If you got a traffic ticket and need to take traffic school in order to get your ticket dismissed or have points removed from your driving record, you are probably wondering if you can take your traffic school online. Fortunately, in most cases, the answer is yes. While all states don’t allow online traffic school for ticket dismissal, the vast majority of them do.
What I recommend is checking out a few of the better online traffic schools and entering your ticket information. They will actually verify if you are eligible to go through their course. Some of the online traffic schools I recommend include:
There are a lot of really low quality online traffic schools and not all of them will verify your eligibility, so make sure you stick to one of the above online traffic schools, at least to determine if you’re eligible.
Is It Actually Better To Take Traffic School Online?
For the vast majority of you, without a doubt, it is way better to take traffic school online vs. a classroom. Most classroom based traffic schools take longer and cost the same. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, basically you sit in a stuffy classroom for 6 hours with a bunch of other traffic violators and get lectured to about driving laws and the dangers of not following those laws. It’s as fun as it sounds.
I’m not claiming online traffic school will be “super-happy-fun-time”, but you do get to go at your own pace, meaning, you can finish it all in one day or spread it out over time. Oh, and did I mention you don’t have to leave the house? That right there is good enough in my book. Plus, in many states, you are not timed when you go through the course. That means, you can finish your online traffic school in an hour instead of 6.
So yes, taking traffic school online is absolutely better than taking it in a classroom.
Some Tricks To Passing Your Online Traffic School With Flying Colors
When you go through the traffic school online, you will be given about 6 different sections to complete which cover everything from driving laws to distracted driving to vehicle maintenance and all that other good stuff. At the end of each section, you’ll need to pass a quiz before you can move forward. Finally at the end, you’ll need to complete a “final exam” which covers everything.
In order to ensure you pass the first time, take some notes and you can even take some screen shots of each page so that during the exams, you can go back and find the answers you need. There are also a lot of answers already posted online for you such as the iDriveSafely answers here.
The best way to be sure you pass your online traffic school easily, though, is to sign up for a legit online traffic school that is…. EASY! Check out some of my online traffic school reviews here to get a better idea of who to sign up for.
What Happens When I’m Finished
When you finish your online traffic school course, there are a couple of different things that can happen depending on the state you live in. For the state of California, you’re pretty much done. Online traffic schools in the state of California are required to send an electronic completion certificate to the courts automatically. You should of course verify the courts received the certificate, but at least it’s easy. In other states, like Texas, you will be mailed a completion certificate and you must actually go to the court clerks office and hand in the certificate yourself.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re in a state that requires you to obtain a physical copy of your completion certificate and hand it in yourself, do NOT procrastinate! The “processing time” for you to receive that certificate can be upwards of 2 weeks (maybe longer). If you need the completion certificate sooner than that, you will have to pay for expedited shipping and usually those shipping fees are largely inflated. Get it done quickly!
How To Find A Good Online Traffic School
Earlier in this article I posted a list of online traffic schools I recommend. You can also check out my online traffic school reviews here. Here is another website that reviews online traffic schools as well. I would actually avoid sites like Yelp when it comes to online traffic school reviews because many of the reviews there are fake, as in, they are written by the traffic schools themselves or the negative reviews could be from competitors. It’s just not a reliable source.
Aside from that, you should try to find an online traffic school that has been around for 10 years, has had millions of students go through their course, offer 24/7/365 customer support, and they should also have a good Better Business Bureau rating. Not all online traffic schools are created equal, so do some research first or go with any of the schools I recommended above.
Things to Consider When Taking Online Traffic School
Here are some things to consider if you decide to take an online traffic school:
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- Understand how you learn and retain information. Everyone learns differently. Some people do better with visual and video demonstrations. Other people are fine just reading text and putting the practical information into practice. No matter which way you like learning, online driving courses provide both types of learning experiences.
- Think about your learning environment at home. You will want to find a location where it is quiet and free from distractions and where you can sit comfortably while taking your online course. You can sit at a desk, stretch out on the sofa, or enjoy time outdoors on your patio.
- Don’t feel rushed to complete the course all at once. The way our brains work, we retain more information when we learn it in smaller “chunks.” It can be tempting to want to cover everything at once just to get it over with. However, by taking your time and completing one section of the material each day, you will find you retain the information better.
- Take one course at a time. Depending on the course you are taking and the reason, there are situations where multiple courses/exams may be needed.
- Repeat a section if you weren’t happy with the results. Unlike classroom-based traffic school, you can retake each section of the online course as often as you want. If you didn’t feel like you fully grasped or understood a particular topic in a section, no worries! Simply take a break and try it again.
- Remember to have fun! Learning to drive and completing online traffic school doesn’t have to feel like a chore. Many of the lessons are presented in an interactive, engaging, and fun way to not only educate but entertain at the same time.
- Follow all course instructions. Knowing what you should do with your completion certificate at the conclusion of the course is vitally important to ensure that your ticket is handled correctly and that you get all the benefits you should for having taken the course. Each state’s requirements are different, so always read carefully.
Conclusion
So, to answer the question, “can I take traffic school online?” The most likely answer is yes. If you follow the steps I supplied and use the resources I supplied you with, you should be able to quickly find out if you can take your traffic school course online or not.
Have some tips of your own? Feel free to post your own advice in the comment section below!