Advice for permit testing in PA

Well, first off, I'll say it was 2001 when I took my test, so take this for what it's worth.

The written general knowledge test was rather easy. As long as you've read the book, taken the practice tests and passed, you should be fine. I know back then the practice test questions were the same as the actual test. If you find yourself getting nervous and rushing, remember it isn't a race. It wasn't timed back then, and I can't imagine it is today.

Where they used to be tough was on the pretrip. The person that tested me really grilled me on that. And I know others that had the same experience.

The driving part was easy, just keep calm! The testers are trained to watch for someone who is nervous, and in my experience, they get picky if they can sense they can trip you up. For the driving portion of the test, I failed the first time. I did it in Harrisburg, and everything was well until the last turn. Traffic all around, and I didn't set up for the turn properly, and brushed the curb.


I know a few things have probably changed since then, but, knowing Penndot, any changes they might have made probably make it easier.

Good luck

 

This forum has practice questions that you can take.

Anyway I took my permit test in March this year. If you can download manual book from penndot and study chapters with air brakes, combinations and general knowledge.

Also do yourself a favor and use this website to test your knowledge Pennsylvania DOT Practice Tests: How to Pass 2018 PA DOT Test

A lot of questions from this site were on the test.

I would strongly recommend to take hazmat, tanker and doubles/triples tests if you want local or ltl job.

 

I am a former PA CDL third party examiner so I can say this with confidence. There are no trick questions although some have more than one answer than may seems right. The questions are multiple choice on a computer, read the question carefully. Pay close attention to how things are worded in the book, that is all the computer understands. Same when you actually take the skills tests, the examiner wants to hear specific phrases as written in the book.

The test is timed but allows you to skip questions. If you are not 100% sure you have the correct answer skip it and come back. Once you hit 80% the test is over, so why chance getting a wrong answer if you don't have to? Also, you may read another question further in the test and it will spark the answer for the question you are unsure of, allowing you to get it right when it comes back around at the end of the test.

Also, do your self a favor and take all the knowledge tests at once, otherwise you need to obtain a new permit to add other endorsements. Tank and doubles are very helpful as is haz-mat. If you are going to skip any for lack of confidence I would skip haz-mat as it is the most difficult of the knowledge tests. Tank is almost a must even for a typical over the road dry van job since portable tanks inside dry van trailers can now require a tanker endorsement. Please at least test for tank.

 

Do you recall if it was a timed test in 2001? I don't remember it being timed, but that's 17 years ago, and I have a hard time remembering what I did ten minutes ago.

 

I meant to say not timed, dang typo!