As a senior motorist, renewing my driver’s license made me a nervous wreck

Are you over 70 and a California driver?

Are you going to have to renew your driver’s license anytime soon?

Are you in for a surprise! And perhaps a nerve-wracking experience, like me.

For over two years during the COVID pandemic, senior drivers in California could skip taking the dreaded knowledge test when renewing, thanks to Gov. Gavin Newom’s temporary waiver to reduce in-person contact. You only needed to renew and pay for a new license online. But not anymore. That welcome reprieve expired at the end of 2022.

Now, if you are over 70, once again the DMV requires that you take a vision test, a new photo and pass a 25-question written test every five years. The renewal application, payment and test can all be done online, but you still will need to trek into your local DMV office for the rest, including the test if you fail it two times online.

If a written test is in your future, you’d better start now memorizing all the endless information in the 92-page California Driver’s Handbook because you’re going to need it to pass the test.

I speak from a stressful, nail-biting experience I don’t ever want to go through again.

My driver’s license is expiring this year on July 7, my 85th birthday. That meant I had to get it renewed if I wanted to keep driving myself around town.

I’ve been driving myself around since I was 16 growing up in Lombard, a small suburb west of Chicago. That’s 69 years of driving experience.

I figured with all that experience, taking the California written test would not be a problem. I had taken it before and passed. Boy, was I wrong.

Preparing to take the written test, I went through the Driver’s Handbook pretty carefully. It’s available on the DMV website which is how I was reading it, but printed copies can be found in DMV offices.

Well, I failed my first attempt at the test which I took online. Why did I fail? Maybe it was a case of nerves, especially since the online test is monitored. A special app that you have to download first turns on your computer camera to make sure you are not cheating.

No talking.

No looking at notes.

I was confident I would pass on my second try so I took the test again online on the same day.

I failed again! That meant I had one more try, but I had to take the test in person this time at a DMV office.

With my July 7 birthday fast approaching, I tried to make an appointment at nearby DMV offices in Long Beach, Bellflower and Anaheim, but nothing was available until after my birthday.

I finally was able to make an appointment for June 27 at the DMV office in Compton which is conveniently located right off the 91 freeway.

If I was nervous taking the test the first two times, I was really nervous preparing for the third try. I spent hours studying the Driver’s Handbook, taking copious notes on everything from what you should do on a flashing red light to what you should do when driving in a fog. I took sample tests online with dozens of questions, many of which I thought were irrelevant that had nothing to do with how I drove a vehicle. Questions like: When you buy a vehicle, how manydays do you have to transfer ownership to your name? Or, What can your punishment be if you dump or abandon animals on a highway?

I felt like my days at the University of Illinois when I was cramming for a final exam.

Everything went well at the Compton DMV. My appointment time was on schedule. I went into the testing room where several people were standing at a computer taking their test. Corrine, an employee, was helpful in getting my computer ready.

I felt prepared and ready but still nervous as the first question came on the screen. I knew there would be 25 questions, five of which I could get wrong and still pass. As you take the test, a big red X shows up if you get a question wrong. I wasn’t too worried as I missed two of the first 10 questions or so. I could miss three more and still pass, I said to myself. But then I missed a fourth question and a fifth, and I still had about seven questions to go.

Yikes! If I missed just one of those seven, I would fail and have to go through the whole laborious process again of renewing. I tried not to think that, if I failed, I wouldn’t be able to drive after July 7.

I wasn’t sweating, but my hands were shaking a little as each question came up. I was so busyconcentrating on each question I lost track of how many questions I had left. It seemed like an eternity as questions kept popping up. Finally, the screen showed the most welcome words I had seen in a long time:

Congratulations! You have passed the test!

Hallelujah! I wanted to shout. It was like I had won the lottery.

Corrine congratulated me and typed out my interim license renewal.

As I drove home with my wife, I was glad I had passed, but I had so many questions about my ordeal: Why were irrelevant questions on the test? What did they have to do with my driving ability? Why not have a driving test instead of or in addition to a written test? Why was a written test required for only drivers 70 and over? Isn’t that age discrimination?

For answers, I emailed questions to the DMV office in Sacramento and got a reply from Angelica De La Pena, an information officer.

She said the DMV “takes knowledge-based exams seriously and has upgraded the test and our processes over time to ensure they are accurate in their assessment and fair to all. Ensuring the knowledge exam accuracy helps confirm that drivers have the knowledge needed to safely operate a vehicle. Answers to all test questions are taken from the California Driver Handbook.”

She said the DMV last updated the exam in 2021 “using a linear-on-the-fly testing algorithm, to help assess and manage the difficulty of the exam (to ensure fairness) and to improve validity, reliability and integrity. The algorithm also helps the DMV know when questions are too difficult and need to be rewritten and when a question in the test bank is overexposed and needs to be pulled or replaced.”

De La Pena said the DMV also has started offering knowledge tests online and has released an eLearning course “to remove the barrier for test adverse drivers.” I don’t know if she meant that I was a test-adverse driver. She said drivers preparing to take a written test may practice by taking sample tests available online.

On mandating driving tests for renewal applicants based on a certain age, De La Pena said, “The California Vehicle Code does not allow the DMV to do so, as the ‘age of a licensee, by itself, may not constitute evidence of a condition requiring an examination of the driving ability.’”

However, she said, “The DMV can take administrative actions on driving privileges for anyone who demonstrates a lack of capacity to operate a vehicle.”

It seems like any changes to the 70-year-old threshold or whether a driving test should replace the written test is a hot potato that would have to be answered by the California Legislature and not the DMV.

In the meantime, we seniors alone have to contend with a written test that has some questionable questions regarding driving ability.

But I have a big smile on my face. I can drive for at least five more years until my next DMV go-around.

That’s a great birthday present.