Ok, our licensing system is as follows:

At the age of 15, anyone can apply to pass their learner's licence, which is a theoretical exam based on the Road Code (our driving rules). You are allowed 3 incorrect answers out of 35. 20 (or maybe 30) of the questions are based on general road rules, and the other 15 (or 5) are based on everything and anything else to do with motoring, licensing a vehicle, road conditions etc. What I find funny is that it's a scratchie test - you scratch away the answer you think is correct. It is conducted at a branch office of the NZ Automobile Association (AA).

Once you have your learners, you can then arrange for driving lessons with an instructor who is over the age of 20 years and holds, and has held, their Full licence for more than 2 years. You have to be on your learners for a minimum of 3 months (if you use an instructor from a driving school) or 6 months (if you use a private instructor) before you can apply to sit your restricted licence.

The restricted licence is based on a 1 hour on-road test. Before you can even get into the car with the testing agent, they do an inspection of your vehicle to ensure that it meets our Warrant of Fitness (WOF) standards. If it doesn't meet the standards, it is an automatic fail. If it does, the testing agent will instruct you on where you should drive and ask you questions while you are driving based on the hazards around you and the situation on the road. You enter higher speed zones (usually no more than 70km/hr). By this time, you should have full control of the car so should just be concentrating on the driving although they do also check that you can and do handle the car correctly.
You hold your restricted for a minimum of 12 months (I think it's a minimum of 6 if you are over 25), and cannot carry passengers - unless it's someone over 20 with their full licence, and you are not allowed to drive between 10pm and 5am. (Hence why it is called the 'restricted').

After you have had your restricted for the minimum period and are confident in your driving abilities, you can apply to sit your full licence. This is a pretty similar test to the restricted, and is usually much easier to pass than going from the learners licence to the restricted. Once you have achieved the full licence, nothing can stop you! I had a practice full licence test with a driving instructor the day before my test and it was the best thing I could have ever done!

Our licensing system is called a 'graduated licensing system' because you have to go through stages before you can call yourself a fully licenced driver. Helps to weed out the bad eggs and the time lengths that you stay on each licence for are designed to give people the most amount of experience behind the wheel possible.

How do other people's compare?