Maine BMV motorcycle warm-up test

  • Questions25
  • Correct to pass20
  • Passing score80%
  • Minimum age16 years

Minimum age: 16 years, with an 8 hour motorcycle education program required of every applicant

10 questions. Pick an answer to see if it is right and why; you need 8 correct answers to pass.

  1. 1. A friend who has been drinking insists on driving home. What is the right thing to do?

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    Answer B: Take the keys and arrange a sober ride, even if the friend objects

    An impaired driver is dangerous on any street at any speed, and coffee does not lower blood alcohol. Keeping the keys and finding another way home is the only safe choice.

  2. 2. Railroad tracks cross the road at a slight angle. What is normally the safest way to cross them?

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    Answer B: Ride straight across while staying inside your own lane

    Riding straight ahead within your lane is usually safe on tracks that cross the road, because swerving to square them up can carry you into another lane or into oncoming traffic.

  3. 3. Does this sign settle who has the right-of-way at the intersection ahead?

    A yellow diamond showing a black cross
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    Answer D: No, it only gives notice of the intersection; the control there decides priority

    A warning prepares the driver for what is coming but grants no priority, so whatever stop control, yield control, signal or right-of-way rule applies at the intersection is what decides.

  4. 4. Your navigation device tells you to turn where a road sign says the turn is closed. What should you do?

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    Answer B: Follow the signs and what you can see

    A device works from stored data that can be out of date, while signs and the road in front of you show the situation now, so the road wins every time.

  5. 5. The crossbuck, formed by two rectangular arms crossed in an X, is placed

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    Answer D: on each highway approach to a railroad grade crossing

    The crossbuck marks the location of a highway-rail grade crossing and is required on each highway approach to that crossing.

  6. 6. You enter a work zone at night where one lane is closed and a flagger is on duty. What is the safest approach?

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    Answer A: Slow early, merge before the closure and be ready to stop

    Merging early at a reduced speed keeps the queue orderly and leaves you room to stop for equipment, workers or traffic that has halted ahead.

  7. 7. When should headlights be switched on besides during the hours of darkness?

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    Answer C: Whenever rain, fog, snow or dust makes it harder to see or to be seen

    Headlights are as much about being seen as about seeing, so they go on whenever visibility drops.

  8. 8. A wide solid white line separates the through lanes from an exit lane. What does it tell drivers?

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    Answer B: The choice of lane should already have been made

    A channelizing line marks where the paths separate and crossing it is discouraged or prohibited, so the lane change has to happen upstream.

  9. 9. How does eating a large meal before drinking affect impairment?

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    Answer D: It slows absorption but the alcohol still reaches the blood and impairs you

    Food delays how quickly alcohol enters the bloodstream, which can make the peak arrive later, but all of the alcohol is eventually absorbed.

  10. 10. Who should set the pace of a group ride?

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    Answer A: The last rider in the group, so that nobody is forced to hurry to keep up

    The tail ender sets the pace: every rider watches the mirrors for the rider behind, and if someone falls back the whole group slows a little to stay together.