Searching and blind spots — Virginia Permit Test
Searching and blind spots on the Virginia permit test — 8 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Searching means looking at the whole scene for anything that might come into your path. Keep your eyes moving rather than staring at one thing.
A driver whose eyes stop moving sees the middle of the road clearly and misses everything about to enter it from the side.
Expert drivers focus their eyes 20 to 30 seconds ahead, which is about one city block in town.
Looking that far ahead is what turns a sudden hazard into one you saw coming and had time to plan around.
Use your rearview mirror to check the traffic behind you about every 10 seconds.
Knowing what is behind you before you need to brake is what decides whether braking hard is an option at all.
At any intersection, look left first, then right, then take one more quick look left before you drive through.
Traffic from the left reaches you first because it is in the nearer lane, so it is the direction worth checking twice.
Blind spots are the areas around your car where another vehicle cannot easily be seen. Adjust the inside mirror to frame the back window and the side mirrors so you can barely see the sides of your car.
Side mirrors aimed at your own paintwork show you the car you already own instead of the lane you are moving into.
The best way to see a car in your blind spot is to turn your head quickly and glance over your shoulder before changing lanes or passing.
No mirror adjustment covers the whole blind spot, so the glance is the check that finds the car the mirrors missed.
Avoid driving in another driver’s blind spot. Speed up or drop back rather than staying there.
Sitting where another driver cannot see you means their lane change is aimed at the space you are in.
Search for clues on the road: exhaust smoke, brake or backup lights and turned wheels all warn that a vehicle may pull into your path.
A car with its wheels turned tells you where it is going before the driver has decided to go there.
On the test
What does searching the road mean?
Keeping your eyes moving over the scene. A driver whose eyes stop moving sees the middle of the road clearly and misses everything about to enter it from the side.
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.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Virginia Driver’s Manual, published by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-02.
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/exams/know-exam
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/forms/dmv39.pdf
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/documents/dmv39i.pdf
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/learners/apply
- https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/licenses-ids/learners/restrictions
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-870/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-873/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-874/
- https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/section46.2-862/