Using your headlights — Mississippi Permit Test

Using your headlights on the Mississippi permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.

The rules

You must use your low beams within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle, and when following within 500 feet of another vehicle.

High beams that close can blind the other driver, head-on or in the mirror.

You are required by law to use your low beams when you approach within five hundred feet of an oncoming vehicle or when you are following within five hundred feet of another vehicle.

Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.63

You should use your lights between sunset and sunrise, and any time you cannot see clearly 500 feet ahead.

Without lights, other drivers may not see you until they are right on top of you.

You should use your lights between sunset and sunrise and at any other time when you cannot see clearly ahead for a distance of five hundred feet.

Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.63

Do not drive with only your parking lights on; if you need lights, use your headlights.

Parking lights are too dim to light the road or to show others how far away you are.

Do not drive with only your parking lights turned on. If you need lights, use your headlights.

Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.63

Use the high beam only in open country without other cars nearby, and even then drive slower than by day.

High beams near other cars blind their drivers, who then cannot see you or the road.

Use the high beam only when driving in the open country without other cars nearby.

Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.63

Always use the lower beam when driving where there are streetlights.

Streets with lights already show the road, and high beams only dazzle the people around you.

Always use the lower beam when driving where there are streetlights,

Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.63

Use the lower beam in fog, by night or by day; high beams in fog reduce visibility.

Fog bounces high beams back into your eyes, so you see less, not more.

Using high beams while driving in fog reduces visibility.

Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.63

On the test

By law, within how many feet of an oncoming car must you switch to low beams?

500 feet. High beams that close can blind the other driver, head-on or in the mirror. Mississippi Driver's License Manual, p.63: “You are required by law to use your low beams when you approach within five hundred feet of an oncoming vehicle or when you are following within five hundred feet of another vehicle.”

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.
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  • 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.

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Where these come from

Every rule here is checked against Mississippi Driver's License Manual, published by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.