I, a person who has never owned a car and has never dealt with the traffic police, was prompted to write this material by a TV story about the Georgian analogue of this structure.
At that time, I was just finishing courses at a Kyiv driving school. I was struck by how easily a Ukrainian correspondent (a foreigner for them) got a driver's license in just an hour, without attending any courses, after passing exams. The amount she paid for it was, in her words, "ridiculous." If she wanted, she could immediately get license plates as well.
In our reality, this whole process takes much longer and costs noticeably more.
Driving school training
I took the classes seriously: I listened carefully, asked questions, and tried to understand all the details. But at the same time, I wasn't sure that everything would go as smoothly for me at our local traffic police as it did for that journalist in Georgia.
Our group was small, and the instructor seemed competent at first glance. However, from the very first days, I was puzzled why students who paid 2500 UAH for training (1900 UAH for theory and 600 UAH for fuel) were not particularly eager to attend lectures. And the very first question asked after meeting the instructor was: "How can one pay for exams at the traffic police, and what is the current rate?" The teacher skillfully avoided answering, saying that if you study well, no additional payments will be needed.
Nevertheless, the thought that it was impossible to pass the exams at the traffic police without financial injections did not let go.
After completing half of the course, we began preparing for the exam. The instructor handed out exam tickets, and we started solving them. To all questions about whether the same tasks would be at the traffic police, he invariably replied: "Learn the traffic rules, and everything will be fine!"
There was no hint that there are two different versions of tickets, which also differ significantly.
To be safe, I (the only one in the whole group) took the tickets home for the weekend and solved them several times. This same version was used for the internal exam at the driving school, which I passed without difficulty.
Not suspecting a catch, I continued to prepare diligently. I found a website with the same questions on the internet and honed my skills with online tests.
Driving lessons
After each driving lesson, the instructor invariably asked me to sign documents. At first, I signed without looking, but once I noticed the column I was signing. Among other things, it indicated the place of the lesson: the driving range. But the instructor and I had never been there. "Driving on real city streets is clearly more useful than boring circles on the site," I thought and didn't ask unnecessary questions.
Time passed, the training was coming to an end, and everything would have been fine if, during one of the conversations with the instructor, it hadn't turned out that we would take the practical part of the exam at the traffic police on the driving range located near the MREO.
If so, I wanted to see this place with my own eyes and understand what exactly I was in for. Especially since I had never been to any driving range, including the one at the MREO.
To my quite legitimate request, the instructor, hesitating a bit, replied that this issue is resolved only through the director of the driving school, which is possible in principle, but only with his permission, and that it would cost a certain amount of money.
In the end, we did go to the driving range. The exercises — "entering the garage," "overpass," reversing — required serious practice, and exclusively on the site itself!
I hastened to share my concerns with the group, suggesting that we jointly demand the necessary lessons at the driving range from the director. To my surprise, my words were completely ignored, and attempts to explain that this was critical for successful passing found no support.
At the next lesson, I told the instructor about the reaction of my classmates. He smirked and explained that there was nothing surprising about it: the group had already paid for the exam.
Then everything fell into place. It turned out that by paying the instructor or the director of the driving school $250, you can immediately breathe a sigh of relief and not worry about exams either at school or at the traffic police. You can also get by with $200, but not in this case, and only through the instructor — he has his own channel, not connected with the director, and he doesn't want it to become known.
$200 is a good price for a license, I thought, remembering that I had already paid $300! And there would be no need to study for 3 whole months. As a result, all my classmates paid $550 each for their licenses.
And I decided to take the exam "honestly," that is, relying only on my own strength.
When meeting with the director at the internal exam, I tried to find out how to get to the driving range for training. The answer was categorical: no, and that's it! They say there are street lessons with an instructor, so practice there.
I had to pay for additional lessons, as well as go to a paid driving range on my own.
Passing the theory exam at the traffic police
At the theory exam at the traffic police, it turned out that the tickets and questions in them were not at all the same as those we studied at school. The design of the tickets, illustrations, and wording of tasks had nothing in common with what we were taught. And I, of course, failed, "failing" on the last, 20th, question.
After recovering from such a shock, I began to figure out what had happened. It turned out that there are several versions of traffic police exam tickets! There is the so-called Kyiv version, consisting of 100 tickets, and the Kharkiv version — of 90.
Having found the Kyiv version on the internet, I immediately recognized the one used for the exam at the capital's traffic police. But how different it is from the Kharkiv version, which we studied! It is much more difficult. The difference of 10 tickets is 200 additional questions. But who would have told me about this in advance?!
I had heard about the existence of different versions and even read about it on the internet, but I didn't pay attention to it because I trusted people who are supposed to know better WHAT and HOW to teach, and teach us exactly what is needed.
No one at school even mentioned that there is a significant difference between these editions, and it is not limited to simply shuffling questions. I, after fairly good preparation on the Kharkiv version, had to work hard to understand all the intricacies of the Kyiv version.
The school director, in response to my complaints about insufficient informing of students about exam preparation, smiled slyly and advised me to carefully learn the rules, not cram tickets — then, they say, there will be no problems.
Such peremptoriness and outright lies, covered by iron logic, simply disarmed me. I realized that proving anything was useless. Before me was a well-oiled scheme: give driving school students a minimum of knowledge, intimidate them so that an unprepared applicant pays a bribe for successfully passing the exam at the traffic police, and also "fail" those who still decide to take it on their own.
The lie also consisted in the fact that the questions in the tickets do not always concern only traffic rules. They also include other sections, without knowledge of which the exam cannot be passed:
1. Fundamentals of motor transport law, which describes the rights and obligations of road users, possible actions of the police and traffic police inspectors, and much more.
2. The so-called RSTD (road safety traffic fundamentals), which examines the practical part of driving, its features in various weather conditions, as well as in cars with different load capacities and drive types.
