Before starting engine — Louisiana Permit Test
Before starting engine on the Louisiana permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Before starting the engine, make sure the car is in park or neutral gear.
If the car is in gear when it starts, it can jump forward or back into something.
Make sure your car is in park or neutral gear.
Before starting the engine, adjust the inside and outside rearview mirrors.
Fixing mirrors while moving takes your eyes off the road. Set them while the car is still parked.
Adjust the inside and outside rear view mirrors.
Before starting the engine, make sure all doors are fully closed and locked.
A door that is not shut tight can fly open in a turn or crash and someone can fall out.
Make sure all doors are fully closed and locked.
On the test
Which gear should the car be in before you start the engine?
Park or neutral. If the car is in gear when it starts, it can jump forward or back into something. Class D & E Driver's Guide, p.45: “Make sure your car is in park or neutral gear.”
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 Class D & E Driver's Guide, published by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pdf (Class D & E Driver's Guide, DPSMV2052 (R08/25), Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA.pages.txt (the plain pdftotext fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/LA-exam.html (the OMV's Permits page, https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/permits/, archived 2026-10-04; the 40-question count)
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/resources/driver-manuals/
- https://expresslane.la.gov/omv/drivers/personal-driver-s-licenses/new-licenses/ (read 2026-10-04; "An 80% is the minimum passing score for the knowledge test.")