Before you start driving — Florida Permit Test

Before you start driving on the Florida permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.

The rules

Check that the brake pedal stays above the floor when you step on it, and have the brakes looked at if the car pulls to one side or you hear scraping or squealing.

A pedal sinking toward the floor is the warning you get before the brakes stop working.

Brakes: Check to see that the pedal stays above the floor when you step on it.

Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.59

Check your lights often, replace burned-out bulbs and keep the lenses clean, and inspect tires often for proper pressure, even tread wear and damage.

A dirty lens throws away light you paid for, and an underinflated tire wears out on one edge.

Lights: Check often, replace burned- out bulbs and keep lenses clean.

Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.59

If the rear window is treated so that it is not transparent, the vehicle must have side mirrors on both sides giving the driver a view of at least 200 feet to the rear.

Blocking the back window is allowed only if something else gives that view back.

If the rear window is covered by or treated with any material that makes it non-transparent, the vehicle must be equipped with side mirrors on both sides that allow the driver a rearview of at least 200 feet.

Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.59

Before starting the engine, be sure the vehicle is in park or neutral.

A car in gear moves the moment it starts, and it moves toward whatever is in front of it.

Be sure vehicle is in park or neutral.

Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.59

Adjust all rear-view mirrors so that you can use them without leaning forward or backward.

Leaning to check a mirror takes your shoulders off the wheel at the worst possible moment.

Adjust all rear-view mirrors so that you can use them without having to lean forward or backward.

Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.59

Fasten your safety belt and make sure all passengers do the same before you move off.

Doing it before you move is the only version that works, because afterward nobody remembers.

Fasten your safety belt and make sure all passengers do the same.

Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.59

On the test

What are you checking when you press the brake pedal before driving?

That the pedal stays above the floor. A pedal sinking toward the floor is the warning you get before the brakes stop working. Official Florida Driver License Handbook, p.59: “Brakes: Check to see that the pedal stays above the floor when you step on it.”

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.

All Florida permit topics

Where these come from

Every rule here is checked against Official Florida Driver License Handbook, published by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-20.