French Motorcycle ETM common mistakes
French Motorcycle ETM · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering a priority question by reflex ('I am on the right, so I go') without first checking whether the other road user is on a priority road, and without reading the sign or marking that applies to the intersection.
Candidates learn the default rule of priority to the right early and then apply it as a shortcut on every question. In the French code, priority to the right applies only in the absence of any sign or marking, so a single STOP, yield line, or priority-road sign placed on the other branch inverts the answer. The reflex is reinforced by timed practice tests where speed feels rewarded.
What to do instead
Before choosing an answer, name the governing signal out loud in your head: sign present, marking present, or neither. Only if neither exists does priority to the right apply. Practise a set of mixed intersections where the sign is deliberately placed on the other road, and force yourself to state who is on the priority road before answering.
Treating the speed limit as the target speed and ignoring that the correct answer is often lower: approaching a crest, a bend, a village entry, roadworks, or a wet surface at the posted maximum.
Candidates equate legality with safety and memorise numbers (50 in built-up areas, 80 or 90 on secondary roads, 110 and 130 on dual carriageways and motorways) without linking them to visibility and grip. Exam questions often describe a situation where the limit is legal but too fast for the conditions, and the candidate picks the limit because it is the only number they are sure of.
What to do instead
Learn the rule that the rider must always be able to stop within the distance visible ahead, and that the limit is a ceiling, not a target. When a question mentions rain, gravel, a crest, or a hidden junction, treat the posted limit as wrong and look for the answer that reduces speed. Practise stating the visible stopping distance for 50, 80 and 90 km/h, including the roughly one-second reaction distance, so the numbers become meaningful rather than memorised.
Failing to scan for and anticipate two-wheelers and pedestrians in the rider's blind spots and at junctions, and answering as if the rider were the only vehicle that matters.
The exam tests the rider's responsibility toward others as much as their own rights. Candidates who ride or drive mainly as car drivers under-scan for motorcycles in mirrors and over-the-shoulder checks, and they underestimate how a pedestrian stepping off a pavement or a cyclist at a junction changes the correct action. The mistake is one of attention allocation, not of knowledge.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed scanning routine: mirrors, blind spot, then the hazard, every time a question involves a change of direction, a junction, or an overtake. When a pedestrian, cyclist, or another motorcycle appears in the scenario, assume they may move unpredictably and choose the answer that creates a margin. Practise describing what the rider can and cannot see from the saddle at each type of junction.
Choosing an evasive action (swerve, hard braking, accelerate out) before checking what is behind and beside, and without considering that braking and swerving at the same time on a motorcycle is unstable.
Emergency questions reward the fastest-looking response, and candidates pick the dramatic manoeuvre. In reality, a swerve into a lane occupied by an overtaking car, or a grab of the front brake on a wet bend, turns one hazard into two. Candidates also forget that a motorcycle brakes far less effectively when leaned over.
What to do instead
Apply a fixed order: check mirrors and blind spot, reduce speed first, then choose the line. Remember that a motorcycle should be upright before hard braking, and that the front brake provides most of the stopping power but must be applied progressively. When a question offers a swerve, check whether the answer mentions the space being free before selecting it.
Underestimating the effect of alcohol, fatigue, and medication on riding, and treating the legal alcohol limit as a safe threshold rather than a maximum that still impairs.
Candidates memorise the legal figures but not the impairment curve, so they answer that a rider 'just under the limit' is fit to ride. Fatigue is even more often dismissed, because there is no legal limit for it and candidates assume a question about a long ride is about speed rather than rest. The consequence is a wrong answer on any question that asks whether the rider should ride at all.
What to do instead
Learn that any alcohol impairs reaction time and balance, that the legal limit is a ceiling for prosecution and not a safety threshold, and that fatigue produces effects comparable to alcohol. For any question involving a long journey, night riding, medication, or a late night, look first for the answer that says do not ride or stop and rest. Link this to the practical rule of a break at least every two hours.
