Preparing for the New Mexico Permit Knowledge Exam

Before you study: who sits this exam

Every first-time instructional permit applicant takes it, whether that is a 15 year old who just enrolled in an approved course or a 30 year old who has never been licensed anywhere.

A few others are sent to the written test as well. Someone whose license expired five or more years ago has to pass it again, and so does anyone converting a license from another country. The MVD treats a card from D.C., a U.S. territory or any other state as domestic rather than foreign, so someone arriving with a valid Texas or Puerto Rico license normally swaps it without testing.

Before you study: what the MVD actually publishes

The Driver Procedures Manual, the rulebook MVD clerks work from, says written scores for Class D and Class M must reach 70 percent. That is the single scoring number the MVD puts in writing.

How many questions, and how long you get, are not stated anywhere official. The figure 25 floats around practice websites, unverified. Aim comfortably above 70 on every practice round, and if you want the real count, the examiner can tell you on the day.

While studying: where the questions come from

The manual posted by the MVD is the November 2019 edition and is the official text behind the exam. Expect Rules of the Road to dominate: what lights and signals mean, what a sign's shape or color tells you, lines painted on the road, lane use, who goes first, speed and parking.

Do not skip the safe driving chapters. Questions also come from the material on keeping a gap to the car ahead, giving cyclists, trucks and RVs room, and staying fit to drive (no alcohol, no drugs, no phone). Specific numbers, like the .02 alcohol limit for drivers under 21 and the five foot passing guidance for cyclists, are classic test material.

• Lights, signs and road paint
• Yielding, one way traffic and circles
• How fast, where to park, when to pass
• Room for bikes and big rigs
• Impairment: drink, drugs, tiredness, phones

While studying: help in other languages

You can choose from eight test languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. The MVD has said that list is not growing. The study book, though, is printed in just two of them, English and Spanish, so if your strongest language is one of the other six, recruit a bilingual relative to study with you.

If reading is hard for you, you have a disability, or you need an interpreter, phone the field office ahead of time and ask what it can provide. Arrangements made in advance go far more smoothly than requests at the counter.

On test day: testing at a driving school

Driver ed schools with an MVD contract can assign and give the knowledge exam. Before assigning it, the school checks your name, birth date and Social Security number against federal records, so bring the same documents a field office would want.

When the records do not match, the school needs help from MVD Field Operations or Production Support, and those teams keep regular MVD office hours only. A weekday slot early in the week avoids getting stuck. Also ask whether the school hands out the permit or gives you a completion record to take to a field office.

On test day: teens and adults are treated differently

The questions are identical; the paperwork is not. Teens need to have turned 15, be signed up for approved driver ed with its DWI unit, and come with a parent or guardian whose signature makes them liable for how the teen drives.

Adults 18 and over need no course to sit the exam. After passing, they receive an instructional permit, practice with a licensed supervisor of 21 or older, and book the road test when ready, without the six month hold that teens face.

If you fail: retakes and the six month rule

One bad attempt does not end the day. MVD rules allow a noncommercial written retake as soon as you want, even the same afternoon, but no more than two sittings in a single week.

Section 66-5-9(A) is the harder stop. Three failures, counting written and road attempts, and the next try cannot happen until six months after your application date. Picture a teen who fails three times in the first weeks of driver ed: half a year gone. Study properly between tries. The road test runs on its own clock: no same day retake, and at least a week between attempts.