How a new app makes learning to drive easier

In the UK, over one million of us every year learn to drive - and while we might be more worried about our parallel parking, passing the driving theory test itself is no easy feat. In fact, statistics show that around 47.7% of us fail the theory test first time.

Enter Splink Industries. Splink recognised that despite the potential and soaring popularity of app-based learning, many opportunities were being lost to help people learn effectively and intuitively through the smartphones in their pockets. With that in mind, Splink set out on a mission to improve mobile learning experiences for everyone - starting with driving theory tests.

As a brand new company with a great idea, the team at Splink Industries turned to AND Digital to provide the expert technical and product expertise they would need to turn an exciting concept into a fully-fledged app.

On average, learner drivers spend just two weeks revising for their theory tests - but in that time, have some 700 questions to revise for. To make the process of revision faster and more effective, AND Digital’s development team built a smart, custom algorithm to support a user’s learning in just three weeks.

The algorithm assesses a user’s past performance and question difficulty. This means each time they begin a new quiz session, the algorithm creates a question set that mixes both questions the user needs to revisit, with new ones. This is a learning technique known as ‘spaced repetition’, a highly proven method for retaining information in our long-term memory.