Thursday, December 29, 2011

Licensed At Last

Since Alex was 14, I’ve been harassing him about getting his learner’s permit. He put it off, and put it off, and put it off. He didn’t see the need, he didn’t want one, etc. For Christmas this year, I bought him a wallet. I included a few gift cards to some of his favorite places (2 for food, 2 for desserts), but the place for the driver license is front and center. Still no interest. Grrr.

Florida used to allow the learner’s test to be taken online. In January, they discontinued it. I got him to take that drug and alcohol education class online a few months ago, but we had to go to the DMV for the test. Finally, last night, he went to the site to get his certificate completion number for testing reference. We were surprised to discover that apparently right after he took the class, Florida reinstated the online test. I paid for it, he sat down, and took the test. Finally! In addition, I was happy to discover that the rule stating you must have the learner's permit for 12 months before you may test for the full license only applies to those under 18. That means I will not have to still be driving with him when he goes to post-graduate classes next year. Assuming we can afford whatever an 18-year old male driver does to insurance rates, of course!

There are two parts to the test: road signs and road rules. There are 20 questions in each part, and you must get 15 right to pass. You are not told how many you get right/wrong, only if you pass. Which he did. We expected the signs test to be easy. I’ve been pointing them out and explaining them since he was little, and most of them are pretty self-explanatory anyway. We did not expect the rules test to be so simplistic. I read those questions while he did it (no, I did not tell him the answers), and I just have to say that we both now understand why people drive like they do!

An hour at the office today for paperwork and processing, and now we finally have the license. Merry Christmas to me!

2 comments:

Susan said...

Congratulations Alex!!!

Chantal said...

Congrats to Alex!