How Does The Scoring Work In The Hazard Perception Test?

In a test, all but one hazard perception clips include just one scoring hazard, one clip includes two scoring hazards.

Between 5 and 1 points are awarded for a scoring hazard, depending on how quickly after the hazard become apparent that you touch the screen to indicate you've seen the hazard.

Each time you click within the video while the clip is playing a small red flag will appear along the bottom of the video:

After you've seen the whole clip you are given the option to review it and during this process the timeline shows the 5-1 scoring region and red markers corresponding to when you clicked the video so you can see where you did and should have clicked to acknowledge the hazard:

Though you won't be penalised for touching the screen at other times, be aware that (as in the real test) touching the screen rhythmically or randomly is likely to trigger the cheat detection system which will score you 0 points.

General Advice and Suggestions

We spend a long time looking at each hazard video before specifying the positions of the opening and closing brackets for the hazard itself, each one is placed with very specific and strict criteria – the same criteria as are used in the actual test.

A lot of people think that the aim of the Hazard Perception test is to click when you see something happening – but it is not. It is a test of your ability to PREDICT a problem occurring in the near-future, based on the evidence you see in the video frame. The precise intention of this test – and the learning material that it has spawned is to try to extend the ability that an experienced driver accrues to foresee a problem that is developing, to drivers with less on-road experience. It is not an easy thing to do, and if it was, it would probably not be useful.

You do not only need to click once per DEVELOPING hazard. You should aim to click between 1 and 3 times as follows:

1. Your first click should be made when you get an inkling that something MIGHT be about to happen. If the thing you were thinking MIGHT happen then doesn’t happen, then this will be your only click. If this is a developing hazard and you are really good at predicting, then this click may sit BEFORE the 5 bracket – in which case it will score nothing, or it might score you 5.
2. Your second click should be made if the scene develops as you were expecting it to, and the potential problem looks like it is in fact going to materialise. This click will likely fall in the 4-3 point bracket, but if your first one was before the 5 bracket then this 2nd click might score 5. If this click only scores you 4 points – then that is still a very good score.
3. Your final "backstop" click should be made when the event is fully developed (the person that might have walked into the road, ACTUALLY walks into the road - for example). If you were not "paying attention" and this is in fact your first click, then this will likely earn you 2 or 1 points – which is a lot better than zero, but not a high enough number to get a pass if that's your average.

In general, you should not EXPECT to score 5 points on every hazard – that's just unrealistic. However, you should aim to score in the 5,4,3 range for every clip – and so long as you are doing that, then you will pass the learner hazard perception test quite easily.

Note that the aim of the learning material and the hazard clips we provide is not JUST to get you through the test. It is mostly intended to help you improve your hazard perception skills so that you will be a safer driver when you qualify (and as a by-product help you to pass your Hazard Perception test). That is why we use only REAL driving situations in our videos and why we provide a very large number of them – simply put it is the best way to improve your Hazard Perception skills. However, as a by-product of there being a lot of real-world situations, some of them develop over a long period and some of them develop over a much shorter period. Some will be obvious, some very subtle. That's the nature of real-world driving too – and that is what we are preparing you for.

The DVSA's clips are computer generated and they have complete control over the develop-time of each hazard. The test clips are not that realistic (you will likely find them very sterile compared to real-world clips), and so you will probably also find them much easier than our real-world clips – but, as our duty is to prepare you for the real world, not just the test, we strongly believe this is how it should be. Train hard – and the test itself will be easy.