3. Fundamentals of providing first medical aid in case of an accident.
None of this was covered in classes at the driving school! Only at the very end of the course (and only after persistent demands) were we given a poor-quality photocopy on the fundamentals of road safety. But in it, as it turned out later, there was still not everything needed.
We generally studied the fundamentals of first medical aid on our own using materials from the internet. Moreover, even knowing the traffic rules by heart, you can easily make mistakes in the answers. The questions are designed not only to test knowledge of the rules but also for attentiveness and understanding. There are many nuances and traps that the driving school was obliged to tell us about.
As a result of many hours of independent study, I passed the repeated theory exam at the traffic police in 10 minutes.
Before getting the license, there remains the practical exam or $125 — to choose from. I chose to take the exam.
Passing the practical exam at the traffic police
The instructor didn't want to give me a car for the exam, and I didn't have "my own," so I had to take additional lessons from him so that he would "believe" in my abilities. This cost me 480 UAH and 4 more lessons. The lessons were still held in the city and gave me little new and useful for passing the exam at the driving range.
The thought of the driving range wouldn't let me go. Deciding that the site at the MREO was inaccessible to me, I began to look for a driving range and a car among friends and relatives to at least somehow master the exercises that would be on the exam.
This turned out to be the most correct and useful decision. But, again, it cost money: three two-hour lessons at a paid driving range — 240 UAH, plus a gift to relatives who provided the car for training and passing the exam — 260 UAH (a bottle of good cognac).
Imagine my surprise when, after receiving the coveted license, I unexpectedly learned that you can freely train at the MREO driving range! Anyone (especially a driving school), having paid 10 UAH per lap, can drive there. Many do this: cars from other driving schools with students and instructors "do laps" and hone their skills before the exam. And I absolutely don't understand why other driving schools CAN do this, but OURS cannot?!
The driving range at the MREO on Tupolev:
5-10 laps (50-100 UAH) of such training could well provide good preparation and pass the exam at the driving range without problems.
But this was absolutely not in the plans of the management of our driving school. Not only did they not inform students about such an opportunity, but they also refused help, misled and deceived, sending them to the street. I regard this as a scheme of direct extortion of money from applicants who failed the exams.
I passed the practical exam at the traffic police driving range on the first attempt.
At the MREO, I paid: for retaking the theory (33 UAH), driving, and the plastic driver's license card — 414 UAH. Moreover, for the card itself, there were somehow two payments — 147 UAH and 208 UAH (banking services cost 26 UAH). Why such money (in essence, for a piece of plastic) and why two payments, I didn't understand, but I no longer wanted to figure it out. I wanted to finish this nightmare as soon as possible.
In the end, albeit with great difficulty, I still achieved my goal: I wrested the coveted rectangle of plastic from the system without a bribe.
Cost
Getting the license cost me:
- 1900 UAH — driving school training;
- 600 UAH — practical lessons at the driving school;
- 414 UAH — retaking theory, passing driving, and getting the license;
- 480 UAH — additional lessons with the driving school instructor so that "he would believe in me";
- 240 UAH — independent lessons at the driving range;
- 260 UAH — gifts to friends for using the car; sleepless nights of independently studying another version of the tickets;
- independent searches for materials on RSTD, fundamentals of medical aid, etc.;
- searches for a driving range, a car.
Total: 3894 UAH + irrationally spent time and frayed nerves.
Conclusions
1. You can pass the exam at the traffic police without money! And the myths that this is impossible are greatly exaggerated. You just need to prepare well and properly and, most importantly, achieve in full what the driving school is obliged to give and teach.
2. You don't have to go to a driving school (and it's better to avoid one like the one described above) — according to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 340 of 08.05.1993, citizens who, for valid reasons (work schedule, family circumstances), cannot attend classes on driver training or retraining, have the right to take exams for obtaining a driver's license externally.
All the rules can be learned at home, and with the help of a sensible instructor, you can bring practical skills to the required level. By submitting the relevant documents in advance, you can pass everything at the traffic police externally without the headache described above.
3. It is not necessary to take exams with your group. You can, by taking an exam card from the head of the driving school, pass the exams (both theory and practice) on your own "own" car at a CONVENIENT time.
The MREO works Tue-Sat from 9.00 to 18.00, break from 13.00 to 14.00 (for more details, see "Addresses and phones of MREO in Kyiv").
Even immediately before the exam in this case, you can do a few laps on the track to remember all the nuances, and only then, after handing the exam sheet to the inspector, calmly drive your victorious lap.
When taking exams with a driving school on their car, this will not be allowed — there will be a queue, fuss, and limited time.
4. Driving schools are not interested in their students passing exams on their own. That's why such artificial obstacles appear, such as the wrong version of tickets, the inaccessibility of the driving range, and so on, as well as omissions and insufficient informing of applicants, which leads to a low percentage of independent passing of exams.
5. Most people who want to get a license, believing in the myth of the unreality of independently passing exams, THEMSELVES pay extra money after driving school to "be sure" of the result.
6. Because of this, driving school directors, accustomed to students ready to pay, turn out to be completely unprepared for the rare ones who want to get a license legally and cannot, and do not want to, provide them with what is necessary for this. Although it is precisely for this that people come to a driving school and pay money.
That is, if there were more such people, then both the level of training and the accessibility of "clean" obtaining of a license would be higher.
7. You have to fight for the opportunity to honestly pass exams — the corruption scheme is beneficial to everyone: traffic police officers, driving schools, and most negligent students.
Nevertheless, it is possible and necessary to pass the license exams "without money." But for this, you need self-respect, faith in your own strength, integrity, and most importantly, you need to know that THIS IS POSSIBLE! That's exactly why this article was written.
Respect yourself!
