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General => The Stay Safe Board => Topic started by: groom on Wednesday 22 July 20 11:34 BST (UK)
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Driving tests ( in England ) have restarted today, but with safety measures in place. One is you aren’t allowed to use the toilet at the test centre! Another is that as soon as you make a major mistake that’s the end of the test, so in theory the test could end in 5 minutes! I suppose though if you are allowed to continue to the end, you know you have passed.
Did you pass first time or did it take several attempts? Any horror stories about your test?
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My father taught my sister & I in 1962 - in his company car with additional insurance in place - simultaneously; I was 17 my sister 22. He used to take us around industrial estates then Hammersmith Broadway, mainly on Sunday mornings with the non-driving sister in the back. Arguments were rife, Sunday lunch was a nightmare for our mother! We each had a few professional lessons to help us pass the test. My test appointment came through first & I passed first time [was 18 by then] so pressure was on my sister. My father made me take drive the company car [a Rover 60] for a drive on my own as soon as I came back from the test, scary. It put a lot of pressure on my sister but she passed first time too about a month later. I certainly would never recommend a parent teaching you ::)
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I never did a test!
Ireland didn't introduce a driving test until about 1964/65, by which time I'd been driving for a couple of years. I lived in England for about 18 months - it never dawned on me that I might need to change my licence or do a test!
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I certainly would never recommend a parent teaching you ::)
Learner drivers in my part of the world are required to complete 100 hours of supervised driving before taking their test, with times entered into a log book. It was down to me to supervise one of my daughters (because I had more patience with her than her father). There is almost no way that a parent can get out of teaching their children here.
She suffered terribly with nerves and passed on her third attempt (her driving instructor expected her to pass first time).
Here if the driver makes a major mistake during the test they head straight back to the test centre.
When I was sitting for my test the car broke down and we had to walk back to the test centre. ::)
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My friend's son took his test 13 times, passing on the last one! His instructor couldn't understand why he was unable to pass as he said he was a good driver. I think it was just nerves and he went to pieces.
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I tried maybe 3 times over 20 years - I was never that keen and there was only one car, which my husband took to work. Also for the first 10 years of our marriage the car was a VW van! I finally, at about the age of 40, took lessons without telling anyone and passed! (Though I still never wanted to drive.) It was one of the best things I did, as my husband died a couple of years later, and all I had to do was gain confidence, rather than going through the test.
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Passed first time, as did OH, and taught in my case by family, in his case by driving instructor. Remember once having disagreement with my father, after he'd made me reverse round a corner umpteen times, I got out of car, set off across fields, in a paddy.
He waited around for a while, then drove round looking for me.... finally got home, I, having taken the short cut, was sitting with my feet up, drinking a cup of tea....
-Good job we got along well!
TY
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My test instructor was my childhood best friend so we just pulled over in a quiet side street and smoked a joint ;D
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I could never understand "reversing around a corner" - it seems such a dangerous manoeuvre. :)
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When my daughter sat her licence about 14 years ago, our car was Citroen Picasso, it gave us heaps of trouble with its electrics. I took it in for a full service prior to her test to make sure all was well. On the day she was driving along a main highway and the engine just stopped. She glided to the side, remembering to indicate (amazingly!) and the tester passed her on the spot because she had coped so well with an unexpected event!
While our son, when he went, it was POURING with rain. You don’t have rain like it in the UK that I have ever experienced. This was a deluge, gutters full and overflowing so edges of road not clear. He carried on, and was failed because he should have pulled over and waited for rain to stop. He was furious! Had awful teenage boy tantrum. Refused to have next test in our town, and booked a test in a different town, so we had to have frantic practice in the new environment. Fortunately he passed and ended up being the driver that other parents approved of if there was a group outing. All we could do was shake our heads, and think, if only they knew!
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Next door neighbour and driving school taught me. On the day of the test, it was pouring down with rain, could hardly see the white lines, it was a traffic cop who took me, and yes I passed.
Oh dear Mckha, I know that teenage boy tantrum well, ours failed the first time, the indicator turned off, like it does when you go around a roundabout and that failed him. He didn't want to go back to school, as he told his friends he was going to pass. We later learnt that the driving instructor always failed the boys first time round.
Daughter we had to take her to another location for the test, and she passed 2nd time.
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My other daughter took her driving test in her 48 year old classic car. When he saw it the tester said ”this will be interesting”. She passed.
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I could never understand "reversing around a corner" - it seems such a dangerous manoeuvre. :)
Not if done correctly, but yes if the driver is not also being aware of what is around them. Don't forget it is the basis of reversing into a parking space, whether during parallel parking or into a parking slot.
Cheers
Guy
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The day before my test my driving school instructor wrote off the car and ended up in hospital. Next morning I was confronted with an instructor I had never met and a car I had never driven with very different handling characteristics from the one I was used to - for example on full lock, for three point turn, the wheels fouled the wheel arches and refused to turn.
As for the test I was already very apprehensive but to make matters worse I had the extra man in the back seat, the inspector who was there to check that the tester was doing his job properly. Inevitably the test was awful. When we arrived back at the test centre the tester told me to park in front of the centre. The boss of the test centre had parked his car out front and guess whose car I hit when trying to reverse park? Yes the bosses car. The failure certificate stated "failure to leave adequate clearance to other vehicles" as reason for failure!
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Oh dear, some of you do seem to have had such awful experiences! Can't imagine how I managed to pass that first time, given that I had a blind man with white stick about to cross the road, a motorcyclist in full leathers walking backwards with no bike up my side of the road, a brewery delivering and rolling full metal barrels across the road I was driving on, and hoses, over it, too .... and that's just the happenings/ hazards I can remember!!
Apparently I muttered about all of them, and the examiner felt I was very aware of hazards!!!
The very confident young man who was in the waiting room with me, was in a total petulant huff when we returned, he got out of his car, shouted at his examiner, very rudely, and so I think somehow he didn't pass.
TY