MisterMMM.com: Taking the theory test - part 2

March 7

There has always been a bone of contention here that this test doesn't help anyone with driving. People who pass the HPT are just people who are good at passing the HPT. I have had competent drivers going to do this test, and not able to pass it.

Now this test is done on a computer. The screen is pixelated and quantised, in other words grainy. You can't look too closely as it just appears blurred and is not a realistic representation of what you would see in real life. Many drivers also get travel sick because the screen moves around but they don't. Some even point out that because there is no view to the side or behind, that it is completely unlike a real hazard situation. The number of drivers that see a potential hazard who automatically and correctly attempt to look in their rear view mirror. It's almost as if the test is trying to teach bad practice i.e. don't look in your mirrors!

The test is meant to see if you can spot a developing hazard although to me, being blinkered and with frosted glasses on, doesn't really work properly. Somehow you are supposed to see the "potential" hazard in the blur, that changes into a "real" hazard that you have to react to.

For this artificial test, I recommend the three elephant rule. In the situation on screen where you can't see enough detail, if it looks like there might be something happening, click the mouse and say "one elephant". If it still looks like it is developing, then click the mouse again and say "two elephants". If the situation is still developing and looks like something is about to happen, or has happened, click the mouse again and say "three elephants". If the hazard stops developing, then stop clicking as that is not the hazard. Keep watching though!

The "elephants" could be replaced with "thousands" or "mississippi". It is just a system to stop you clicking the mouse too quickly or often, like a second apart.

The developing hazard has a window that starts with it being worth 5 points when you first click, then reducing to being worth 4, then 3 until it is worth nothing when too late. Now if you click too early with the first one, then the second click, or maybe the third click will get you the maximum points. If you are too late with the first one, you should still get 4 or maybe 3 points. You have to average 3 points per hazard.

Now one of the 14 clips you have to sit through, has two hazards in it. Of course you won't know which one it is, so this is a ploy to get you to concentrate on the clips for the whole test. I still remember the eye strain and ache I felt afterwards, and the queeziness of motion sickness.

I still don't know what the point of the test is, and certainly question its veracity when it comes to learning how to drive. Last year there were rumours that a study would be done to find the usefulness of this test, if any! Shouldn't that have been done before they introduced it. Here is an article which argues that the test is failing to do what it was set out to do. Here's one from the same people that looks at the problem logically and statistically, rather than just through gut feeling and experience of driving. An interesting quote is about the HPT just being a road-related on-screen game See item 10 on this link.

You may be interested to know that when this test was first introduced, all instructors had to take it and pass by the third attempt. Some could not pass this test, even though they had been teaching and driving successfully for years. Imagine making this new test compulsory for all drivers on the road!