Misreading the road surface and infrastructure: treating a wet or gravel-strewn bend, a tram rail, a painted marking, or a metal drain cover as neutral, and choosing the same line and speed as on dry tarmac.
Candidates focus on the traffic in the scenario and treat the road itself as background. They do not connect specific surfaces to reduced grip: paint, metal, gravel, and diesel spills are all far more slippery than tarmac, and a bend hides both the surface and any oncoming vehicle. The error is one of hazard perception rather than of rule knowledge.
What to do instead
Build a checklist of low-grip surfaces and apply it whenever the question mentions rain, a bend, roadworks, or an industrial or rural setting: painted lines, tram rails, drain covers, gravel, fallen leaves, and diesel. On a wet bend, reduce speed before the bend, stay off the paint, and keep the bike as upright as possible. Practise reading road scenes for surface hazards rather than only for vehicles.
Forgetting the motorcycle-specific equipment and documentation requirements, or mixing up which items are compulsory for the rider, for the machine, and for a passenger.
The rules are split across several areas (helmet, gloves, high-visibility vest, reflective elements, insurance, registration, and the licence category), and candidates learn them as a list without grouping them. Under exam pressure they confuse what is required to ride with what is required to carry a passenger, and they forget that a passenger also needs a homologated helmet and that the machine must be adapted and insured for two people.
What to do instead
Group the requirements by question: what the rider wears, what the machine must carry, what the passenger needs, and what documents must be produced. Learn that a homologated and correctly fastened helmet and certified gloves are compulsory, that a high-visibility vest must be carried and worn when stopped on the road, and that carrying a passenger requires the machine to be designed and insured for it. Test yourself by sorting items into these four groups rather than reciting one long list.
Answering first-aid questions with the wrong priority: moving an injured rider, giving them something to drink, or removing their helmet, instead of protecting the scene and calling for help.
Candidates want to help and pick the most active-sounding option. They do not know that an injured motorcyclist should not be moved unless there is an immediate danger, that removing a helmet can worsen a spinal injury unless the airway is at risk and the rescuer is trained, and that the first action is always to secure the scene so that no one else is hurt.
What to do instead
Memorise the order: protect (warn traffic, switch off engines, do not smoke), alert (call the emergency services with a precise location, number of casualties, and hazards), then assist within your competence. Learn the French emergency numbers and what to say. For a fallen rider, keep them still and warm, do not remove the helmet unless breathing is compromised, and never give food or drink.
Skipping basic machine checks and maintenance knowledge, such as tyre condition and pressure, brake and chain condition, and lighting, and answering maintenance questions as if they were irrelevant to the riding test.
Candidates treat maintenance as a separate practical topic and concentrate on traffic rules. They then miss questions on tyre wear indicators, the effect of under-inflation on handling, chain tension and lubrication, and the legal minimum tread depth, and they cannot connect a maintenance fault to the riding consequence it causes.
What to do instead
Learn the pre-ride check as a short routine: tyres (pressure, tread, damage), brakes, chain or belt, lights and indicators, mirrors, and fluid levels. Link each fault to its riding effect, for example that under-inflation makes the bike slower to turn and overheats the tyre, and that a slack chain can derail. Revise the legal minimum tread depth and the wear indicators so the numbers are anchored.
Answering hazard-perception questions from the single most obvious hazard and ignoring the second one, such as the car pulling out while a cyclist is also approaching on the near side.
Exam scenarios are deliberately built with more than one hazard, and the obvious one draws attention. Candidates stop scanning once they have found something to react to, which is exactly the behaviour that causes real collisions: the rider fixes on the car and misses the pedestrian, or on the bend and misses the gravel.
What to do instead
Train a two-pass scan: identify the primary hazard, then deliberately look for a second one before answering, checking near side, far side, mirrors, and the road surface. In practice, say the hazards aloud as you ride or watch videos, and count them. In the exam, if an answer addresses only the obvious hazard, check whether another option also accounts for the second one.