New York Permit Test Prep: Chapters, Signs and Practice Quizzes

Before you study: how the score works

Applicants for Class D, DJ, E, M and MJ all take a 20 question written test covering traffic law, safe driving technique, road signs, and alcohol and drug laws. Fourteen right answers, 70 percent, is a pass.

Signs are where people trip. Four questions are about road signs and you need 2 of them right regardless of the rest. Get all 16 other questions right, miss 3 signs, and you fail. Give the sign section the same study time as any chapter.

While studying: exactly which chapters

The DMV spells it out. According to its manual page, everything a Class D, DJ or E applicant must know sits in Chapters 4 to 11. The first three chapters (Part 1, on getting a license, keeping it and owning a car) are left off the test.

That leaves eight chapters and the sign section. The printed manual, MV-21, was updated in April 2026 and is 84 pages long, but the online chapter pages are easier to study from, since each finishes with practice questions.

• Chapter 4: Traffic Control, covering signs, lights and lines on the road
• Chapter 5: Intersections and Turns, covering who goes first and U-turns
• Chapter 6: Passing
• Chapter 7: Parallel Parking
• Chapter 8: Defensive Driving
• Chapter 9: Alcohol and Other Drugs
• Chapter 10: Special Driving Conditions
• Chapter 11: Sharing the Road

While studying: using the official quizzes

Every tested chapter ends in an online quiz, which the DMV says uses actual test questions. The All Chapters Quiz pulls from the whole range and is the closest thing the state offers to a full mock test.

Chapters 1 to 3 have no quiz since they are not tested. A plan that works: one chapter and its quiz each evening for eight evenings, then the All Chapters Quiz until you pass it twice running with sign questions to spare.

On test day: three places to test

Most people test at a DMV office, on a touch screen station or on paper. Bring your proofs and the fee, and expect the vision check during the same visit.

Under 18, you can use the DMV's pre-screening tool to take the test online first. The DMV then needs three business days to review the result and your identity documents. Turn up at an office inside that window and you will retake and pass it there before getting the permit.

Some high schools run OKTA, the Online Knowledge Test Application. Students from 15 years and 11 months test at school in English or Spanish under staff supervision, get their score on screen, and can retry as often as the school allows. A pass produces a receipt and forms to take to a motor vehicle office after turning 16.

On test day: language and reading help

You can take the Class D test in any of 20 languages. Besides English and Spanish, there are Haitian Creole and Yiddish; eight European languages (Albanian, Bosnian, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Turkish); and eight from Asia and the Middle East (Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Nepali, Urdu). The DMV website has a language selector up top, and the online manual can be read in many of these.

If you cannot pass the vision test or you wear special lenses, the manual says to call a DMV Call Center for instructions before you go. For reading difficulties or disabilities, ask the office ahead of time what format it can offer.

If you fail

A failed test does not cancel your application. Return to the quizzes for the topics you missed, especially signs, and test again. The DMV's current pages do not state a minimum wait or a cap on office retests, so ask the office when you can come back and whether there is a new fee.

Students who tested through OKTA retry under whatever rules their school sets. If you tested online, your pre-screening results explain what to do next; read them first.

Adults, new residents and foreign licenses

Adults face the same 20 questions but cannot use the online option. Once they pass, the junior limits do not apply to them, but the short course is still a must before any road test.

Someone moving here with a current license from a U.S. state, a territory or a Canadian province normally swaps it after an eye test, with no written exam. The exam comes back into play when that license is less than six months old or lapsed more than a year ago. Licenses from everywhere else always mean sitting the written test, completing the safe driving course and passing a road test.