BS: Driving test

Subject: BS: Driving test
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 01:42 PM

I have a driving test coming up in a month...my 5th and today I had what could only be described as the worst lesson ever,the smell of a burning clutch is not pretty. My instructor says its a confidence thing. Any hints and tips to get me though this????

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Amos
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 01:47 PM

Clutch and gas coordination on a standard shift? It's something you learn by starting a lot. Go out into an empty lot somewhere, and practice popping the clutch, stalling, and starting properly from rest. You'll get the hang of it fairly soon. Confidence comes from just doing it enough times so you know exactly what to expect.

For your own sake I suggest, test or no, that you also practice starting from a steep hill stop, if there are any in your area, because the heel-toe technique usually used to do this with a standard shift is the trickiest thing there is about driving one.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: DMcG
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 01:48 PM

Pah! A mere 5. I took 7 tests before I passed ....

I think your instructor is right and it is largely confidence. Certainly, my later tests were worse than the early ones.   In one of my tests I stalled in the middle of a junction and had to get the examiner to drive me out of it.

I've now been driving some 20 years and never had an accident or so much as a parking ticket. I think what happened in my case was I stopped trying to pass the test and just drove. That did it.

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 01:53 PM

:-))))))) I have also bought a car to run around and I am asking kind friends to come and sit beside me....bless them!!!!!! Every little helps.My instructor has also given me a hypnotherapy tape so I shall try that too...but obviously not whilst driving

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 01:58 PM

Yeah....in your case, get something with an automatic transmission.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Ely
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 02:47 PM

Go out to a parking lot and keep trying. I learned to drive in six weeks flat (stick shift and all). I had to teach myself to parallel park (in the rain, at night, on a curve, on a hill, into a tiny space), but I still got my license. Keep practicing; get to know your car really well and don't read too much into the guy who gives you the test (I think they paid mine to be extra sullen and to mumble his requests).

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Benjamin
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 02:53 PM

Make sure you can stop your car as well! I once did have some woman behind me driving her boyfriends car which was a standard transmission. When I had to slow down for a guy backing out of an alley, she paniced, couldn't figure out how to use her break, and rear-ended my car twice. I'm just glad I wasn't some pedestrian trying to cross the street!

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:01 PM

ummm...what country are driving in? Advice could vary..

(driving tests vary widely in the US....WAY too easy some places)

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Cattail
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:22 PM

Hi Guest, this lesson was just a "one-off", don't worry about it!

I did the same as DMcG above, pulled out in front of someone at a
junction, the instructor took control and got us out of it.
(But I've never forgotten that incident, it's always there when I
think I can try to do something stupid again)

Remember what you were taught in this lesson and forget the rest.
Don't be too over confident and you'll be alright in the next lesson,
(and the test).

Best of luck

Cattail 0~

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: artbrooks
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 06:49 PM

Rent a car with automatic transmission for the test, if local rules allow.

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 09:26 PM

A lot of good advice here. The only important thing I can add is this: supermarket parking lot + 4AM. You really don't want other cars around.

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 09:38 PM

By God, it can be terrifying taking a driver's test if you have previously failed one or more of them! When I took my first test (in Toronto) there was no reason I should have failed it, because I was quite good at everything I needed to be good at, and fairly relaxed too...but...I missed ONE little detail, by not turning out of the left lane when turning left out of this dinky little one-way street! And the guy failed me!!! He also had me out there for a very long time before that happened. Why? I think they have an unofficial policy in Toronto to fail virtually everyone on the first driving test if they can possibly find a way to do it. My instructor was astounded that I had been failed on that test.

On my next test at the same location I was so nervous that I totally screwed it up...uncharacteristically. My instructor was again astounded. I always drove great with him in the car.

Well, I decided (after some thought) to arrange to take the next test NOT in the big city, but in a small town. This was simply arranged by applying for the test at a relative's address in the town.

Bingo! Passed it with absolute ease. Driving in Toronto is hellish, even for experienced drivers, but driving in a small town is a snap.

Consider making a similar arrangement if you have to...and practice your shifting in the empty grocery lots in the meantime until you've absolutely got it down pat.

Good luck!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 10:48 PM

I passed my first attempt...but got one warning for not stopping 'totally' behind a stop sign, and one point off for not stopping and waiting when a pedestrian was approaching the crosswalk as I was turning! They hadn't even stepped off the curb. I guess it was just a way to make a point....and I have been careful of pedestrian crossings ever since.

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 05 Aug 03 - 11:57 PM

My daughter recently passed her driver's test, but on her second try. While I was waiting for her to finish the test, I got talking to a couple of instructors from Young Drivers, which is the biggest driving school in Canada. They told me that 65% of people fail the first test here (BC) because they have to pay the full amount for each test they take, and the instructors think it is a cash cow operation for the government licensing service.

My daughter also had an utter grouch for her first test, and when the YD instructors saw her heading out the door with him, they raised their eyebrows and shook their heads at me. He apparently fails more people than any other tester. Not fair!!

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Bert
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 12:07 AM

Practice - practice - practice. Sounds as though you are in England; in which case the heel-toe technique for a hill start will be frowned upon.

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 02:02 AM

GuEst-Get an automatic, and get your husband/boyfriend to park it for you! I'm assuming you are female?

