Mirror adjustment — Tennessee Permit Test

Mirror adjustment on the Tennessee permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.

The rules

Adjust the mirrors after the seat is adjusted, and always before driving.

Moving the seat moves your eyes, so mirrors set first will point at the wrong spot.

Adjust mirrors after the seat is adjusted correctly.

Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.27

Adjust the inside rearview mirror to frame the rear window.

A mirror aimed at the ceiling or a side window leaves you blind to the car right behind you.

Adjust the inside rearview mirror to frame the rear window.

Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.27

To set the left side mirror, sit upright with your head against the left side window, and set the mirror so you can just barely see the side of your car.

Showing a lot of your own car wastes mirror space that should be watching the lane beside you.

To adjust the driver’s side-view mirror, seated in an upright position place your head against the left side window and adjust the left side mirror.

Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.27

To set the right side mirror, position your head just above the center console and set it so you can just barely see the side of your car.

Leaning toward the middle widens what the right mirror covers, so a car in the right lane is less likely to hide.

Seated in an upright position, to adjust the passenger’s side-view mirror, position your head so that it is just above the center console.

Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.27

To check your mirrors, let a car pass on the left: as it leaves the inside mirror, you should see its front bumper in the outside left mirror.

If the car vanishes from both mirrors at once, there is a gap where a passing car can hide.

As it passes out of view in the inside mirror you should see its front bumper in the outside left (driver side) mirror.

Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.27

Even with properly adjusted mirrors, always turn your head and check blind spots before you turn or change lanes.

Mirrors never show everything. A car can sit just off your rear corner where no mirror reaches.

Even with properly adjusted mirrors, always turn your head and check blind spots when you want to turn or change lanes.

Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.27

On the test

When should you adjust your mirrors?

After the seat is adjusted, before driving. Moving the seat moves your eyes, so mirrors set first will point at the wrong spot. Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, p.27: “Adjust mirrors after the seat is adjusted correctly.”

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.

All Tennessee permit topics

Where these come from

Every rule here is checked against Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, published by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-03.