DMV ChampKentucky · Department of Motor Vehicles
The Kentucky written test has 40 multiple-choice questions, and you need 32 correct answers to pass. DMV Champ teaches every question with its explanation, then checks you with 5 simulated exams in exactly that format.
40
questions
32
correct to pass
80%
passing score
None
time limit
Part of this format is confirmed by Kentucky Driver Manual; the rest is the best figure available, and it is the one DMV Champ’s exam simulator uses. Check the current Kentucky handbook before your exam.
Kentucky’s exam is one of the longer ones: only 7 jurisdictions ask more than 40 questions. You need 80% to pass, which means you can miss 8 questions and still get your permit. There is no time limit, so read every question twice.
The exam is given by the DMV. Its questions come from the official Kentucky driver’s handbook, which is also where every DMV Champ question is checked.
The same format is used in Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington.
The Kentucky driver’s handbook calls it the written test, so that is the phrase you’ll see at the counter and on the agency’s site. Passing it is how you get an instruction permit, which you can apply for from age 16 in Kentucky.
36 topics in Kentucky: the 34 every state tests, plus winter driving and flooding, because the Kentucky handbook teaches them.
Exam simulator
Pick Kentucky once in the app and every simulated exam uses these figures. Nothing is revealed mid-exam, and each attempt is graded against the 32-correct passing score at the end. Retake an exam as often as you like, reordered each time.
What you study
Signs and signals, road rules, safe driving and driving laws. The topics come from the AAMVA guidelines every state builds its exam on, checked against the Kentucky handbook. Each is a short group of questions you can get through in a few minutes, and every answer is explained the moment you check it.
No chapters to read first. Every practice question carries its answer and the reasoning, so a wrong answer is how the next thing is taught.
A question you get wrong returns until you get it right. Once you’ve answered every new question and corrected every mistake, you’ve finished the learning phase.
The score you’d likely get on the Kentucky exam today, with the 32-correct passing score marked on it and a 14-day trend.
Kentucky questions
40. The Kentucky written test has 40 multiple-choice questions, and you need 32 correct answers (80%) to pass.
8. With 40 questions and 32 needed to pass, you can get 8 wrong and still pass.
No. Kentucky does not put a time limit on the written test. Only 8 jurisdictions do.
16. In Kentucky the first permit is called an instruction permit, and the handbook sets 16 as the youngest age for it. The written test is part of getting one.
From the official Kentucky driver’s handbook, which is what the DMV writes its test from. Every DMV Champ question is checked against it and explained the moment you answer.
A few questions a day is enough. Not in Kentucky?