Illinois supervised driving
How to fill out Illinois DSD X 152
Illinois provides DSD X 152 as the family’s detailed record of the 50-hour practice requirement during the permit phase, including 10 hours at night. The chart is for tracking convenience and ends with a signature line for a parent, guardian, or other responsible adult.
Complete a DSD X 152 row, column by column
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Enter the date and location of practice
Use a row for the driving date and identify where the practice occurred. A useful location is specific enough to distinguish the session without trying to reproduce a complete route.
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Record weather and the day/night split
Describe the weather conditions and enter daytime and nighttime practice in their separate columns. When a session crosses from day into night, split the time instead of putting the full session in both columns.
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Have the supervising adult initial the entry
The supervising driver initials the row. Illinois allows a parent, guardian, or another qualified licensed adult, so confirm that the person meets the state’s current age and licensing-history rules.
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Carry forward the cumulative totals
Update the daytime total, nighttime total, and grand total as the log progresses. The final numbers should show at least 50 hours overall and 10 at night.
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Review and sign the completed chart
After checking the final totals, the parent, guardian, or other responsible adult signs the line at the bottom of the form. Follow the current Secretary of State instructions for the licensing appointment.
A rainy Saturday, and what the running totals become
DSD X 152 sits each session’s hours right next to a running total of the same thing, which is where most part-filled charts go wrong. Assume the chart already stands at 21.5 daytime hours and 4.0 nighttime hours before this session.
- Date
- 11/08
- Location of Practice
- Route 59 and surrounding subdivisions — the header suggests “highway, residential area”, so aim for that level, not a turn-by-turn route
- Weather Conditions
- Rain
- Daytime
- 1.5 — this session only
- Daytime Total
- 23.0 — the running total, sitting immediately right of the session figure it absorbs
- Nighttime
- 0.5 — this session only
- Nighttime Total
- 4.5 — the running total
- Grand Total
- 27.5 — running daytime plus running nighttime
- Initials
- The supervising driver’s initials, in the last column on the row
The chart pairs each session column with its own running total — Daytime next to Daytime Total, Nighttime next to Nighttime Total — so it is easy to write 1.5 into both by mistake. The Total columns only ever go up; the final row’s Grand Total is what has to reach 50, with at least 10 of it nighttime.
Where a DSD X 152 chart goes wrong
- Skipping the location or weather columns because they are not needed to calculate the total.
- Writing the session length where the form asks for a running cumulative total.
- Leaving the responsible-adult signature line blank after finishing the chart.
From logged drives to a filled DSD X 152
Every DSD X 152 row wants a location, the weather, and three carried-forward totals on top of the hours. The export fills all of them:
| On the DSD X 152 50-Hour Practice Driving Log | Comes from |
|---|---|
| Date | The calendar date, one row per date with that date’s drives merged. |
| Location of Practice | The practice locations recorded on that date’s drives. |
| Weather Conditions | The distinct weather tags for that date, in the form’s own order, with a “+N” tail when a day carried several so the cell cannot overflow. |
| Daytime / Nighttime | That date’s day and night minutes, printed as decimal hours in their separate session columns. |
| Daytime Total / Nighttime Total / Grand Total | Carried forward down the sheet, each rounded from its own minute count. Because a column shows two decimals, the rounded parts do not always add up on the page — 20 minutes of day and 20 of night print as 0.33 and 0.33 beside a total of 0.67. The total is the accurate figure; 0.66 would be the tidier one. |
| Initials | Initials derived from the supervisors on that date, in the row’s final column. They are a convenience, not the adult’s sign-off — the supervising driver still has to confirm the row is accurate. |
Because the totals are recomputed on every export, a drive added or corrected months later re-cascades through the cumulative columns instead of leaving a stale figure mid-chart.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there three running totals?
The form keeps daytime, nighttime, and combined cumulative totals so the 10-hour night minimum and 50-hour overall minimum can be checked independently without re-adding the whole chart.
How specific does the location column need to be?
Specific enough to distinguish one session from another — a road, town, or lot. It is not asking for a route, and “around town” on forty rows tells a reviewer nothing.
Does the weather column change what counts?
No. Illinois sets no bad-weather hour minimum, so the column changes nothing about your total — it documents the range of conditions the learner has actually driven in.
Who can initial an Illinois practice entry?
The chart’s own cover letter is specific: all 50 hours must be spent with someone age 21 or older who has held a license for at least a year. Confirm the current Secretary of State rules before counting a session.
Track your Illinois hours
Log every supervised drive and Learner Log keeps the totals ready for the DSD X 152 50-Hour Practice Driving Log.
Still deciding how to keep the record? Compare paper against an app. Not sure where the DSD X 152 50-Hour Practice Driving Log ends up? See submitting a log versus certifying the hours.
Official sources: Official DSD X 152 50-Hour Practice Driving Log. Illinois licensing instructions. This guide was last reviewed against the official form on ; Illinois can change its form or instructions at any time, so confirm the current version at the links above. Learner Log is an independent tracking tool, not affiliated with any licensing agency.