Yeah. but he said he's taking his written test and then his driving test. That's normal, and is unrelated to getting a learners permit.
I don't know about other states, but in California, this is how it's done:
At age 15.5 (somewhere around there), you can take a test to get a learners permit. This is not the full test you take when geting your license though (it's pretty darn similar IIRC) This allows you to drive as long as their is a licenced driver over the age of 21 in the vehicle with you.
At age 16, you can then go back and take the full written drivers test. Upon completion of that, you then take the actual driving test. Assuming you pass both, then then send you a provisional license in the mail. This allows you to drive, but actually has a red bar through it indicating that you are a minor still. Minors are still not allowed to be out by themselves after a set time (12PM I think?). There may be some other restriction on this that I'm not aware of. They are allowed to drive by themselves though, but the intent of the provisional license is to allow students to drive themselves to school and for those between the ages of 16 and 18 to be able to drive themselves to and from work. It's not intended for you to take a cross country trip, or go driving up to the mountains with though (and you can potentially be cited for that although unless you're doing something else wrong, I don't know of many cops who would care).
At age 18, assuming you've had no driving voilations, you can upgrade your licence to a full "normal" license. If you've had violations, you must retake the written and driving tests. From that point on, they just send you another licence every 4 years (assuming less then some set number of violations).
I've never heard of not taking a written and driving test at the same time, so that's not really anything to be paniced about.
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