Online CDL Practice Tests vs state Manual

If ya do read all 1,000 pages more power to you. Definitely not a requirement for getting your CDL, though. Just keep passing different online practice tests and you'll be fine.
Written test was the easier part, being distracted by the cute dmv tester was the hard part 😂😂

There's no way you've been a trucker for 7 years with no license, right..?

 

I want to preface this, for anyone that is just fresh coming into this business before I make a real comment towards your question, OP.

It is vital that you read that knowledge book. Vital for a lot of reasons outside of just passing your CDL written exams. I didn't think it matter much, when I first read them. I was doing what I did in my college classes; reading, re-reading and re-re-reading information until I was fluent at regurgitating it back onto paper or to take a test in order to proove that I'd memorized it.

But, with this sort of thing, trucking, you'll want to pay attention to the pages. Try to comprehend what you're reading. Try to understand that the following distances to speed formula, while not perfect, is a starting point that will prohibit you from having to learn it the hard way. Or that reading up on the tanker section will help you understand how to haul high center of gravity freight better, even if it's not tanker freight.

Now, with that said. Yes. The CDL exams provided on TTR are very similar to the ones you will see in your home state exam. I just recently switched my licenses over from TX to OH. I got lazy and just drilled the tests I needed, on TTR rather than reading the book.


And again, to the new guys, I had already taken the tests for the general and my endorsements. That makes me fairly familiar with them, to begin with, and the tests provided on TTR just gave me a nice little refresher.

Also, bear in mind. The general knowledge exam alone has hundreds of possible questions, and 50 are selected at random. A few snuck up and managed to bite me, I got a 90% on my GK, a 96(I think?) on my tanker and something similar on my Haz.


So, Spacecowboy; I wasn't trying to lecture you. I just wanted to make it clear to any of the new guys, that it's a bad idea not to read the handbook.

 

A lot of states are requiring guys to take the written tests to switch licenses between states. Happened to me. Put it off forever. No idea why I took me so long to get it done.

That's what I'm assuming is going on here.

 

Don't give up now on studying from the manual but you don't need to read it from front to back.Just 3 chapters,general knowledge which is the longest of the test,airbrakes and combination vehicles.Doubles,hazmat and all the other chapters forget about those right now and focus on those 3 chapters.

 

Answer the practice question at the end of each chapter in the CDL manual. If you can answer them then you are well on your way. The one's you fail then review that area until you understand it. You might see a few of them again or a close variation. You know how government workers are, they do very little, so they only make up only so many questions, lol.