Driving Test Help !!!!!!!

Yavvy

Hi all,

I have my driving test on Thursday..its short notice cause I asked to be put on the shortcut list (PS it it took about 10 weeks)

anywho I failed my last test 2 years ago..and I felt like I had passed. but anywho no use in complaining..have to accept their judgement.


So I was wondering if anyone had any advice to help me pass my test ??

The testing centre is tallaght and I have 3 pre tests booked.
Now I have no problesm with hill starts, gear changes, car positioning, signaling, parking and general rules and theory

My sticky points are the 3 point turn, reversing round courners and the emergency stop.

I also have a few questions that someone may be able to help with.

When doing a 3 point turn should you use the handbrake in the middle of it ( changing from 1st to reverse) or just stand on the break ?

when reversing round a corner is it ok to put your left arm on the passenger seat to assist looking behind me or should it remain on the steering wheel ??

on the emergency stop I put my foot on the break and clutch until the car is compleatly stoped right ?
then I pull up the HB and take the car out of gear ?

I know I should learn this all in the pre tests but I want to get it right in my head first

Any help is much appriciated.

Alan

spudulike

When doing a 3 point turn should you use the handbrake in the middle of it ( changing from 1st to reverse) or just stand on the break ?

I did the test a few years back and luckily passed first time - I had a good teacher. I used the handbreak during the 3 point turn - it eases control of the car.

when reversing round a corner is it ok to put your left arm on the passenger seat to assist looking behind me or should it remain on the steering wheel ??

Also you are allowed to put your hand on the passenger seat - though I wouldn't recommend it if you can help it. And the thing to remember here is that you only have to finish the procedure the required distance from the kurb. You can drift wide as you go around the corner as long as you move close to the footpath once around the corner.

on the emergency stop I put my foot on the break and clutch until the car is compleatly stoped right ?

I don't think this is part of the test - at least i didn't have to do an emergency stop - nor did i practive for one.

Hope this is of some help.

Sleipnir

It's not a '3' point turn anymore. You don't have to do it in three turns, just a reasonable amount of turns and smoothly. (12 will probably get you failed). Do use the handbrake if you think the car will roll when you release the footbrake.

You are allowed to put your arm behind the passenger seat but I wouldn't. Testers don't like to see people steering with one hand at all, especially going backwards. You'll also find you have more control when reversing if you have both hands on the wheel.

The emergency stop is gone now as it caused more trouble than it was worth. Too many testers got winded/had the life scared out of them.

The main things to remember are
1.) observation - Mirrors, mirrors, mirrors (look out the windscreen occasionally too)
2.) anticipation - watch what other road-users are doing. And NEVER assume another road user is going to do something just because they are SUPPOSED to. They may do the exact opposite!
3.) Both hands on the wheel when not changing gears.
4.) Progress - One you have to be careful of. Walk the thin line between Progress & reckless endangerment. Stick to the speed even if there are 10 cars behind you.
5.) Check your running lights, brake lights, indicator lamps etc the night before you go. If you haven't replaced the bulbs within the last year, do it now.
6.) See 1

dmeehan

you have the emeregency stop correct, although i do not think that it is part of the test.

i fluked my first ever emergency stop! i was doing about my third lesson ever and i was driving through bray when a dog ran out in front of me, i just slammed on the brakes, but I happened to do this reflex action with both feet!!! So i pressed the clutch too by mistake.

got a pat on the back for getting that right without being told how to do it!

Yavvy

thanks lads..much appriciated.

I was planing to wear a low cut top too, but seeing as im male and it would only show off my beer belly Im going to rely on my driving skills.

Im really nervous about this as its kinda a work requirement....

What in anyones opinion is the most difficult skill to master ?


Alan.

seamus

Originally posted by Kananga
4.) Progress - One you have to be careful of. Walk the thin line between Progress & reckless endangerment. Stick to the speed even if there are 10 cars behind you.

Yep, it is quite thin line in built up areas. Basically, they want you to drive as close to 30mph as you can. If you cruise along at 25, you'll be accused of not making enough progress. If, when pulling out, you don't go, because you don't want to shoot off too fast, they may fail you for not enough progress. Or they may be unhappy if you DO go too fast. Thin line.

3 pretests should be well enough. One today, one tomorrow, and one before the test yeah? Tallaght is one of the easy ones. Some nice smooth modern roads. The new marking system is also very nice and transparent. If you do fail, you'll be able to see exactly why.

