Illinois DMV Permit Test Concept Review

Overview

Signs, traffic signals, and lines on the pavement tell you how to drive before you reach a hazard. This chapter covers what sign colors and shapes mean, how to respond to steady and flashing lights and arrows, and how to read yellow and white lines on the road.

Color tells you a lot even before you can read the words. Red is used for stop, yield, and do not enter. Yellow warns of a hazard ahead, orange marks road work, and fluorescent yellow-green is used for schools, people walking, and bicycles. White signs state rules you must obey, green signs give directions, blue signs point to services, and brown signs lead to parks and recreation.

Shape helps too. The red eight-sided sign always means stop, and the red and white triangle pointing down always means yield. The five-sided sign means a school zone or school crossing. The round yellow sign warns that a railroad crossing is ahead, and the white X-shaped crossbuck at the tracks should be treated like a yield sign.

Traffic signals and pavement markings finish the picture. A flashing red light means the same as a stop sign, and a flashing yellow light means slow down and go with care. A flashing yellow arrow lets you turn only after you yield. Yellow lines separate traffic moving in opposite directions, white lines separate lanes moving the same way, and a double solid yellow line means no passing in either direction.

Overview

Right of way rules decide who goes first when two road users want the same space. This chapter covers four-way stops, intersections without signs, turns, roundabouts, and the times when you must stop or yield for pedestrians, emergency vehicles, school buses, and trains.

At a four-way stop, the first vehicle to stop goes first. If two vehicles arrive at the same time, the driver on the left yields to the driver on the right, and the same rule applies at intersections with no signs or signals. When you turn left on a plain green light, yield to oncoming traffic and pedestrians. You may turn right on red after a full stop unless a sign forbids it. At a roundabout, yield to traffic already in the circle.

Some road users always get special care. Yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, and stop before the sidewalk when you leave a driveway or alley. For an emergency vehicle using a siren and flashing lights, pull to the right edge of the road and stop. Under Scott's Law, when you approach a stopped emergency vehicle with flashing lights, change to a lane away from it if you safely can, or slow down and pass with care.

For a school bus with red lights flashing and its stop arm out, traffic going both ways must stop on a two-lane road. On a highway with 4 or more lanes and at least 2 lanes going each way, traffic going the opposite direction does not have to stop. At a railroad crossing with flashing signals, a lowered gate, a flagger, or a train close by, stop within 50 feet but not less than 15 feet from the nearest rail.

Overview

This chapter covers Illinois speed limits, how to pass safely, and the places where you may not park. Many questions use exact numbers, so learn them together.

When no other limit is posted, the Illinois speed limit is 30 mph in an urban district, 15 mph in an alley, and 55 mph on most other highways. Some highways, such as interstates, have higher posted limits. In a school zone, the limit is 20 mph on school days when children are present. The posted limit is for good conditions, so drive slower in snow, rain, fog, or heavy traffic.

Pass on the left, and only where you can see far enough ahead. Never pass on a hill or curve where you cannot see oncoming traffic. When someone is passing you, stay in your lane and do not speed up.

Do not park within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection, within 30 feet of a stop sign, yield sign, or traffic signal on the side you approach from, or within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad crossing. Stay at least 20 feet from a fire station driveway on the same side of the street. When you park downhill next to a curb, turn your wheels toward the curb.

Overview

Safe driving is about seeing, being seen, and leaving yourself room to react. This chapter covers turn signals, headlights, following distance, bad weather, work zones, sharing the road, and phones.

Signal continuously for at least the last 100 feet before a turn or lane change in a business or residence district, and at least 200 feet elsewhere. Before changing lanes, check your mirrors and turn your head to check your blind spot. Give motorcycles a full lane.

Turn on your headlights from sunset to sunrise, whenever rain, snow, or fog makes you use your windshield wipers, and whenever you cannot clearly see people and vehicles 1,000 feet ahead. Parking lights may be used with headlights but never instead of them. Dim your high beams within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle and within 300 feet of a vehicle you are following.

On wet roads, leave more following distance. If you hydroplane, ease off the gas and steer straight. In work zones, slow down and obey signs and flaggers. Illinois bans using a hand-held phone while driving, so put the phone away.

Overview

Illinois uses graduated licensing so that new drivers build skill step by step. This chapter covers the instruction permit, the practice hours, and the night and passenger limits for young drivers.

You can get an instruction permit at 15 if you are enrolled in an approved driver education course. With a permit, you must drive with a licensed adult who is at least 21 years old. Drivers under 18 must hold the permit for at least 9 months and complete 50 hours of supervised driving, including 10 hours at night, before getting a license.

Drivers under 18 may not drive from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights, or from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights, and breaking this rule may lead to a suspension. For the first 12 months with a license, or until age 18 if sooner, a driver under 18 may carry only one passenger under 20, not counting brothers, sisters, children, or stepchildren. Drivers under 19 may not use a cell phone while driving, even hands-free, except in an emergency.

The written test has at least 35 questions, and you must answer 80% correctly to pass, which is 28 of 35.

Overview

This chapter covers how alcohol and drugs affect driving and the Illinois laws that can cost you your license. The rules are different for drivers under 21 and for adults, so learn both.

Alcohol slows your reactions and weakens your judgment, vision, and coordination, even after one drink. A 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, and a 1.5-ounce shot of liquor each hold about the same amount of alcohol. Only time lowers the alcohol in your body. Prescription medicine, over-the-counter medicine, and cannabis can also impair you, and you can be charged with DUI for driving while impaired by them.

A driver 21 or older with a BAC of 0.08% or more is legally under the influence. Illinois has zero tolerance for drivers under 21: any trace of alcohol means losing driving privileges.

Under implied consent, by driving in Illinois you have agreed to a chemical test if you are arrested for DUI. For an adult first offender, failing the test brings a 6-month suspension and refusing it brings 12 months. This statutory summary suspension takes effect on the 46th day after the notice is given.