Motorcycle hazard perception: scoring and rider clues

Hazard perception is the second part of the motorcycle theory test. You watch 14 video clips, click when you see a hazard start to develop and need 44 points out of 75 to pass. You are marked on timing, so knowing the rules is not enough: you have to recognise the moment a situation starts to turn against you, which is exactly what riding on the road demands.

How the clips are scored

• Every clip has at least one developing hazard. One of the 14 has two, which makes 15 scored hazards.
• Each hazard is worth up to five points. The earlier you click once it starts to develop, the more you score, and the points drop away as the hazard unfolds.
• You see each clip once. There is no pause, replay or correction.
• A wrong click costs nothing, but clicking continuously or in a rhythm scores zero for that clip.

Fifteen hazards at five points each gives 75. To reach 44 you need an average of roughly three points per hazard, so you do not have to be perfect, but you cannot afford several clips where you react late or lose the score through over-clicking.

Potential hazard or developing hazard

DVSA’s own example is a parked car. While it sits at the kerb it is only something to keep an eye on. When its right indicator starts flashing and it begins to pull out, you would have to slow down or steer, so it is now a developing hazard and the scoring window is open.

A practical way to use this: click when you first see the change that would make you act, then click once more a moment later in case your first click came just before the window opened. Two or three considered clicks per hazard is normal. Ten is a pattern.

Clues a rider learns to read

On a motorcycle you are already trained to look for these, because they are the situations that hurt riders most.

Road surface matters to a rider, but a wet drain cover or a patch of gravel on its own is not what the test scores. The scored hazard is nearly always another road user doing something that makes you change speed or direction. The motorcycle hazard scenarios walk through ten such scenes with the clue and the response for each.

Mistakes that cost points

1. Waiting to be sure. By the time the car is halfway out of the junction most of the points have gone. Click on the first sign of movement.
2. Clicking at everything. Parked cars, signs and distant traffic are scenery until something changes.
3. Stopping after the first hazard. One clip has two, and you will not be told which.
4. Looking only at the middle of the screen. Hazards start at the edges: side roads, driveways, pavements.

How to practise

Still questions cannot train timing, so the motorcycle mock tests on this site prepare you for the multiple-choice part only. For hazard perception use proper video clips. GOV.UK has a practice hazard perception test with three free clips that shows how the real screen behaves, and DVSA sells a fuller official guide. Add commentary practice on real journeys: as a pillion, a car passenger or on a bus, say aloud what could develop and when you would react.

DVSA describes the official motorcycle hazard perception test on GOV.UK. For both parts together, see the motorcycle theory test format and pass marks.