The 70-Point Trial System: Every Station, Every Deduction, and What Fails You Outright

The trial used to be pass or fail on a single mistake. It is not any more. Under the point system you start with 100 points and pass at 70, across seven stations. You can make mistakes and still walk out with a licence.

That changes how you should ride or drive on the day. One wobble is not the end of your test, and panicking after it is what actually costs people the licence.

Trial coming up? Yatayat Likhit carries the trial checklists alongside the full written-exam bank — free and offline.

First, check it applies to you

Adoption is provincial, not national. The 70-point system is reported as adopted in Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim. Madhesh and Karnali are not on that list.

Ask at your own office before you plan around it. If your office still runs the old rules, a single serious mistake can still end the test.

How the scoring works

• You start at 100.
• Each station is worth 10 to 20 points, depending on how much it matters.
• Mistakes cost you a set number of points.
• Some mistakes are not a deduction at all — they end the test.
• You need 70 or more at the end.

So you have 30 points of room across the whole trial. That is enough for a few small errors and not enough for a bad station.

Bike and scooter, station by station

Two things jump out of that table.

The figure-8 and the slope are worth 40 points between them. Get both wrong and you are out before anything else counts. They are also the two you can practise for free in an empty car park.

Forgetting your indicator on the U-turn costs 10 points — the entire station. That is the cheapest 10 points anyone loses all day, and it is pure habit.

Car, station by station

The behaviour deductions are the ones people find unfair, and they are the easiest to avoid: walk around the car, check the mirrors, put the seatbelt on. That is seven points for thirty seconds of work.

The safety check nobody practises

Before you move off, on both bike and car, you are expected to check the vehicle. Mirrors, tyres, brakes. Skipping it is a deduction on its own — three points on the car, and part of the behaviour station on the bike.

Build it into every practice run so it happens without thinking on the day. It looks small on the table and it is free.

Where the 30 points actually go

A realistic bad-but-passing bike run:

Still a pass. Now add one more line touch in the 8 — and that is not another five points, it is the second touch, which ends the test outright.

That is the real lesson of the point system: the deductions are survivable and the outright-fail rules are not. Learn the last column of those tables before you learn anything else.

What ends the test, in one list

Memorise these. Everything else is points.

• Touching the figure-8 line, or putting a foot inside it, more than once
• Putting a foot down or leaving the narrow plank at all
• Stalling twice on the speed breaker or the slope
• Rolling back more than about six inches on the car slope
• Touching the boundary on the U-turn
• Crossing the lines when parking, or going forward twice
• Ignoring the traffic light
• Reckless riding or driving

If you fail

You get more than one attempt, but the exact limit is one of the things sources genuinely disagree about. Commonly reported: three attempts in total, a wait of about 10 days before a retrial, and a fee of around Rs 500 each time. The window on those three attempts is quoted as 90 days by some sources and 18 months by others.

Confirm the rule at your own office before you plan around it. What is not in dispute is the shape of it: a limited number of attempts, a waiting period between them, a fee each time, and — if you use them all up — starting the whole process again from the written exam.

So do not book the retry until you have fixed the thing that failed you. For most people that is the figure-8 or the hill start, and both need a flat empty space and twenty minutes a day rather than another hopeful attempt. Every station and how to practise it.

The written half is the one you fully control

The trial needs a ground, a vehicle and practice. The likhit needs none of that — the questions are published by DOTM, about 500 of them, so covering everything is genuinely possible.

I built Yatayat Likhit so that half is not the one that catches you out: the whole bank with the reason next to each answer, tracking of what you keep getting wrong, timed mocks in the exam format, the Nepali road signs, trial checklists, and an Ishihara-style colour-vision test for the medical. Free, offline, Nepali and English, for categories A, K and B.

Get it: Yatayat Likhit — free on iPhone and Android. The link opens your own app store.

How to practise against the table

The point table tells you exactly where to spend your practice time, and it is not spread evenly.

Bike, in priority order:

1. Figure-8 and slope — 40 points together. Two markers about 4 m apart in an empty car park, first gear, walking pace, clutch slipping, rear brake feathered. Look where you want to go, not at the front wheel.
2. Speed breaker — 15. Practise crossing slowly without a foot down.
3. Traffic light — 15. Free marks if you simply obey it.
4. Narrow plank — 10, and one foot down ends it. Slow, straight, eyes ahead.
5. U-turn — 10, and the indicator is half of it. Signal every single time in practice so it is automatic.

Car, in priority order:

1. Figure-8 and garage parking — 40 together. Full-lock circles both ways, then reverse parking between markers. Slow beats neat-and-fast.
2. Traffic light — 15, all or nothing.
3. Speed breaker and slope — 30 together. Clutch control and the handbrake hill start.
4. U-turn — 10. Indicator.
5. Behaviour — 7 points of free deductions. Walk round the car, mirrors, seatbelt.

Twenty minutes a day for two weeks covers all of it. That is a smaller commitment than one failed attempt and another wait for a slot.

Questions people ask

How many points do you need to pass the trial in Nepal?

70 out of 100. You start at 100 and lose points for mistakes, so you have about 30 points of room across seven stations.

Is the 70-point trial system used everywhere in Nepal?

No. It is reported as adopted in Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim. Confirm at your own transport office (yatayat karyalaya, यातायात कार्यालय) before you rely on it.

How many points is the figure-8 worth?

20, on both bike and car — the joint highest of any station, and each yellow line touch costs 5.

What automatically fails the trial?

Touching the figure-8 line more than once, any foot down on the narrow plank, stalling twice, rolling back on the car slope, touching the U-turn boundary, crossing the parking lines, ignoring the traffic light, or reckless driving.

How many times can I retake the trial?

Commonly reported as three attempts in total, with about 10 days between them and roughly Rs 500 each. The window is quoted as both 90 days and 18 months depending on the source, so confirm at your own office.

Does forgetting the indicator really cost 10 points?

On the U-turn, yes — the whole station. It is the cheapest avoidable loss in the test.

Keep reading

• The trial, station by station — how to practise each one.
• Practising at home — free drills for every station.
• If you fail — attempts, waiting period and fee.
• What to take on trial day — the checklist.
• Finding your trial date — it is published as a name list.
• Driving schools and cost — when paying for ground time is worth it.
• The written exam — the other half.