When exiting your vehicle during the basic vehicle control skills test, you must face the vehicle and maintain three points of contact at all times. If your testing vehicle is a bus, you must maintain contact with the handrail. Exiting the vehicle incorrectly may result in automatic failure of the basic control skills test.

When unloading students at a school, a bus driver must secure the bus by turning off the engine. If they must leave the driver's compartment, they should remove the key from the ignition. The driver must supervise the unloading process.

When stopping to pick up students, a school bus driver should ensure that all surrounding traffic has stopped before opening the door and signaling for the students to approach the bus.

A school bus driver should not attempt to move a student who has suffered a neck or spinal injury unless the student's life is in immediate danger.

When checking your vehicle's pedals during a pre-trip inspection, you should ensure that there is nothing under or around the pedals that will obstruct their use. Make sure the pedals are in proper working condition and that the surfaces of the pedals are grooved, if applicable.

Railroad crossings that do not display any traffic control devices are known as passive crossings. The decision to proceed across tracks at a passive crossing is entirely up to the driver.

Official school bus routes and stops are established by the local school district. Drivers should never change a stop location without the written approval of an appropriate district official.

Most commercial vehicles manufactured after 1998 or 1999 are required to be equipped with Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS). Many older buses are also equipped with ABS.

Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS) help prevent brake lockup when driving on slippery surfaces. If a driver brakes too hard on a slippery surface, ABS makes it easier for the driver to maintain control of their vehicle. A vehicle equipped with ABS should be driven and braked in the same way as a vehicle without ABS.

If a school bus is on fire, or if there is a threat of fire, it is mandatory for a bus driver to evacuate the students from the bus.

When inspecting a trailer coupling, you should make sure the fifth wheel locking jaws are closed around the shank of the kingpin, not the head of the kingpin.

The process of loading or unloading students from a school bus requires a driver's full concentration. If there is a behavioral issue on the bus, wait until the exiting students are safely off the bus and out of the way before you address the problem on the bus.

If you are stopped at a railroad crossing and a gate fails to return to its open position after a train passes, call your dispatcher. Do not attempt to drive around the lowered gate.

If you are asked to complete an offset back/right parking maneuver, you should first pull straight forward, then back up to the right. Your vehicle must be parked completely within the boundaries of the parking space.

Students who are about to unload a school bus should remain seated until the driver tells them that it is safe to exit. After exiting the bus, they should walk to a position that is at least 10 feet away from the bus so the driver can clearly see them.

Backing a school bus is strongly discouraged and should only be done if there is no safe alternative. If you must drive in reverse, be sure to follow all proper safety protocol.

When asked to make a lane change during the on-road driving test, you should make the proper traffic checks, use your turn signal, and smoothly change lanes when it is safe to do so.

An encroachment during the basic vehicle control skills test is when an exercise boundary line is touched or crossed by any portion of the applicant's vehicle. Every encroachment will be counted as an error.

In most emergency or crisis situations, students on a school bus will be safer and more easily controlled if they are kept on the bus than if they are evacuated. However, if staying on a bus will expose the students to risk or injury, the bus driver should escort them to a safe location.

A pre-trip inspection should be completed in the same way before every drive. Consistency will help you learn all of the proper steps and decrease the likelihood that you will forget to check something.