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Waste_Ad_5565 t1_j8hwy8y wrote

This is one of those funny things that's a carryover from when almost all schools had in-house driver's Ed.

You can enroll in a student driver course with a PA licenced instructor at 15 years of age. With your enrollment you will be eligible to obtain your permit and begin building your required supervised driving hours, but you must pass the written permit test as part of your enrollment, if you don't pass the knowledge test, no early permit/driving school.

If you do pass and get a permit you will have to complete the student driver school and have a certificate of completion to present at the DMV to schedule your road test. The road test cannot be taken until you are 15.5, so around July 22.

If you pass your road test you can indeed be a licensed driver before 16.

If you cannot enroll in a driving school you're basically SOL until your 16th birthday.

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QuarterFearless5704 OP t1_j8gcrw4 wrote

I am asking because I have seen websites that say 15 with others saying 16

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brashendeavors t1_j8gdttr wrote

Yeah I am seeing that also now that I look deeper?

This page also seems to say 16 but above I cited a link saying 15.

You might need to call the DMV and ask why there are these two conflicting ages.

Elsewhere, I found this:

>You must be at least 16 years old to apply for a learner's permit in Pennsylvania, but you can start fulfilling the physical exam and other pre-appointment requirements as early as 15 ½ (source)

It seems to agree though just turning 15 by itself won't do it. Six months after turning 15, you can start doing some eligibility requirements but no permit till 16, from what I read...

Please note that the website that did say 15, was NOT an official state DMV site. Just a unofficial web page, which really ANYONE can make and factual accuracy doesn't matter, shrug.

So someone random made a page collecting each state's info -- and they got Pennsylvania's info wrong. Then probably other sites copied that wrong info. Only the official PA state gov pages should be trusted.

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AnotherUser297 t1_j8gedma wrote

I’m pretty sure you could get the permit at 15 and a half maybe 10-15 years ago. It’s now at age 16, and you can take your drivers test after 6 months and a set number of supervised driving hours.

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ImNorm29 t1_j8nxkyt wrote

Unless there were a different set of rules in between, the prior rules were that you could go take the written learner's permit test ahead of your 16th birtday (I think 30 or 60 days, but I don't remember exactly). The state would then mail you your permit on/about your birthday, but the permit was still not valid until your 16th birthday. I distinctly remember mine arriving on my birthday mid-week and I was able to go take my DL test on Saturday morning (there was no requirement to hold the permit for 6 months before taking the DL test back then).

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RedditModsArePoor t1_j8gf6j5 wrote

Another magical thing you could do , maybe call the DMV to be 100% sure rather than asking people on reddit?

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ExplorerCheap8515 t1_j8l4umq wrote

In my day, you could get your PA learner's permit 30 days before your sixteenth birthday. I had my junior driver's license two weeks after my 16th birthday. Not the same anymore.

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ImNorm29 t1_j8nz4mv wrote

You could apply for it and take the written test, but it wasn't valid until your 16th birthday (at least that's how it was in '85). My birthday was on a Wednesday, permit arrived in the mail that day and I took my test 3 days later.

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RedditModsArePoor t1_j8gceiq wrote

For having all knowledge readily available at your fingertips, kids are stupid:

​

https://www.dmv.pa.gov/Driver-Services/Driver-Licensing/Driver-Manual/Chapter-1/Pages/Applying-for-a-Learner's-Permit.aspx

​

This took me 1 minute to find or less:

"You must obtain a learner's permit before you operate a motor vehicle in Pennsylvania. You will need to take and pass the Vision, Knowledge and Road tests to get your driver's license. The Non-Commercial Learner's Permit Application (DL-180) (PDF) is valid for one year from the date of your physical examination; however, the physical examination date may not be more than six months prior to your 16th birthday."

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brashendeavors t1_j8gct4i wrote

And also:

"When you are 16 years of age or older, please complete the following steps in order to get your non-commercial learner's permit. You cannot apply for your permit before your 16th birthday."

I am confused of course why it says 'the physical examination date may not be more than six months prior to your 16th birthday' as well as 'You cannot apply for your (non-commercial learner's permit) before your 16th birthday' (???)

Then there is also this:

https://driversed.com/dmv/pennsylvania/gdl/

>Learners permits are issued to applicants who are at least 15 years of age and have successfully completed a written knowledge examination. The permit holder is allowed to drive under the supervision of a licensed driver who is at least 21 years old.

So confusing to me all around, to be frank.

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ImNorm29 t1_j8nyuhw wrote

Confusing point #1 - the "physical exam" is referring to a doctors exam, proving you don't have any chronic health issues which would prevent you from operating a vehicle safely; including vision issues which would require you to wear corrective lenses while driving. In order to get your permit, you need to have a doctor complete a physical paper. All this requirement is saying is that the paper needs to have been filled out at most 6 months before you apply for the permit.

Confusing point #2 - the site you're linking to isn't official; it looks to be a reference site that gathers info from various states and tries to be a single point of information. These sites shouldn't be trusted IMO. They are mostly out there generating ad-revenue by impersonating authority. In some cases, they may be accurate, but the specific state's own site (in this case PA) would certainly be THE site to trust.

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PoorFraxinus t1_j8gjvxj wrote

It's called being lazy, and it's not a trait that's exclusive to the younger generation. A lot of people would rather ask a question and have someone else (potentially more knowledgeable) answer it for them

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TSUTigers95 t1_j8gd2pu wrote

It’s amazing how lazy people can be and want other people to do their work for them.

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[deleted] t1_j8jckiy wrote

Someone just asked a simple question, if you don’t have the answer or don’t care, why bother making snide comments?

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TSUTigers95 t1_j8jcveu wrote

Because it’s to show how ridiculous of a question or request they are making. I am allowed to reply.

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