Your BAC — New York Permit Test
Your BAC on the New York permit test — 7 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
A driver's BAC depends on how much alcohol they drink, how much time passes between drinks, and their weight.
Three things set the number and none of them is how sober a person feels.
How much time passes between drinks.
Different types of drinks do not affect a driver differently, because it is the amount of alcohol consumed rather than whether it is in beer, wine or liquor that raises BAC.
Beer is not a safer drink than liquor. The alcohol in each is what counts.
Your BAC does not depend on the type of beverage you drink, how fit you are, or how you can “hold your liquor.” Different types of drinks do not affect you differently.
A five ounce glass of wine, a shot of liquor, a can of beer and a wine cooler contain about the same amount of alcohol.
A beer and a shot are the same drink in different glasses.
These drinks contain about the same amount of alcohol – 1-1⁄2 ounces of liquor, 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, and 12 ounces of wine cooler.
For a 150-pound male each of these drinks contains enough alcohol to increase his BAC by about .02 percent, and on average it takes the body approximately one hour to remove that much alcohol.
The body works at its own pace. One drink an hour is roughly what it can clear.
For a 150-pound male, each one of these drinks contains enough alcohol to increase his BAC by about .02 percent.
Studies indicate that a woman will take longer to process and remove alcohol from the blood, which can cause a higher BAC over a longer period of time.
The same drinks leave a woman over the limit for longer. The clock is not the same.
Studies indicate that a woman will take longer to process and remove alcohol from the blood.
Eating before or while drinking helps slow the absorption of alcohol somewhat, but it cannot prevent intoxication or impairment if a person has too much to drink.
A meal slows it down without stopping it. The drinks still arrive in the end.
Eating before or while you drink helps slow the absorption of alcohol somewhat, but it cannot prevent intoxication or impairment if you have too much to drink.
The only method to effectively reduce BAC is not to drink over a period of time, because coffee, exercise and cold showers cannot reduce BAC or the effects of alcohol.
Coffee makes a drunk driver awake rather than sober. Time is the only fix.
The only method to effectively reduce your BAC is not to drink over a period of time. Coffee, exercise and cold showers cannot reduce your BAC and the effects of alcohol.
On the test
What does a person's BAC depend on?
Amount, time and body weight. Three things set the number and none of them is how sober a person feels. New York State Driver's Manual, p.55: “How much time passes between drinks.”
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 New York State Driver's Manual, published by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-15.