Visual search — New Hampshire Permit Test
Visual search on the New Hampshire permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Drivers should turn their head before they turn the wheel.
Six words that put the looking before the steering, which is the order that keeps a driver out of what they did not see.
turn your head before you turn the wheel
Drivers should keep their eyes moving and searching for possible problems, which gives them time to change speed or roadway position.
A fixed stare sees one thing very well and misses everything arriving from the sides.
Searching helps drivers to see situations that could cause a problem and gives them time to change speed and/or roadway position.
Drivers should avoid getting into situations that limit how far they can see down the road, such as following too close to a larger vehicle.
Behind a truck a driver can see nothing, so they are reacting to the truck rather than to the road.
If a driver is behind a large vehicle, they should adjust their speed and road position.
Drivers should check their mirrors continually before slowing down, stopping, turning or changing lanes.
Everything that happens behind you happens while you are looking forward, so the mirror check has to be a habit.
Drivers should check their mirrors continually before slowing down, stopping, turning or changing lanes.
Drivers should search to the sides to make sure other roadway users will not cross the path of travel.
Most of what will hit you is not in front of you yet, and looking sideways is how you find it while there is still time.
Drivers should search to the sides to make sure other roadway users will not cross the path of travel.
On the test
What does the manual tell a driver to do before turning the wheel?
Turn their head. Six words that put the looking before the steering, which is the order that keeps a driver out of what they did not see. New Hampshire Driver's Manual, p.30: “turn your head before you turn the wheel”
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.
All New Hampshire permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against New Hampshire Driver's Manual, published by the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/NH.pdf (New Hampshire Driver's Manual, Rev. 11/25, New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/NH.pages.txt (plain pdftotext over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 6, folioMarker, nonLawPages, signGalleryPages and the extraction flag, each with its basis)