Queensland does not run a traditional written learner test any more. The Department of Transport and Main Roads replaced it with PrepL, an online course of roughly 4 to 6 hours that finishes with a 30 question assessment. You need 27 correct, which is 90%, and you can start from 15 years and 11 months of age. Those details were checked on 27 August 2026.
The 90% problem
Ninety percent is the highest learner assessment pass mark in Australia. Three wrong answers across the whole assessment and you are done. For comparison, Victoria allows seven wrong out of 32, Western Australia allows six out of 30, and the Australian Capital Territory allows four out of 35, all checked on the same date.
The one place with a tighter requirement is a section rather than a whole test: the New South Wales road safety section needs 29 of 30, and South Australia's give way section requires all eight answers correct. But across a full assessment, Queensland asks for more accuracy than anywhere else.
This is why people who found the course straightforward still stall at the end of it. Reading through several hours of material gives you familiarity, and familiarity is worth about 80% on a multiple choice assessment. The gap between 80% and 90% is made of the specific rules you skimmed.
What the course covers
PrepL is structured learning rather than a quiz with a timer. It covers road rules, road safety, risk and the responsibilities that come with a learner licence, and hazard perception is handled inside the course rather than as a separately booked test the way it is in New South Wales and Western Australia.
The fee is $29.70, read on the Department of Transport and Main Roads fee page on 28 August 2026, covering the course and the assessment together. That is mid range nationally: Tasmania's knowledge test is free, South Australia's theory test is $40, and Western Australia charges $22.40 for a first sitting of its theory test and $19.20 for each resit.
How to prepare for the assessment
Do the course properly rather than clicking through it. It is the official material, it is included in what you have paid, and it is written by the people who wrote the assessment.
Then practise at the real bar. Drilling 30 question sets and treating anything below 27 as a fail changes how you read your own results. A score of 25 feels like a good attempt and is not a pass, and the habit of accepting 25 is exactly what produces a failed assessment.
Keep a list of the specific rules behind every wrong answer rather than a tally of scores. Three wrong answers is such a narrow margin that a single soft topic, usually give way rules or speed zones, is enough on its own to fail you repeatedly.
After the learner licence
Queensland requires 100 supervised logbook hours before the practical test, which is lower than the 120 required in New South Wales and Victoria.
The Q-SAFE practical test passes about 61% of candidates statewide, checked on 27 August 2026. Queensland is also the most open jurisdiction in the country with its testing data: practical test results are published as open data broken down by local government area, licence class, booking type and age group, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. That means the variation between locations is a matter of public record rather than guesswork, and it is the source behind our Queensland location pages.
How this guide is kept honest
Every figure above names the agency or dataset it came from and the date it was checked. Where a number has not been confirmed against an agency or an open dataset, the guide says it is being verified rather than filling the gap. Licensing rules change, so check the agency page before you pay for anything or book a test.
Last reviewed against Department of Transport and Main Roads.