Theory course · Topic 1 of 14
Topic 1
Your own fitness to drive
The first double lesson is not about the car. It is about you.
In short
Topic 1 settles what you have to bring yourself before you drive anywhere: usable eyesight, attention that holds, and the willingness to answer for a ton and a half of metal. It sits at the very start of the theory course because no priority rule and no road sign helps when the person at the wheel is exhausted, on medication, or thinking about something else entirely.
Before you register
You need the eyesight test and a first-aid course of nine teaching units for the application to the licensing authority, not just for the test. Both are available in Düsseldorf at short notice, and we will tell you where.
What this topic teaches you
The lesson starts with your eyes. You need an eyesight test to apply for a licence, but the classroom is interested in far more than how many letters you can read off a chart: in the field of vision that narrows as speed rises until only a tunnel is left; in glare from low sun or wet cobbles; and in how long your eyes need to adjust from a lit main road to a dark side street. Anyone who has understood that drives differently after dark — slower, further back, looking further ahead.
The second block is reaction. Between something happening and your foot reaching the brake, roughly a second passes, and in that second the car travels on unbraked. Everything that stretches that second belongs to this lesson: tiredness, a conversation, a glance at a screen, alcohol, agitation. This is not a sermon, it is arithmetic — at 50 km/h that second is about fifteen metres of road you have already used up.
The third block is fitness to drive in the legal sense. You learn that you are the one who answers for it, not your doctor and not your passenger. That covers medication that makes you drowsy, a fever, a night with two hours of sleep, and alcohol — where the limit during the probationary period, and for everyone under 21, is zero anyway.
- Acuity, field of vision, seeing at dusk
- Reaction time and what stretches it
- Tiredness, stress, medication
- Who answers for being fit to drive
What it looks like in Düsseldorf
Your first driving lesson with us starts on Oststraße, in the middle of the city centre. That is not a quiet car park: it is rush-hour traffic, Rheinbahn trams, delivery vans double-parked, and people stepping out between cars onto the carriageway. Concentration stops being a word from a textbook — after forty minutes you feel physically that driving is work. That is exactly why a driving lesson is a teaching unit of 45 minutes rather than two hours in one go.
The three night drives among the twelve Sonderfahrten are where topic 1 suddenly becomes practical. Lighting changes on the Rheinkniebrücke, full beam and oncoming traffic arrive on the A46, and in the residential streets of Bilk or Pempelfort a cyclist without lights disappears from view completely. Anyone who has heard how the eye reacts to darkness is noticeably calmer that evening.
What the test does with it
The theory test asks 30 questions and allows at most 10 error points. Topic 1 supplies the questions on vision, reaction time and fitness to drive — and they are almost never pure knowledge questions. They describe a situation and want to know what you do: you are exhausted and still have thirty kilometres to go; you have taken a medicine with a warning on the leaflet. The correct answer is nearly always the inconvenient one.
In the practical test, which lasts 55 minutes for Class B, the same topic shows up as where you look. The examiner can see whether your eyes are far down the road or on the bonnet, whether you really check both ways at a junction, and whether a conversation pulls you off course. That is not harassment — it is the content of this first double lesson, without the projector.
- Questions on exhaustion and medication
- Reaction time inside the stopping-distance question
- Looking far ahead instead of at the bonnet
- Staying composed while people talk in the car
Common questions
Do I have to attend topic 1 before I start driving lessons?
No. The topics run in a continuous cycle, you can join at any class, and you can start driving lessons as soon as your application is in. It is still worth coming early: much of topic 1 explains why your instructor keeps saying „look further ahead“ in the first lesson.
What happens if I need glasses?
The visual aid is entered in your licence and you have to wear it when driving. That is entirely normal and no disadvantage in your training. What matters is that you have them with you for the practical test — without them you are not allowed to sit it.
How long may I keep driving when I am tired?
The honest answer from this double lesson is: not at all. Tiredness cannot be pushed away, not with an open window and not with loud music. The only remedy is to stop and sleep. The lesson is mostly about recognising the signs early enough — heavy eyelids, feeling cold, a gaze that sticks to one point.
Is topic 1 core material or additional material?
Core material. For Class B you attend 12 double lessons of core material and 2 double lessons of class-specific material. Topic 1 is the first of those twelve and is identical for every licence class.