Is it possible to get a license without attending a driving school?

Legal basis

Currently, it is impossible to pass the driving test without studying at the appropriate institution. A draft law giving a motorist the right to take a theoretical exam externally actually existed - but was conveniently postponed indefinitely. And, of course, no one canceled practical driving - it was studied and will continue to be studied exclusively in full-time.

Currently, the connection between studying at a driving school and passing the theory is clearly defined in Article 26, paragraph 1 of Federal Law No. 196-FZ “On Road Safety” with the latest amendments dated December 30, 2021. In accordance with this paragraph, obtaining a driver’s license is possible if the citizen meets the following requirements:

reaching the established age - from 16 to 21 years, depending on the category;
satisfactory state of health, allowing you to drive a vehicle without risk to yourself and others - confirmed by the issuance of a medical certificate;
completing a vocational training course.

The last thing is the most important: if the future driver has not been assigned to any accredited driving school, he will not be given the opportunity to take a theoretical exam, no matter how well the rules of the road have been studied.

On the other hand, the second paragraph of the same paragraph suggests the availability of a variety of motorist training programs; about their types - in the next section.

How much does distance learning cost and last?

Distance learning for driving license is suitable for those who want to save time on the road. This is especially convenient for those who have an irregular or variable work schedule, as well as for mothers with small children. Despite the non-standard nature of your studies, you also practice at a racing track owned by a driving school and take exams at the traffic police.

As for the duration of the course, it differs from one driving school to another. In offline mode it lasts from 56 to 136 hours, and in online school it lasts from 10 to 56 hours. This is done in order to attract as many students as possible with different work and study schedules.

Tuition prices also vary, and their amount depends on the category received and the duration of the course. For comparison, a 56-hour course of study for category B in an offline school costs from 38 thousand rubles, and with distance learning with the same number of hours - 29 thousand rubles.

Also read: How to get a tax deduction for training in a driving school

Training Options

A citizen intending to obtain a driver's license can currently study at a driving school in the following forms:

Full-time. The most common one, which involves students regularly attending classes, passing tests and internal, and then state exams.
Online. The person stays at home and participates in online seminars (webinars), where the teacher introduces students to new material and also, if provided for by school regulations, answers questions. This option, due to the labor intensity for instructors, is less common than others, but in terms of efficiency it is not inferior to the first, and sometimes even surpasses it.
Remote. A person who signs up for courses gets access to a personal account, where he views recordings of lectures; Testing of mastery of the material is carried out in the form of online tests.

The last two methods (usually both of them are called remote) have a number of advantages:

the student does not need to waste energy and time getting to the next lesson at the driving school, and then go home;
the future car enthusiast takes the course in a calm and comfortable environment, which allows him to better comprehend the material;
Training aids—books, brochures, regulations, and interactive products—are provided electronically and their cost is usually included in the tuition fee.

The main disadvantage of distance education is the lack of feedback. Even webinars in the vast majority of cases represent an instructor’s monologue, and “from the spot”, as is done in the classroom, is impossible in such conditions.

Advantages of passing the traffic police exam as an external student

First, let's look at the advantages of taking the exam externally:

Not a fixed cost of training.
Possibility to choose your own driving instructor.
Choosing a comfortable driving watch.
Effective use of time.
There is no need to re-learn if you already know how to drive.

Let's look at each of these points in more detail.

Not a fixed cost of training , which can be significantly less than in a typical driving school. Indeed, when preparing to take your license externally, you pay only for those materials and driving hours that you really need.

Everything unnecessary can be safely discarded. By superfluous we mean a variety of materials that actually do not have any practical use, but their purchase is mandatory in many driving schools (for example, a certificate of completion of a traffic rules course, etc.).

Possibility to choose your own driving instructor. I think it’s no secret to anyone that driving schools, with very rare exceptions, independently distribute training cars and driving instructors among driver candidates. However, it is not a fact that you will get an experienced and proven instructor.

In the article “How to choose a driving instructor,” I already wrote about the fact that instructors in driving schools change quite often, and the likelihood of getting training with a beginner is very high.

When choosing a private driving instructor on your own, the result lies solely in your hands. A significant advantage is that you pay for the instructor’s services by the hour, i.e. If you don’t like something, you can safely replace the instructor with a more fun, courageous or simply cheaper one.

I would like to note that when you change instructors at a driving school, this information immediately becomes available to the entire “instructor circle.” Those. rest assured, when you switch to another car within a driving school, the new instructor will know everything about you in advance. And not necessarily on the positive side.

In the case of private driving instructors, such transfer of information is impossible, so each new instructor can start training from scratch. And if the first instructor yells and swears at you, then you can yell at the second instructor. It's a joke.

Another plus when preparing to take an external driver’s license is the ability to choose a car from a very wide range of options. If driving schools usually offer either domestic cars or inexpensive foreign cars, then from private driving instructors you can learn to drive business class cars, such as Mercedes, BMW or Audi. Naturally, renting such cars will cost more, but if your funds allow it, then why not?

Choosing a convenient driving watch is one of the main factors that influences the choice of a driving school or driving instructor. In most driving schools, the schedule is determined by the administration, which you cannot influence. Missed hours will not be carried over and money will not be refunded.

When passing your license as an external student, you can choose a driving time that is convenient for you, for example, before or after work. You can arrange with an instructor, and you will learn to drive on the way to work. This is convenient, and at the same time, study your future daily route thoroughly.

Effective use of time . This is a pretty important factor. When you take the traffic police exam yourself, you can determine for yourself how much time you need to spend on training. For example, you want to study theory for half an hour a day. Or, on the contrary, you want to learn everything in 2 days, 12 hours each, and immediately move on to driving.

