is four tenths of 867.

Simpler to show as a percentage. 330/867=38%, round it up and you get 40% or 4 out of 10

SunnySun

Thanks for your responses! So you can see that someone like me would be nervous of failing the test because I can't remember statistics but would like to think I'd be a careful driver!

Dravokivich

They are statistics that will become less relevant over time, unless it is to be regularly maintained with updated values.

Completely pointless. As a driver, the tester is to assess your ability, consistency and consideration to other road users while you are driving.

mansoff

This question makes no sense because it does not include a year range.

According to the pre-crash Report how many people were killed by a driver who had consumed alcohol?
Answer: more than 251

Bad question should read
According to the pre-crash Report how many people in Ireland were killed by a driver who had consumed alcohol between the years 2008 and 2012?

I think it’s more important to test people on facts than statistics. This way they will learn why to stop e.g. an average person is 5 times more likely to crash after consuming 1 pint of alcohol.

Dravokivich

It's not a history exam. I want to show that i can be a careful, safe, considerate , observational driver with knowledge of what's expected of me on the road. Not to show what a bunch of idiots did and to be reminded I'm stereotyped as a higher risk as a result of it.