Steep Hill sign
Warning signs

Steep Hill sign

A sharp downgrade is ahead. Trucks and heavy vehicles should reduce speed and gear down.

How to recognise it

This sign is a diamond stood on its point in yellow, the warning colour. Yellow diamonds telling you what the road is about to do. They are advisory rather than mandatory, but ignoring them is how people end up in ditches and how examiners end up failing you.

What the test wants you to know

The right technique is to shift to a lower gear before the descent rather than riding the brakes, because repeated braking on a long grade can overheat and fade them.

Practise it

Reading about a sign is not the same as recognising it in half a second with an examiner watching. Every state road signs test on this site shows the sign and asks you to name it, then shows four faces and asks you to pick the right one.

Take a road signs test