Free the theory is a demonstration project, built at Young Rewired State 2009.

It does two things.
Lets learner drivers take unlimited, free practice theory tests. 
Makes the test questions freely available, so that other people can build useful things with them too.
Our aim is to make it easier to practise the theory test - so that it's easier to learn how to be safe on the roads.

What's wrong with the theory test at the moment?

First, some background: 1.6 million people take the driving theory test each year, mostly young people. It consists of 50 questions, taken from a set of around 1000. The pass rate is low - only 43%.

The questions used in the test are public, but heavily copyrighted. To read them, you need DVLA's official materials. These do not come cheap (£11.99 for the book, £6.99 for the website), nor are they very easy to use. The questions change often, so library and second-hand copies of the book go out of date fast. 

We know from our own experience that as a result, many people don't bother buying the books, and try to wing the test.

Worryingly, some do succeed - so some drivers out there are less safe than they should be.

Why have you done this?
First and foremost, we want to make it easier to practice the test, so that everyone is safer on the roads.
We want to give experienced drivers (as well as learners) an incentive to revise - not a financial disincentive. 
We want to make it really simple and easy to practise, which it isn't with the official materials.
We want to add features that aren't possible with the official materials, like support for different languages, and linking questions to the relevant bit of the Highway Code.
We want other people to build things we haven't even thought of yet to make it even easier to study for the theory test.
Who built this site?

A team of four people in a weekend at Young Rewired State. The source code is available under the GPL.

...Where did you get the data?

We found it on the internet. It's the full mid-2009 question set. If you have a more recent copy, please let us know.

Can I have a copy?

Yes - There is a zipped schema in the app/config/sql folder. Let us know if you do anything fun with it.

Can I contribute?

Yes please! Just get in touch.
Jonathan Dalrymple => jonathan@float-right.co.uk
Andrew Davidson => andrewdavidson7@gmail.com
Anna Powell Smith => annapowellsmith@gmail.com