Steering — New Jersey Permit Test
Steering on the New Jersey permit test — 3 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
For normal driving a driver grips the wheel at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions with thumbs along the face of the rim.
Hands there give the most turn for the least reach, and they keep arms clear of an opening air bag.
For normal driving, a motorist should grip the steering wheel by the outside rim at the 9 and 3 o’clock positions
Both hands stay on the wheel except when shifting gears or giving a hand signal.
One hand cannot correct a sudden pull. The second is what is left when something goes wrong.
Both hands should always be kept on the wheel, except when shifting gears or giving hand signals.
A driver keeps the vehicle in the center of its lane, and keeps right where traffic comes the other way.
Drifting left on a two-lane road puts your mirror where somebody else's mirror is about to be.
On a two-lane road with traffic coming toward the vehicle, the motorist should keep to the right.
On the test
Where should a driver's hands sit on the steering wheel?
At 9 and 3 o'clock on the outside rim. Hands there give the most turn for the least reach, and they keep arms clear of an opening air bag. New Jersey Driver Manual, p.51: “For normal driving, a motorist should grip the steering wheel by the outside rim at the 9 and 3 o’clock positions”
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.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against New Jersey Driver Manual, published by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-15.