DTT Fees, Booking and What to Bring (2026)

How much the DTT costs

The Driver Theory Test costs €45 for Category B (car), paid when you book through theorytest.ie. That fee covers one attempt — if you do not pass, you pay again in full for your next booking.

There is no discounted resit rate and no bundle pricing for booking multiple attempts up front, so it is worth treating each booking as a real attempt to prepare for rather than a low-stakes trial run.

Compared with the cost of driving lessons that typically follow once you hold a learner permit, €45 is a small outlay — but it is still worth protecting by walking in properly prepared rather than treating the fee as an acceptable cost of finding out where you stand.

Card payment is taken at the time of booking on theorytest.ie, so have your payment details ready before you start choosing a centre and slot. Keep your booking confirmation too — it has the details you will need if you ever have to contact theorytest.ie about your appointment.

How to book

Book directly on theorytest.ie, the official RSA booking site, and choose from theory test centres nationwide. Have your personal details ready when you book, and pick a centre and time that gives you enough runway to actually prepare rather than the very next available slot.

Centres and appointment availability vary by location, so if your nearest centre is booked out further than you would like, it is worth checking whether a slightly further centre has an earlier slot rather than waiting on one location.

Book a date that gives you genuine preparation time rather than the earliest slot available. A test booked three weeks out with a proper study plan behind it beats one booked for tomorrow on hope.

The exact format and pass mark

40 questions, 35 correct needed — 87.5%. Questions come from the official Rules of the Road: sign recognition, speed limits, priority, and safe driving judgement, delivered as a single computer-based multiple-choice paper at the test centre.

There is no separate hazard-perception video section here, unlike some other countries’ theory tests — the entire result comes from this one 40-question paper, which is part of why the pass mark sits as high as it does.

What to bring

Bring valid photo ID that matches the name on your booking. Check theorytest.ie for the exact accepted documents before you travel — being turned away for the wrong ID still costs you the fee and the slot, so it is worth confirming a few days ahead rather than assuming.

Arrive with time to spare rather than cutting it fine. Test centres run appointments back to back, and turning up late can mean losing the slot you already paid for.

If your ID situation is unusual — a recently renewed passport, a name that does not quite match your booking — sort it out with theorytest.ie before test day rather than hoping it gets waved through at the desk.

If you don't pass first time

There is no fixed mandatory wait under RSA rules, but theorytest.ie itself recommends waiting around three business days before resitting. Use that window to revisit whichever section let you down, rather than repeating the whole bank cold immediately.

A near miss and a wide miss call for different responses. If you were a question or two short, targeted revision of your weakest topic is probably enough; if you were well under the pass mark, it is worth going back through the full Rules of the Road booklet rather than only drilling practice questions.

Whichever it was, book the resit for a date you can actually prepare for properly, rather than the soonest slot out of frustration — a second rushed attempt tends to produce the same result as the first.

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