Naturally, such liberties are impossible when studying at a driving school. In addition, in driving schools there are waiting lists for several weeks, so there is no talk about efficient use of time.

There is no need to re-learn if you already know how to drive. Although this situation is not entirely typical, it is quite common to encounter people with a similar problem.

For example, a person has had categories C and D for 20 years and knows cars inside and out. And only now he has the opportunity to purchase a personal car of category B. Of course, he knows how to drive cars perfectly.

Another option: a person received a driver’s license abroad, drove a car there for many years, and lost his license when moving to Russia. In such a situation, replacing a driver’s license in Russia is impossible, and to restore it you need to return to your homeland. Naturally, a plane ticket can cost more than repeat training at a driving school, so taking your license as an external student turns out to be the most profitable option.

As you can see, the list of advantages is very impressive, which is why many drivers strive to pass their license without a driving school. However, self-training also has disadvantages, which will be discussed a little later.

Transition to distance learning

To start studying at a driving school that offers a theoretical course on a remote basis, you must:

Submit an application for enrollment indicating the form of study.
Conclude a standard service agreement with the school.
Pay for the courses, in part or in full, and submit the receipt to the institution.
Receive a login and password to enter your personal account, where lectures and available materials will be available, and log in.

Now the future owner of the rights can only study diligently, listen and view the material and take intermediate tests - depending on the policy of the institution, this is done either via the Internet, or during a personal visit.

And, of course, the student will have to undergo full practical training—driving itself—at the driving school’s circuit. These lessons are usually paid separately; less often - included in the total cost of courses.

Preparation for exams

So, it will not be possible to get the opportunity to pass driving theory and practice without being “attached” to a driving school; the car enthusiast will have to attend the exams and pass them to a satisfactory level. Based on the test results, he will receive a certificate - he will need to submit it to the traffic police in order to proceed to the state exam.

In addition to the certificate, you will need to bring to the traffic police:

passport - domestic or foreign;
Application for taking the exam - you can fill it out on the spot;
a certificate from a medical institution about your state of health - it has a limited validity period, and therefore should not be delayed in obtaining it;
a receipt indicating payment of the state duty in the prescribed amount.

You won’t be able to just come and take the exam at the traffic police; The future holder of the certificate should register in advance. This can be done in two ways: by personally visiting “your” traffic police department or via the Internet.

The second option is preferable for a number of reasons:

The motorist will not have to get to the State Traffic Inspectorate and waste time waiting for an appointment.
You can choose any convenient time - the exam schedule is publicly available.
A driver who cannot find suitable appointment hours has the right to sign up for an exam at another department.
The state duty can also be paid online - and in this case the future motorist will save 30% of the cost.

Registration for the traffic police exam is carried out on the State Services portal; To gain access to the option, you will need to register, indicating your real first and last name, cell phone number and passport information.

Another advantage of online registration is the lack of bias. Very often, there are friendly relations between driving school instructors and traffic police inspectors - which means that a student who “does not please” the teacher runs the risk of not passing the state exam the first time. By signing up online for any department of the State Traffic Inspectorate that interests you, the driver can count on the most accurate assessment of his skills.

What is the reason for canceling self-training?

Changes in legislation that led to the abolition of taking the driving test externally (that is, after self-preparation) had both supporters and opponents. Among the arguments in favor are the following:

High level of corruption. It is no secret that a fairly large number of licenses in the Russian Federation are simply sold with the participation of unscrupulous traffic police officers. The possibility of taking exams after individual lessons in this regard was one of the loopholes that condoned the development of fraudulent schemes;
An increase in accident rates among inexperienced drivers, whose average experience does not exceed three years. It should be noted that there has not been a detailed analysis of statistics that would confirm the high percentage of accidents involving citizens who received their license as an external student;
The fight against the so-called “gray driving schools”, whose infrastructure did not meet the requirements of state standards (small fleet of cars, low qualifications of teachers, etc.). Such organizations could not train people officially, so they offered clients to “get all the necessary skills and pass the exam on their own” and lured those interested with low prices.

Naturally, there were also opponents of such changes, the main arguments of which were that not all residents of the Russian Federation have the opportunity to attend a driving school (in many provincial settlements in rural areas they simply do not exist). In addition, in their opinion, the adopted innovation did not in any way affect the level of corruption, since it is possible to “buy rights” without difficulty even now.

Exam and retake

To begin passing the tests, it is enough to appear at the appropriate unit at the appointed time and with a complete package of documents. Exams for motorists who have chosen the distance learning option are held in exactly the same way as for those who have acquired driving skills in a regular form.

The most unpleasant moment is the uncertainty with the training car. A driver undergoing practical tests at the traffic police without the support of a driving school can count on three ways of development of events:

the department has its own training cars - this is the best option, but there is still a danger of getting confused if the make of the car is different from the one “mastered” at school;
The traffic police practice is to “rent” training vehicles or “add” such drivers into the general flow - of course, for a fee;
There is no training car and the inspector is not going to order one - which means the driver will have to take care of the rental on his own.

The latter is extremely rare, but it still happens; the future owner of the license should call in advance or personally appear at the selected department of the State Traffic Inspectorate and clarify the issue with the training car.

If the exam is successfully passed, great; The driver just has to get his license within the prescribed period and enjoy life. If not, you will have to sign up for a retake. This can be done no earlier than a week after the failed attempt; The application form at Gosuslugi is no different from the initial one, and the driver, as before, can choose any unit within his reach to undergo testing.

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