G1 test day: what to bring, what happens, and what you leave with

The G1 is the first licence in Ontario's graduated system, and the knowledge test is the gate into it. You can apply at 16, and you have to be a resident of Ontario rather than a visitor. Since May 11, 2026, applying for a class G licence also means declaring that Ontario is your primary place of residence and that your presence in Canada is legal, so have that straight before you go to the counter.

If you have just moved to Ontario with a licence from somewhere else, you are not in a hurry on the day you arrive: the handbook gives new residents 60 days to keep driving on the licence they brought while they apply for an Ontario one. What happens to your foreign driving experience is a different question, covered in the guide on the road from G1 to a full G.

The knowledge test is taken at a DriveTest centre, and for that you do not book: appointments are not required, you walk in. The one exception is downtown Toronto, where the ServiceOntario office at Bay and College also runs the test, by appointment only. Road tests are the ones you book, later; the knowledge test is a walk-in.

The official pages do not say how long a visit takes or how busy a given centre is, so leave more time than the test itself needs: there is a queue, a vision test and the paperwork before you sit down. Check the centre's hours on drivetest.ca before you set out, and treat that site and ontario.ca as the only two places to get information about tests from. The handbook itself warns against services that charge to book tests or promise results.

The handbook's own checklist for the knowledge test is three lines long, and the first line is the one people get wrong: two pieces of identification, not one. The ontario.ca page spells out what they have to show, your legal name and your date of birth, and the handbook adds that they must be originals and still valid. Photocopies and expired documents are turned away.

The other two lines of the checklist are money for the fee, which the handbook says can be cash, debit or credit card, and your glasses or contact lenses if you need them to drive, because the vision test comes before the written one.

Which documents count depends on your status in Canada, and two things about the official list catch people out. An Ontario Photo Card counts as identification, but you cannot hold a photo card and a driver’s licence at the same time, so you give the card up as part of getting the licence. And the groups below are the common cases, not the whole list: the ontario.ca page links to the full one, and if your document is unusual, check it there before you queue.

The fee list on ontario.ca shows an original driver's licence, whether G1, G2 or G, at $90. That is not just the price of the test. The handbook explains what the amount you pay when you apply covers: the knowledge test, your first road test and a five-year licensing fee, all in one. What it does not cover is a second road test or any retest, which are charged separately.

The handbook you study from is free to read on ontario.ca; a printed copy is $14.95 plus tax at a DriveTest centre, cash only, or from retail stores. You do not need the printed one for the test. Fees change, and the fee page says so itself, so check it the week you go rather than relying on a figure you read somewhere else, including here.

Two tests stand between you and the G1, and they come in a fixed order: a vision test, then a test of your knowledge of the rules of the road and traffic signs. The vision test is why the checklist mentions glasses. Neither official page describes the vision test in detail, so there is nothing to prepare beyond bringing whatever you normally drive with.

The knowledge test is multiple choice. The handbook's own page of sample questions says every question on the test follows that format, and it is the only official description of the format there is. Here is what the ministry does not publish: how many questions there are, how they are split between signs and rules, and what score passes. Driving schools and practice sites, this one included, use a common practice format, but none of those numbers come from the ministry. If the format matters to you, ask at the DriveTest centre on the day.

What the test covers is published, in the handbook's own words. The chapter on getting your licence lists what the written test may ask about: seat belts, traffic signs and lights, emergency vehicles, headlights, speed limits, getting on and off a freeway, streetcars and school buses, licence suspensions, the demerit point system, passing, collision reporting, sharing the road, and the rules of the road in general. That list is a better study plan than any rumour about which questions come up.

Pass both and you get a G1 licence. It is a real licence with real conditions attached, and they apply from the moment it is issued, not from the first time you drive. The ones that catch new G1 holders most often are the ones about who is in the car and where you are.