Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1697 in Software
• Brand: Focus Multimedia Ltd
• Released on: 2005-07-29
• Platform: Windows XP

Manufacturer's Description
The best way to prepare for your Hazard Perception Test!

Packed with over 140 unique video clips that teach the principles of hazard perception and test your ability to spot potential dangers on the roads, this is the ideal way to prepare for the Hazard Perception part of your driving Theory Test.

As in real life, you will be tested on how soon you spot the dangers. The more practice you gain in recognising potential hazards, the better prepared you will be for both the test and for real life. This highly realistic software has been developed in conjunction with experienced Approved Driving Instructors and covers a whole variety of different road situations to improve your Hazard Perception skills.

PLUS Bonus Features:

Customer Reviews

Used it for a week...
... and passed. I'd tried other "complete theory test" CD's but they always seemed to skimp on the Hazard Perception bits, or never really explained what you should do.

This CD is great, gives you a nice introduction to the test, what you'd be faced with and a load of example clips. Plus a couple of clips narrated by a police driver, which helps to tell you where you should be looking.

The complete tests are great, and there's even a report center that tells you how well you're doing and when you'll be ready for your test.

I only used this for a week, and had an average pass mark of 63, I passed my real life hazard test with 65 out of 75. Great piece of software.

Are you feeling lucky?
I would like to take a moment to give a few personal details before reviewing the product. Here goes...

This software was sent to me as part of a training package when I booked my HGV training course. I already hold a full clean licence for both motorcycles and cars, and passed both tests on the first attempt. My motorcycle test was taken years prior to the theory test coming into force and I was exempt from taking the theory test before taking my car driving test due to already holding a full motorcycle licence. I have worked as a DSA Approved Motorcycle Instructor and also as a Van Delivery Driver so as you can probably appreciate, my experience is quite considerable.

O.K. time for the review...

In principle this is a well thought out piece of software which has the potential to be very helpful, with advice on how to ascertain what actually presents a hazard to the road user and how to differentiate between different levels of hazard i.e. Progressive Hazards (those which will/can get worse, such as cyclists which present a hazard in the first place and becomes a greater hazard when they pull out around a parked car) Static Hazards (those which exist but cannot get worse such as a flooded lane in the road).
All this would be helpful to a new driver who has no sense of hazard perception, however, this is primarily intended as a training tool to enable a person to pass the hazard perception part of the theory test, unfortunately I fail to see how it can do anything other than make people feel very nervous indeed. You see, all the training video clips which are designed to be as close to that of the actual test as possible are of a really poor quality. For my view of the road ahead to be as unclear as that of the video clips I would have to drive without my spectacles on - in fact I think I would still have a better view of the road.
There is a section on the CD-Rom which allows you to freeze-frame the clips precisely at the point where the hazard 'first comes into view', I have put that in inverted commas because in many cases the 'hazard' still could not be seen even with the image frozen, and this was when I knew what the hazard was going to be and where it was supposed to be!
Examples of this are:- Sheep in the road, these were hiding round a bend in the road and didn't come into recognisable view until I could only score 2 out of 5 for spotting them. In order to score a 5 I would have to have used psychic powers... or buy some xray specs.
Cyclist at night, I scored 3 out of 5 for this one. When freeze-framed at the start of the 'scoring zone' he was completely invisible. When it was stopped at 4 only his back light was visible and was indistinguishable from the cats-eyes on the road. Only at 3 was it possible to recognise that there was a cyclist in the road.

Just in case anyone reading this thinks that it is perhaps my PC monitor that is at fault - I tried it on two different computers, one of which was a laptop with a crystal clear screen that displays DVD images better than my TV. The picture quality for this software was terrible on both.

My advise is this - If you have never driven any type of motorised vehicle and want to learn about the different types of hazards that you will come across when driving, then this may help. If, like me, you have driving experience but are upgrading to driving wagons/ buses/coaches e.t.c. then don't bother buying it. In either case it still represents a useless training tool.

Excellent Passed 1st Time!
I used this product to practice for my Hazard Perception for my Motorcycle Theory test. The clips and the way you have to respond to them is very simular to the actual test which was reassuring. I passed my test first time and got 54 marks out of 75, and you only need 44 marks to pass! Very good package, I highly recommend you buy it!