If you want to learn how to drive, you’re taking your first step into a world with not just more mobility, but more opportunity and more freedom. Being able to drive a car means having the control to go where you want when you want, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. A car is a heavy-duty piece of machinery that travels at great speeds, and that’s why there are legal requirements that every driver needs to meet in order to obtain a driver’s license.
A driver’s license isn’t just a document that allows a person to drive, it is a certification that says you meet the minimum requirements of skill, knowledge, and responsibility that getting behind the wheel of a vehicle demands. And whether you’re driving in the city in Phoenix or out on the open highway or rural areas, you need to take your responsibility as a driver seriously. Driving a car means you’re not just in charge of your own safety, but the safety of your passengers as well as other driver’s on the road. That’s why you should always consider learning how to drive the correct way, and get professional education and training from a good Arizona driving school.
But how do you know which ones are good? That’s where we come in.
Arizona Driving School Requirements
If you’re under 18 years old, the first step to applying for your driver’s license is to get an instruction permit. This permit will allow you to get sufficient behind-the-wheel driving experience under the supervision of a fully licensed parent or guardian over 21. To get a Graduated Instruction Permit, teens must be 15 and a half years old. They must have the consent of a parent or guardian, and they are required to pass a written and vision test.
While driver’s ed isn’t required to get an instruction permit in Arizona, it’s still the best way to prepare you for behind-the-wheel training and your written test. With online driver’s ed, you can access convenient learning tools to teach you everything there is to know about road safety, responsible driving, and Arizona state laws.
Schools like Driversed.com and DriverEdtoGo offer engaging online resources that you can access on any device. Learn from videos, simulations, and 3D animations. You can also get access to free practice MV tests to pass your written exam. Take note that these online schools are not authorized by the MVD. They’re meant to offer valuable supplementary resources to help you ace your written exam and have the confidence to get behind the wheel.
With online driving school, you can also have the option to earn high school credits or get an auto insurance discount.
To move forward and get your Graduated Driver’s License (Class G), teens 16 years old and under 21 need to complete a classroom driver education program approved by the MDV or your parent or guardian must certify that you’ve completed at least 30 hours of behind the wheel training. This includes 10 hours of nighttime driving.
Drivers 18 years old and above can apply for a full Class D license without an instruction permit. Take note that you will still need to pass a written knowledge test, and an online driving school is the most convenient way to prepare for the exam.
Making The Right Choice
As with anything in life, the spectrum of Arizona driving schools ranges from excellent to poor. Some driving schools will have years of experience teaching students, with fully developed schedules, official state recognition and certification, glowing testimonials from past students, and high rates of success for students that attend these schools and go on to take their driver exams. There are other schools that are essentially scams, taking money and providing the bare minimum—or even outright poor—instruction that doesn’t adequately prepare you for your final driver’s test evaluation.
In the past, the only way to really find out what the quality of an Arizona driving school was like was through personal experience or word of mouth. It would have been impossible to personally attend every driving school to gauge the quality of the education, but your own experience at a school, combined with that of others at other driving schools could form an at least partial picture of what some Arizona driving schools were really like.
Today, any hopeful driver with an Internet connection can get information about a school through us, Traffic School Critics. We serve many states, including Arizona, by taking our own experience with driving school implementation, and rigorously evaluate every Arizona driving school we can find to assign a rating and advise prospective students about whether a school is a good place to attend or one that is best avoided if you want true value for your money.
How We Work
Our staff consists of experienced professionals that have both taught driving as well as designed driving courses, so we know the ins and outs of what constitutes an effective Arizona driving school. We have our own stringent certification system that looks at many different factors. We evaluate the quality of the teaching, we look for a better business bureau rating, we look for state certification, how long the company has been business, how many students have attended and the more intangible characteristics, such as whether the education is engaging, how the user experience may be for an online school, and many, many other elements.
After all of these factors have been weighed, we issue our review of a particular school, so hopeful drivers can read the evaluation for themselves. If the school meets many of our top requirements, we even award them Traffic School Critics certification, which means that the school belongs to a top tier class of driving schools that offer the best value and best quality in terms of driver education.
Drivers have many options, including online driving schools where students can learn the theoretical components of driving such as traffic regulations and safety theory from the comfort of their home. This is especially good for people that may find it difficult to commit to attending a driving class on a regular basis in some far away location from where they live. Once again, we have taken every effort to evaluate many of these online Arizona driving schools, so that students can see what we think and make their own judgments about which schools meet their needs.
So if you’re thinking about getting your driver’s license and getting behind the wheel, take the time to look for a good school. With a TSC certified Arizona driving school, you’ll make sure that the money you invest translates into a good education not just on how to drive, but how to drive safely, and pass your driving exam.