The answer options
- Use your wing mirrors
- Look around after moving off
- Look around before moving offCorrect
- Signal after moving off
Why that is the answer
The Highway Code advises that you must check all around your vehicle before moving off, including your blind spots over your shoulders. Relying solely on your wing mirrors is unsafe because they leave areas you cannot see, where cyclists or pedestrians might be. Checking or signalling after you have already started to move is far too late and risks causing a collision with passing traffic.
How this comes up in the real test
Questions from alertness appear throughout the 50-question multiple-choice section, and the wording changes between versions. Learn the rule rather than the sentence: the DVSA can ask the same point from the opposite direction, and a memorised answer falls over the moment the phrasing moves.
The pass mark is 43 out of 50, so seven wrong answers is your entire margin. If a whole category is shaky, run the topic practice below until you are getting every question right for the right reason, then go back to full mocks under the clock.
More alertness questions
- Before making a U-turn, what should you do?
- Before slowing or stopping your vehicle, what is something you must do?
- How can you make sure that a satellite navigation (satnav) system doesn’t distract you when you’re driving?
- How should you pass the cyclists?
- Something is hanging from your rearview mirror. Why might this pose a risk?
- The windscreen pillar is restricting your view when waiting to emerge from a junction. What should you be especially cautious of?