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Motorcycle · Category AM

Motorcycle & Moped theory test

Mopeds through to full-power motorcycles.

40

questions

45 min

to answer them

35 of 40

to pass (88%)

€45

official test fee

AM, A1, A2, A

licence categories

theorytest.ie

the only official service

Road signs

Learn the system, not just the pictures. Once you know what each shape and colour means you can read a sign you have never seen before — which is exactly what the test is checking. 216 signs can appear on the category AM test.

Shape and colour

Amber diamond

Warning — a hazard ahead. Ireland uses a diamond, not the red triangle used across most of Europe and in the UK.

Orange diamond

Warning at roadworks. Deliberately distinct from the permanent amber ones, so a temporary hazard stands out.

Red circle

Prohibition — you must not.

Blue circle

Mandatory — you must.

Octagon

Stop, and nothing else uses this shape.

Inverted triangle

Yield.

Blue rectangle

Information.

Red prohibits, blue compels. Getting that pair straight answers a large share of the sign questions on the test.

Direction signs

The colour tells you what class of road you are being sent onto — and therefore what its default speed limit is.

Blue

Motorway

Green

National roads (N-numbers)

White with black text

Regional and local roads

Brown

Tourist and heritage attractions

10 signs, quick quiz

1 of 10

Each sign as it stands on the road, and four meanings. Pick one — the meaning is what the test asks for, not the picture, and the wrong answers are real signs of the same kind.

What does this sign mean?


Green arrow — lane open.

Overhead lane signals override the lane markings beneath them.

What does this sign mean?


Level crossing without signals.

Nothing will tell you a train is coming. Stop, look both ways along the line and listen before you put a wheel on the rails.

What does this sign mean?


Tourist attraction.

Brown is reserved for tourism — castles, beaches, national parks.

What does this sign mean?


Move to the left.

Used where the works occupy the right-hand side. Follow the arrow and hold your line through the shift.

What does this sign mean?


Countdown marker — 200 m.

Two bars. The bars count down as you approach: three, two, one.

What does this sign mean?


No vehicles carrying explosives.

Used at tunnels and under some structures. The ban is about what is in the load, not the size or weight of the vehicle.

What does this sign mean?


Road narrows.

What does this sign mean?


Park and ride.

Leave the car here and finish the journey by bus or tram. Signed on city approaches where parking is scarce or expensive.

What does this sign mean?


End of detour.

You are back on the road the closure took you off.

What does this sign mean?


Toll coin basket lane.

No change is given, so have the coins ready before you commit to the lane. Attended lanes are signed separately.

The signs are drawn to the Traffic Signs Manual's designs, by us or from public-domain drawings on Wikimedia Commons; none is official artwork.The meanings are the book's; the wording of a question is ours.

In the app

Every sign in your pocket, and three ways to learn them.

Reading a list of signs is not the same as knowing them. The app makes you produce the meaning, which is what the test asks for.

The signs are drawn in the app, not photographed — the same shapes at any size, in the dark.
A sign turned over in PassDrive: No parking, what it means, and the sign it is often confused with

The whole library, and every sign turns over

Tap a sign for what it means and where you meet it — the meaning is the thing the test asks for, not the picture.

Set out in the groups the Irish sign guides use, and filtered by kind: warning, roadworks, regulatory, information, motorway

Search by name when you have seen one on the road and want it now

Works with no signal, which is most of the useful moments

The four meanings come from the same group, so the wrong ones are plausible, not silly.
The PassDrive sign quiz asking what a warning sign means, with four options

Ten quick questions on what they mean

Recognising a sign and producing its meaning are different skills, and only one of them is tested.

Four meanings, one sign, drawn from the group you are looking at

Never asks you to tell apart two signs that are drawn the same

A score at the end and another ten whenever you want them

'Not yet' brings a sign back sooner; a sign known five times stays away.
PassDrive flashcards showing the Stop sign, ready to be turned over

Or flip through them like flashcards

The old way, because it works: sign, guess, turn it over, next.

The full list or just the group you picked

Swipe or use the arrows — one hand, one thumb

Good for the five minutes before you go in

One group of signs is free; the whole library comes with the unlock.