Turning lane choice — Montana Permit Test
Turning lane choice on the Montana permit test — 2 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Where no signs or lane markings control turning, turn from the lane closest to the direction you want to go and into the lane closest to the one you came from.
Swinging into a far lane crosses paths with other cars that are turning at the same time.
Where there are no signs or lane markings to control turning, you should turn from the lane that is closest to the direction you want to go and turn into the lane closest to the one you came from.
When turning, go from one lane to the other directly; once you have completed the turn, you can change to another lane if you need to.
A lane change in the middle of a turn surprises the driver who is turning beside you.
Once you have completed your turn, you can change to another lane if you need to.
On the test
With no signs or lane markings, which lane should you turn into?
The lane closest to the one you came from. Swinging into a far lane crosses paths with other cars that are turning at the same time. Montana Driver Manual, p.38: “Where there are no signs or lane markings to control turning, you should turn from the lane that is closest to the direction you want to go and turn into the lane closest to the one you came from.”
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 Montana Driver Manual, published by the Montana Department of Justice, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-04.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MT.pdf (Montana Driver Manual, Revised April 2024, Montana Department of Justice, Motor Vehicle Division, retrieved 2026-09-14 and re-checked 2026-10-04; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MT.pages.txt (scripts/mt-text.sh: pdftotext -layout except printed pp.24-26, which are plain; the fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MT-exam.html (Administrative Rules of Montana 23.3.121, Road Signs and Road Rules, as reproduced by the Legal Information Institute, read 2026-10-04; states the seven-miss pass mark; sha256 pinned under examSource)
- https://mvdmt.gov/forms-driver-license/ (read 2026-10-04; links the manual)