A determined Seo Sang-moon, 69, passed the academic part of his driver's license examination on his 272nd attempt earlier this week. Due to his illiteracy, he used the test process to teach himself the rules of the road because he could not read them in a manual. Since the oral exam was launched, Sang-moon, a repairman took the test as often as he could, paying about $1,000 in fees along the way. He was able to grasp the exam and the rules of the road through each failure. After 271 attempts, he was able to get the minimum score needed to pass the academic test. Next on Sang-moon's agenda is preparing for his road test. Despite the amount of time it took Sang-Moon to pass the test, officials were thrilled to see him pass. "He has been coming here for more than five years and we regard him almost as being one of the family," an official from the exam office said by telephone.