Getting your driving licence as a student in Riga: fitting lessons between lectures

The academic year starts tomorrow — and it's a good moment to think about a driving licence. Not because "everyone's doing it", but for a plainly practical reason: a student timetable is more flexible than yours will ever be again. There are gaps between lectures, and your evenings and weekends belong to you, not to an employer. A few years from now, in a full-time job, the same 2–3 sessions a week will have to be carved out of holidays and post-office evenings.

Why a student timetable is an ally, not an obstacle

A university schedule looks chaotic, but it has one property a work schedule doesn't: gaps. A couple of free windows a week, an hour and a half each — those are ready-made driving slots.

• One of my lessons is 90 minutes — exactly one lecture block. It fits into a gap between classes or right after them.
• We build the schedule individually, around your semester timetable: mornings before lectures, evenings, weekends — whatever works.
• Lessons run in English, Latvian or Russian — for international students in Riga this is often the deciding factor.

The one rule I ask you to keep: driving goes between lectures, not instead of them. Skipping classes for the car is a bad trade.

How long it takes

For category B in Latvia there is a set minimum — around 20 driving lessons of 45 minutes each (Cabinet Regulation No. 358). That figure is a floor, not a guarantee of readiness: some people need more, and that's normal — the detailed breakdown is here.

A realistic pace for a student is 2–3 sessions a week. With theory, revisiting tricky topics and exam preparation, that comes to roughly 2–3 months. You can start training at 16; the exams and the licence itself come at 18.

An honest budget: what's fixed and what "depends on the school"

Here it is without the marketing. The state part is fixed — the fees of CSDD, the Road Traffic Safety Directorate:

• theory exam — €11.40;
• practical driving exam — €50.57;
• issuing the licence — €22.41.

Everything else is the market part, and it depends on the school: the theory course, the medical check, the first-aid course and the driving lessons themselves. There is no single price list, so compare any advertised "total" by what it includes, not by the number. Some schools offer student discounts or seasonal promotions — worth asking, but the terms vary and promos usually don't stack. Paying in instalments is common practice.

One structural detail matters: you can take the theory course at any school, and do your practical training with an instructor of your choice. The right to choose and to change your instructor is set out in Cabinet regulations — a school's "package" does not bind you.

The autumn timeline: start in September, exam by winter

Start in the first weeks of the semester and the calendar looks like this: September — theory and first drives, October–November — the core practice, exam-ready by December. The CSDD theory exam is 30 questions in 30 minutes with no more than 3 errors allowed; it's convenient to prepare for on the bus and between lectures.

Let me be honest about the darkness factor: by late autumn Riga gets dark early, and some of your lessons will happen at dusk, on wet roads. For learning, that's actually useful — you'll gain experience that "summer" graduates don't have. But an exam in the dark is objectively harder, so don't drift through the semester: the earlier your September start, the more of your practice lands in the light weeks. I've done the full calendar arithmetic in the piece about a summer start — same logic, shifted by a season.

What to arrange in parallel while you practise

Two things are best closed in the first weeks, not right before the exam:

• a medical certificate — without it you won't be admitted to the exams;
• a first-aid course — a mandatory part of the paperwork; both are needed before the theory exam.

The full checklist, in order, is in a separate guide.

All fees and requirements here are as of July 2026 — check the current figures on csdd.lv.

Where to start this week

You don't need to wait "until the timetable settles" — one diagnostic lesson is enough. I'll assess your level, you bring your semester schedule, and we'll build a real plan: how many lessons, in which windows, exam by which month. There's a dedicated page for students with answers to the common questions, and you can pick a time online.

A licence earned in your second year works for you for the rest of your life. Your timetable will never make it this convenient again.