American Safety Council's Online Pre-Licensing Course provides a convenient learning option for new drivers seeking their first license. To be eligible for the course, the student must be 18 years old or older at the time of purchase.
The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (NYS DMV) requires all new drivers 18 and older to successfully complete a pre-licensing course before scheduling an appointment for their road test.
You'll learn safe driving skills, rules of the road and state traffic laws — and you'll be one step closer to getting your New York driver license.
The New York 5-Hour Online Pre-Licensing Course is for new drivers ages 18 and up. You must be 18 or older at the time of purchase and have a valid New York photo learner permit before you can start the course. After you successfully pass the course, you can schedule your road test, the last step to getting your New York driver license.
At this time, teens seeking a junior driver license (Class DJ) or junior motorcycle license (Class MJ) are not eligible for the Online Pre-Licensing Program and must complete the five-hour course in the classroom.
Visit the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles website to learn more about the steps to getting a driver license.
After successfully completing the course, you can schedule an appointment with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to take your road test.
The online 5-Hour Pre-Licensing Course has nine learning modules and takes about five hours to complete. There is no final exam, but each module ends with a brief quiz.
You must score at least 70% on each quiz to pass the course. You have up to three attempts to pass each quiz. If you do not pass a quiz after three attempts, you will be locked out of the course and required to re-register.
The course includes at least 270 minutes of learning, not including quizzes, and allows time for multiple breaks.
Students must confirm their identity during their training by completing a series of security checkpoints. At several points throughout the course, you will be prompted to verify your identity. To do so, you must successfully answer a security question or complete a voice-based security check.
You have up to three attempts to correctly answer each security question or successfully pass the voice-based security check. To maintain our approval, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles requires providers to permanently lock students out of the course after failing three security attempts in a row. At that point, the student would have to re-register for the course for additional attempts.
You may be prompted to use a technique called Voice Biometrics to validate your identity throughout the course. The course will instruct you to call a phone number, enter a unique student ID number and read off a series of numbers. Your student ID and the verification numbers will appear on your screen within the course player, and your voice will be recorded as you read the numbers out loud.
At several checkpoints throughout your training, you will be prompted to repeat the process of calling in to confirm your identity. During each checkpoint, you will receive a new student ID and another set of numbers to read. The Voice Biometric system will validate your identity by comparing each new voice sample you provide with your original voice sample.
At each Voice Biometric checkpoint, you have up to three attempts to successfully confirm your identity. If you fail three consecutive attempts, you will be locked out of the course.
At the start of your course, you may be prompted to answer a series of multiple-choice security questions about yourself. These personal questions will be used to confirm your identity throughout the course.
During a security question checkpoint, one of the questions that you previously answered will appear on your screen. You will have 45 seconds to enter the correct answer.
You have up to three attempts at each security question checkpoint to successfully answer the question and confirm your identity. If you fail three consecutive attempts, you will be locked out of the course.
The state requires students to successfully complete the Online Pre-Licensing Course within 30 calendar days of purchasing the course. In addition, you must take the road test for your driver license within one year of completing the course.
While graduates of the classroom-based pre-licensing course receive a Pre-Licensing Course Certificate (MV-278), new drivers who complete an Online Pre-Licensing (OPL) course don't need to provide a paper certificate to the NYS DMV. Your course completion status will be automatically reported to the NYS DMV.
If students do not satisfy the 18+ age requirement at the time of course purchase, the NYS DMV will not validate or process their course completion.
New York Safety Council provides an email confirmation when you complete the course and notifies the NYS DMV of your course completion. After you pass the course, it may take up to 24 to 48 hours for your completion status to be posted to your driver record.
You must take your road test at a NYS DMV location within one year of completing the course. When you arrive to take your road test, NYS DMV records will show that you successfully completed the 5-hour course.
Once you pass the New York Online Pre-Licensing Course, you can make an appointment to take the road test for your driver license. Your course completion will remain valid for one year, so be sure to take your road test within one year of passing the course.
Before you take your road test, you need to:
Because American Safety Council automatically reports your course completion to New York, you do not need to bring any proof of course completion to your road test.
The New York 5-Hour Online Pre-Licensing Course covers a wide range of topics that will prepare you to drive safely, avoid accidents and follow New York vehicle and traffic laws.
The training program is divided into nine modules:
You can find a full overview of each module's learning objectives below.
Learning objectives for Module 1 include:
Learning objectives for Module 2 include:
Learning objectives for Module 3 include:
Learning objectives for Module 4 include:
Learning objectives for Module 5 include:
Learning objectives for Module 6 include:
Learning objectives for Module 7 include:
Learning objectives for Module 8 include:
Learning objectives for Module 9 include:
The course ends with a review that covers the main takeaways from each module. By the end of the course, you'll know the importance of making wise decisions when it comes to every aspect of safe driving.