Mozambique INATRO Category B Driving Theory common mistakes
Mozambique INATRO Category B Driving Theory · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Reading a stop sign or red light as a yield situation and rolling through it while checking for traffic, instead of coming to a complete halt behind the stop line or crossing edge.
Candidates transfer habits from uncontrolled junctions where slowing and looking is enough, and the sign shapes are learned as pictures rather than as legal commands with distinct obligations.
What to do instead
Build a fixed drill: for octagonal STOP and circular red lights, say 'full stop, then look' and physically trace the stop line in the question scenario before choosing the answer. Practise sorting signs by obligation type (stop, yield, prohibition, mandatory, warning) rather than by appearance.
Confusing priority-to-the-right at unmarked intersections with priority for the wider or busier road, and choosing the larger road in the answer.
Real-world experience on main roads makes the wider road feel obviously superior, and the default rule for unmarked junctions is learned as an abstract sentence without applying it to diagram-free scenarios.
What to do instead
Memorise the default order: signs and signals first, then the general rule for unmarked junctions, then specific exceptions for turning across oncoming traffic and for emerging from tracks or private exits. In each question, state aloud which level of the hierarchy applies before answering.
Answering right-of-way questions by choosing the vehicle that arrives first, ignoring that a vehicle turning left across oncoming traffic must give way even if it reached the junction earlier.
The 'first to arrive goes first' heuristic is simple and often works, so candidates stop checking the manoeuvre being performed.
What to do instead
For every junction question, identify the manoeuvre of each vehicle: going straight, turning right, or turning left across traffic. Apply the rule that the left-turner yields to oncoming traffic going straight or turning right, then check signs and signals override it.
Treating horizontal markings such as continuous centre lines, stop lines, and zebra crossings as advisory decoration, and selecting overtaking or parking answers that contradict them.
Road markings fade and are often ignored in daily traffic, so candidates underweight them compared with vertical signs and do not learn which markings are legally binding.
What to do instead
Learn markings in pairs: continuous versus broken centre line (crossing prohibition versus permitted crossing when safe), stop line versus give-way line, and zebra versus other crossings where pedestrians have priority. For each, write one sentence on the legal consequence and test yourself on it.
Answering pedestrian and cyclist questions with 'the driver has right of way because the pedestrian crossed illegally' instead of recognising the duty to avoid collision and give way at crossings.
Candidates reason about fault after the fact rather than about the driver's preventive duty, and vulnerable-road-user questions are treated as general courtesy rather than as rules with defined priority.
What to do instead
Reframe every vulnerable-user question as 'what must the driver do to prevent harm'. Learn the specific obligations: slowing and giving way at zebra crossings, leaving safe lateral clearance when overtaking cyclists, and anticipating children and elderly pedestrians. Answer the preventive action, not the blame question.
Underestimating stopping distance and following distance, choosing an answer that reflects reaction time only or a fixed metre gap rather than speed-dependent total distance.
The two-second rule and braking distances are memorised as slogans without the underlying relationship between speed, reaction distance, and braking distance, so questions with doubled speed are answered by doubling the wrong quantity.
What to do instead
Learn the structure: total stopping distance equals reaction distance plus braking distance, and braking distance grows with the square of speed. Work through one example at a low speed and one at double that speed, and memorise the wet-road and load multipliers rather than single figures.
Answering alcohol questions with a vague 'do not drink and drive' instead of the specific legal limit, the fact that the limit is lower for novice and professional drivers, and the effect of alcohol at low doses.
The rule is treated as a moral message rather than a numeric standard, and candidates do not connect the limit to the loss of judgement and slowed reactions that occur before the limit is reached.
What to do instead
Memorise the legal blood alcohol figures that apply in Mozambique and the stricter thresholds for novice and professional drivers, then learn alcohol's effects in order: impaired judgement and risk perception first, then slowed reactions, then reduced coordination. Answer effect questions with the earliest effect, not the most dramatic one.
Confusing fatigue with alcohol impairment and choosing 'drink coffee or open the window' as the remedy instead of stopping to rest.
Candidates look for an active countermeasure and underestimate how quickly micro-sleeps occur, and fatigue is studied alongside distraction rather than as a physiological state.
What to do instead
Learn the signs of fatigue in order of appearance (yawning, heavy eyelids, drifting attention, missing exits) and the only effective remedy, which is stopping for rest or a short sleep. Treat stimulants and fresh air as temporary and insufficient in every answer.
Mixing up which documents must be carried in the vehicle and which are administrative, and confusing the validity periods of the driving licence, inspection, and insurance.
Candidates study documents as a list without grouping them by who holds them and when they expire, and they assume rules from neighbouring countries apply.
What to do instead
Build a table with three columns: document, who must carry it in the vehicle, and validity or renewal rule. Include the driving licence, vehicle registration, compulsory insurance, and periodic inspection, and mark which ones are checked at a roadside stop.
Choosing to move an injured motorcyclist or suspected spinal-injury casualty out of the road before securing the scene, or omitting the warning triangle and hazard lights from the first actions at a crash.
The instinct to help immediately overrides scene safety, and first-aid steps are memorised as a list without a fixed sequence.
What to do instead
Memorise the sequence: stop safely, switch on hazard lights, place the warning triangle at the correct distance, call emergency services, then assess casualties without moving them unless there is fire or another immediate danger. Learn the recovery position and how to control bleeding as the two skills most likely to be tested.