Driving tests are hard, and Driver's Ed is expensive. Plus, many states in the US don't have great, accessible materials for you to study from -- so how are you supposed to pass your driving test?

The answer lies in one simple app: DMV Genie. No matter what state you live in or what kind of vehicle you drive, this app (available for both iPhones and Android) can help you ace that test on your first try by including real information from your state's DMV manual.

Download: DMV Genie (Free) on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store (we're looking at the Android version in this post).

Getting Started

Open up the app, and you'll be greeted with a bright yellow screen that adheres beautifully to Material Design and has only one option: Start. After that, you'll have to choose your state (or the District of Columbia) and then what type of license you are trying to get. For most folks, this will likely be a regular car license, but there are also options for motorcycles and commercial licenses.

DMV Genie Screenshot Setup

If you need help at any point, you can tap the three-dot icon in the upper right of the app and select "Ask an expert", which will bring you to a what looks like a purple messaging app where you can quickly and easily contact support.

If you need to change your state or your type of license, you can use the car and location icons in the upper right as well. And that's really all there is to get started! The next step is to start testing yourself.

Testing Yourself

You might be thinking, "Why am I being tested? I haven't even practiced yet!" But in DMV Genie, testing is how you practice. Start with the easiest tests and work your way up to the harder tests using the tabs along the top (or you can swipe between the pages).

DMV Genie Screenshot Practice Tests

Go through the first Easy test, and you'll probably get at least a few of them wrong. That's okay! You'll revisit those later. For now, just power through. Should you really get stuck, there is a "Hint" option along the bottom.

DMV Genie Screenshot Practice Test Hints

If you get the answer correct, it will turn green and give you the explanation as to why. If you get it wrong, it turns (you guessed it!) red. A little pop-up will explain to you why that answer wasn't correct.

DMV Genie Screenshot Wrong Answers Explanation

Throughout the testing process, there will be banner ads running along the bottom. Thankfully, you can pretty much ignore them and they won't have any impact on your testing -- but annoyingly, you can't disable them through in-app purchases.

How many questions are on your tests can vary from state to state, but California's easy tests have 40 questions, and its "Marathon test" (which has all the possible driving test questions on it) has a whopping 350. If you're pondering each of these for even 30 seconds, that's quite a bit of time to be investing.

Still, it's absolutely worth it, and I've found it to be much more effective and simple than any other means of studying driving rules, mainly because of DMV Genie's options for reviewing questions you've missed.

Reviewing

No study app would be complete without some way to go over the questions you missed. If you fail a test, you then have the option to go back to it at any time to review the questions and see which you got wrong. Even better, you don't have to make a note of these because the app does it for you.

DMV Genie Screenshot Review Questions

Head over to the Challenge Bank, and you'll have a customized test filled with all of the questions you got wrong. Run through that a few times, and you're bound to nail those last few tricky questions.

DMV Genie Screenshot Pass Fail Results

If you pass, the questions you missed will still be added to the challenge bank, so don't feel like you have to go back and pass every single test. As long as you have all the information committed to memory, you're good to go.

And if you and your friends are studying for your driving tests around the same time, you can brag about your score on Twitter or Facebook using the links at the bottom of the "You have passed" page.

Are You Prepared?

Look, it's going to be some time before we have self-driving cars, so in the meantime, this app is the best way to studying for your driving test. It's not exactly at the level of a road simulator if you're worried about the driving portion of your test, but it's perfect for passing the written portion at least.

And once your are licensed, don't forget to stay awake, and also check out these other great Android apps that will be of more use to you once you're behind the wheel.

Did DMV Genie work for you? Or do you have other methods of studying for your driving test? Let us know down in the comments!