▲ Students who wish to aquire driver’s license wait in line to register for driver’s license test at the lobby of the driving school in Yangjae-dong, Seoul.
Starting June 10, the government implemented a simplification of the technical skills portion of the driving license test, prompting interest among university students in quickly acquiring a license.
Many university students are participating in such a trend since now is the time when the technical skill test is easier, compared to previous exams.
“When I heard that the technical skills test was going to be simplified, I immediately decided to take the test during the summer vacation,” said Ha Ji-won (International Office Administration, 1), who recently acquired her driver’s license.
By contrast, other students choose to study for their driver’s license test because the road-driving test will become more difficult starting this September, based on considerations of the exam’s practicalities, according to the government.
The National Police Agency announced the reinforced rigor of the road-driving test in order to make up for inadequacies resulting from the simplified regulations.
This has not gone unnoticed by students. “I read in an article that the road-driving test that will become more difficult from this September on, so I registered at the driving school the very next day,” Park Jin-woo (Seoul National University, 2) said.
▲ A student driver practices for the technical skills test. After passing the written test, students are able to take the technical skills test.

The purpose of this new driver’s exam is to reduce the time and financial burden of citizens by cutting back the compulsory education time from 25 hours to eight hours. Under these circumstances, the technical skills test reduced the number of clauses evaluating one’s basic ability to drive from 11 clauses to only two.
“The tuition fee for driving school was surprisingly low since it was half of what my friend paid last year for the same class,” Park said.
Compared to the rate before the simplification policy was set, the rate of successful applicants in the technical skills test increased by 25 percent, while the rate of students passing their road-driving test decreased by 15 percent.
“There has been a boost in the number of people enrolling in driving schools since such a policy was implemented. However, it is a problem that the enrolled students are taking their road-driving tests without being fully prepared due to the reduction in the time for compulsory education, even though they are first-timers in driving,” said an employee at the Yangjae Car School, who wishes to remain anonymous for personal reasons.
Tablet personal computers will be used in the new road-driving test system to randomly select a test route among more than 10 kinds of estimated routes.
Students agree on reinforcing the road-driving test for the safety of people living in Korea.
“I believe it is right to reinforce the road-driving test for the people’s own safety,” Kim Sin-yeong (Business, 1) said. “Although I do not have a driver’s license yet, the test must become harder than it is now, if people really want to drive securely in the future.”
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