Almost 20 percent of American drivers on the road in 2011 could not pass the written drivers exam if they had to take it again. Though the national average score on the GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test rose from 76.2% in 2010 to 77.9% in 2011, more than 36 million Americans failed the test, which consists of 20 multiple-choice questions.
More about the drivers exam:
- People in Kansas had the highest scores on the test for both 2010 and 2011, with an average score of 82.9, followed by people in Iowa and Colorado. Washington, D.C., drivers had the worst scores, with 71.8 as the average. Generally, drivers in the Northeast had the lowest test scores, and those in the Midwest had the highest test scores.
- The top driving mistakes made by American drivers include multitasking while driving, swerving and failure to yield or misunderstanding the right of way.
- Men did better than women on the test — more than twice as many women failed compared with the number of men who failed, and men also had significantly higher average driving scores.