As students are about to turn sixteen, one of the things they may think about is their driver’s test and passing it, so they get the freedom of driving on the roads individually. In the state of Missouri, teenagers that are sixteen can receive their intermediate license with the completion of the 40 hours of behind the wheel training and 10 of those hours must be at night time with your learners permit.

There are several things teenagers struggle when driving. Jaylie Echternach, Sophomore had a hard time with parallel parking. “The hardest part I took was probably the parking part, just because driving is easy, but making sure that your parallel parking right and know how to get out of the cones because you also need to know how to get out of parallel parking”, Echternach said.

Although parking isn’t hard for everyone, Daniela Elvira-Uribe, Junior had a hard time with understanding the interior of the car and how it functions. “The hardest part for me was memorizing the inside of the car, because they are going to expect you to know where are things located and expect you to know what its used for”,  Elvira-Uribe mentioned.

With people that had experience with the drivers test, they do have some recommendations so that one could do well. Kiyah Woods, Sophomore recommends how one should practice with the parallel parking. “You should practice by using the cones for parallel parking and practice parking and coming out”, Woods commented.

Elvira-Uribe also has a recommendations on how to memorize the inside of the car. “I recommend that you have someone that knows the inside of the car sitting with you and make you locate where they are and what is it used for, like the defroster, headlights and other important things”.

Echternach suggests on what they look for when you take your test. “Every detail matters. When I was taking it, she didn’t think that every single thing they look at counts. So you have to make sure that you look longer than you should, use your blinker for every turn you do, and double checking you mirrors.”

Echternach continues to talk about how the drivers test make her a safe driver. “It helps with being a safe driver because being next to an officer, it makes you learn the rules because they do tell you things as you go. They also give you advice afterwards and they critique you and you keep the paper so you know what you have to work on.”

According to DoSomething, “16-year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any other age”. And “33% of deaths among 13 to 19-year-olds in 2010 occurred in motor vehicle crashes”.

So by taking your driver’s test it should help you be a helpful driver. “It actually does help you be a better driver because, you don’t really think about it, but when actually practice doing your blinkers and looking over your shoulder and stuff and then you actually perform it that way, it just stays in your head”, said Woods.

You can take your driver’s test at Columbia License Office at 403 Vandiver Dr B in Columbia, Missouri.