Stuck in snow or mud — California Permit Test
Stuck in snow or mud on the California permit test — 4 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
If you are stuck in snow or mud, shift into a low gear and keep the front wheels straight.
Straight wheels push the car forward instead of digging a groove sideways.
Shift into a low gear and keep the front wheels straight.
Step gently on the accelerator and avoid spinning the wheels, then drive slowly forward as far as possible.
Spinning the wheels polishes the snow under them into ice, so the car digs in instead of moving.
Gently step on the accelerator. Avoid spinning the wheels.
Shift into reverse and slowly back up as far as possible, then into a low gear again, repeating the forward and backward motion until the vehicle rolls free.
Rocking the car packs a short runway under the wheels in both directions.
Shift into reverse and slowly back up as far as possible. Do not spin the wheels.
In deep mud or snow, put boards, tree branches or similar under the tires, and only do this when the vehicle is stopped.
Something solid under the tire is what the tire has been missing all along.
In deep mud or snow, put boards, tree branches, etc., under the tires.
On the test
How should the front wheels be pointed when you are stuck?
Straight ahead. Straight wheels push the car forward instead of digging a groove sideways. California Driver’s Handbook, p.62: “Shift into a low gear and keep the front wheels straight.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
- Free to start: a 10-question test and the first section of cards. No sign-up and no account.
- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against California Driver’s Handbook, published by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-21.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/CA.pdf (California Driver’s Handbook, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025), retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/CA.pages.txt (the pdftotext -layout fixture every citation here was cut against and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json, CA entry — the folio offset of 6 and its basis, the three non-law pages, the two sign gallery pages, and the record of why California’s exam shape is this app’s own
- docs/plans/chosen-exam-shapes.md section 5 — the decision that a state publishing neither exam figure ships 40/32 with both disclosed
- docs/plans/how-to-build-laws.md — the rule that the handbook is the syllabus and nothing enters this file without a page in it