Iowa Driver's License Manual: study guide

Key rules by chapter

A few of the rules from each chapter that come up in our practice questions:

1. Your Driver's License

• Living in Iowa continuously for 30 days is one of the conditions that makes you a resident for licensing.
• No license is needed to drive farm equipment between the home farm and nearby farmland or farm operations within two miles.
• Keep your license or permit with you, and carry the vehicle's current registration plus a printed or electronic insurance card as proof of liability coverage.

2. Traffic Signs & Rules of the Road

• Fluorescent pink marks temporary incident scenes, such as a crash being cleared or debris being removed.
• The pennant sign is on the left side of the road and warns of a no-passing zone.
• If the minimum speed is too fast for you, you should use another route.

3. Preparing to Drive

• You need at least one red light on the back that is visible for at least 500 feet.
• Dirt on the lenses can cut a light's effectiveness by 50 percent.
• Tinted windshields and front side windows must allow at least 70 percent of light through.

4. Basic Driving Skills

• At 50 mph: 110 feet reaction distance plus 158 feet braking distance equals 268 feet.
• At 30 mph: 66 feet reaction plus 57 feet braking equals 123 feet.
• An inexperienced or beginning driver should keep at least a three-second following distance.

5. Applying Your Driving Skills

• Beware of false turn signals; wait until the other driver starts to turn, then proceed if safe.
• Don't try to cross both directions at once; proceed to the median when safe, stop, look right, then cross or turn.
• You turn right onto the highway, move to the left lane and U-turn at a marked median opening, so you only cross one direction of traffic at a time.

How to study the handbook

Read one chapter, then take a practice test. Every answer explanation names the handbook section it comes from, so when you get one wrong, go back to that section. Pay most attention to exact numbers and to the rules specific to Iowa, which are where most people lose points.