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 04:18 AM

My driving test in Florida was very cursory, consisting of a quick spin round the parking lot of the mall where the Test Center was located. Six, seven minutes max.

Maybe I was let off easily as I already held a British licence, but if that was in fact the normal testing procedure, no wonder there is so much carnage on the Miami turnpike.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 05:01 AM

Now now, John, don't make assumptions. Manitas is a bloke and he failed his test first time round. I'm not a bloke and I passed first time. Proporionately, more men have accidents due to bad driving than women. When Manitas parks, either we have to get a bus to the kerb or he scrapes the wheel covers on it, and I've lost count of the times I've had to crawl out over the drivers side because he's too close to a wall or other obstruction. He rarely indicates on roundabouts and when following him in my car, I've had near misses because of this.

It is a question of confidence. Knowing you can do something because you've done it before is a great deal different from thinking you know how to do something.

Practise as much as you can, get the feel of the car, learn its little habits (such as stalling if you try roundabouts in 2nd or popping the boot instead of handbrake!). Sit in your car in a carpark, and learn where the bite point is on the clutch/accelorator. Once you've sussed that out, hill starts and pulling out at junctions are a lot easier.

One thing I found was that the examiner was a lot more lenient when I took my time to do something carefully, rather than trying to impress by doing it first time. You are trying to show the examiner that you can control your vehicle, you take care on the roads, and that you have respect for other users, both vehicular and pedestrian.

One thing I wish they had taught me before I took my test, was how to start a cold car- I was always picked up in a nice warm car that started first time. I flooded Manitas' car so often in those first few weeks by pumping the gas pedal too much!

Good luck with it and try and stay calm. I found chewing gum helped my concentration, but keep off the caffeine, that just hypes you up and makes you more jittery than necessary.

Of course, taking your test on a day when there is little or no traffic is an advantage - school holidays are perfect!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: gnu
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 06:34 AM

I had no idea that during my test I would have to weave my motorcycle through a series of closely placed traffic pylons or I would have borrowed a much more suitable bike than a Kawasaki KH500 with a steering damper. I nicknamed it my "go fast straight only" bike. It was a bitch to be nimble at low speed.

The pylon test consisted of weaving through the pylons, turning around and weaving back through while the examiner watched. The only thing that saved me after I moved three of the eight pylons was that, upon turning around, I saw that the examiner was engaged in conversation with someone. I neatly scooted back along one side of the pylons and deftly moved two of them back in position with my foot. I stopped, got off, removed my helmet, and when the examiner had finished his conversation, I looked at the pylons and said, "Darn, that's embarrassing. I suppose you want me to do that again, eh ?" He looked at the pylons and, seeing one slightly out of line, said, "Nah, you did okay."

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 10:43 AM

My unofficial research indicates that over 85% of the most sadistic and unfriendly people in the World are employed as:

a) a customs official
b) a driving test official

Rubin Carter's book suggests that you can also add "prison guard" to my list.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Grab
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 07:37 PM

Analyse what's happening. First assumption is that you know what you should be doing. Second assumption is that you know what you did wrong. From there you have to work out why you did it wrong (and the answers "because I'm stupid", "because I'm no good at driving" and "because I was having a bad day" are not acceptable ;-)

One common reason for making mistakes is overload. You try to do a zillion things at once, and the result is that they all go wrong at once. Slow it down, talk through the sequence in your head, and do each one right. Another common reason for making mistakes is panic. You have plenty of time to do it, and you know what to do, but you panic and lose it. Slowing it down and talking through the sequence in your head is also good here, bcos it calms you down and forces you to think about the problem.

Try and just go through the sequence mentally or under your breath, but if you need to talk yourself through it verbally then do so. Talking to yourself make make you look odd, but actually a running commentary on your thought processes isn't a bad thing for the instructor/examiner, as they then know that you know what to do; any failure after that may just be a glitch in one of the steps, but you're likely to get it right next time.

Too much caution will not make you fail, unless you're doing an old-granny cars-never-went-over-10mph-in-my-day act. Remember that you have to be consistently going *really* slowly and consistently missing *really* large gaps at junctions before an examiner will mark you down - going round at 25mph instead of dead-on 30mph should be fine (so long as you similarly go up to 35mph in a 40mph zone), and that gives you an extra margin of decision time. This is particularly handy when you need to do the emergency stop, as the lower speed makes it less likely that you'll lock the brakes. As Liz says, they'd rather see you careful than out-to-impress.

Another "don't-panic" hint. If the examiner asks you to take a turning and you miss it, or if you go right instead of left, don't worry about it, just keep driving. Just let the examiner sort out the navigating from there, and it'll all be fine. If you realise halfway through your right turn that you should be turning left and swerve back across the traffic, or if you slam your brakes on half way across the oncoming traffic and say "What should I do?!", then you *will* fail. If you just keep going and wait for the examiner to direct you out of wherever you've got to, you *will* pass.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Driving test
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Aug 03 - 07:16 PM

Oh LittleHawk - you missed out the Tax department ..... I'm deeply offended!

Keep us posted on how you do GUEST - I'll be thinking of you when I'm tearing up the A1 tomorrow....

LTS