How we write questions and check facts

How a question is written

1. We pick a rule the theory test examines, from the study areas the test covers.
2. We confirm the rule against Irish legislation on the Irish Statute Book, or against the page of the agency responsible for it.
3. We close the source and write the question, the answer options and the explanation in our own words. If a question cannot be written without the source open in front of us, we start again.
4. The explanation gives the reason for the answer, not only the answer.
5. Every question carries a citation to the law or page it rests on, so you can check it yourself.
6. Each question is reviewed before it is published.

What we never copy

We never copy, adapt or reword questions or text from:

• the question bank used in the real theory test, or its book, app or online practice service
• the Rules of the Road
• text on rsa.ie
• any other practice site, app or question deck

That material belongs to others. A question learned by its wording is also less use in the test centre than a rule you understand.

The sources we use

• Irish legislation from the Irish Statute Book. Contains Oireachtas material, © Houses of the Oireachtas, reused under the Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence (CC BY 4.0). Read the licence.
• Road Safety Authority statistics hosted by the Central Statistics Office, reused under CC BY 4.0 as the CSO copyright policy allows.
• Road sign files from Wikimedia Commons, each recorded with its own file page and licence tag.
• Pages of the public bodies that run driver licensing and testing, for facts such as fees and booking rules. We restate those facts in our own words and link the page.

The sources and licences page gives the full attribution for each.

How facts are checked and dated

A figure only appears on this site with a source line beside it. That line names who published the figure, the document it comes from, the date of the data or page, the date we last checked it, and a link to the source.

If we cannot find a source for a figure, we do not show the figure. When we check a figure again, its checked date changes, and if the value has changed we correct it and say so on the page, as the corrections page describes.

What is not published, and what we never estimate

Some numbers learners ask about are not published, so you will not find them here:

• the size of the question bank used in the real theory test
• theory test pass rates for each theory test centre
• pass rates for individual driving schools or instructors

Where a page touches on one of these, it says the figure is not published and names where we looked. We do not estimate them or work backwards to a guess.

When official sources disagree

Sometimes two official sources give different answers to the same question, such as an agency page and the legislation behind it. When that happens we show every source side by side and say that the official sources disagree. We do not pick one for you.

If you think we have missed a disagreement, tell us.