What in anyones opinion is the most difficult skill to master ?

Proper overtaking, definitely. It's one of those things that requires both balls and practice. Luckily you probably won't encounter it. On my test, I got stuck behind a tractor, and just as I was considering how to get safely around it (otherwise she'd fail me for bad progress), he turned off. Phew!

For the test, stopping and starting at lights and junctions, when you're first in the queue are the most critical things to have mastered.

spudulike

reversing round a corner is fairly tricky to get the hang of.

The best thing to do is practice practice practice - and if you know the routes that they take them spend as much time as possible practicing these routes - it will pay dividends.

Yavvy

also when reversing should you try to look behind you or use the mirrors or a combination ??

and if its a combo ...when do you use mirrors ?

Sleipnir

Originally posted by Alany
also when reversing should you try to look behind you or use the mirrors or a combination ??

and if its a combo ...when do you use mirrors ?

Just looking around you should be enough. Even better, if you have electric mirrors you can quickly adjust them down and out a bit so you can see how far from the kerb you are! not sure what a tester would make of that though.
Reversing around the corner most difficult manuveur I think, just take it SLOWLY (but don't stop, get out and look) and keep checking your distance from the kerb. They don't want to time you to see how quickly you can back around a corner. They just want to make sure you can do it without ending up in someone's garden.

seamus

Originally posted by Alany
also when reversing should you try to look behind you or use the mirrors or a combination ??

and if its a combo ...when do you use mirrors ?

I used my mirrors, no looking behind me. Right wing mirror and main rear view mirror for looking out for traffic. Before the test, set your left wing mirror to look half at the road behind you, and at the top half of your back wheel. Then you can use your left mirror to gauge both how close you are to the kerb and how straight you are in relation to it.
Most importantly, you *will* have to look around, as well as using the mirrors, but once you do, slow the car down slightly, or almost come to halt. Then begin moving again, and using your mirrors.

Yavvy

thanks for the help lads...Im sure I will give you all an update if your interested !

Alan

Mrs Jingles

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alany
also when reversing should you try to look behind you or use the mirrors or a combination ??

and if its a combo ...when do you use mirrors ?


You will need to use a combination of both. You will also have to keep an eye out for other cars - either coming behind you or on the road you are reversing from - that's basic observation. I spent nearly 15 minutes of my test trying to reverse around the corner - I kept having to stop because I was reversing from a relatively busy road at rush hour and had been taught to wait for the road to be clear before reversing. In the end the tester told me to forget about the other cars and just do it!!

dmeehan

Originally posted by Alany
also when reversing should you try to look behind you or use the mirrors or a combination ??

and if its a combo ...when do you use mirrors ?

try to use either one or the other but not both, it can get quite disorientating switching between both.

best bet is to setup yer mirrors before you arrive at test centre
set up left wing mirror for reversing around corner (ie as close to ground view as possible without blocking out view of road)

and setup the other two for easiest viewing

Note: make sure that you can show that you use your mirrors

i got a few X's for only glancing my eyes at the mirror: I KNOW I WAS using the mirrors, but the tester cannot see my eyes moving, so if possible move your head

also dont act like a muppet and overcompensate the above point, just turn your head a bit, theres no need to go headbutting the tester:D

Andrew Duffy

I've always thought reversing around a corner is a stupid and dangerous manouevre, but you have to do it to get a licence, unfortunately.

Some more tips:

Road positioning: it's comforting to drive close to the centre line but you should really try to put yourself in the centre of your lane. Obviously, you must keep some distance between the left of your car and the edge of the road.

Passing parked cars: leave enough room between the left of your car and the parked cars for a door to open suddenly. Never pass a line of parked cars at more than 25Mph.

T-junctions: Regardless of where the stop line is, it is really before the footpath. Remember, pedestrians have right of way on the straight.

Pedestrian crossings: Do not ever, in any circumstances, drive over a pedestrian crossing unless you can comfortably fit your car in the space beyond it (see below about leaving gaps). You won't fail for accidentally ending up stuck in a yellow box (so long as it was obviously an accident), but you will fail for stopping in a pedestrian crossing. Also remember to watch out for pedestrian crossings the other side of a junction you are navigating.

Stopping at lights: Anticipate your stop, brake gently and come to a stop so you can see the car in front's rear wheels touching the ground. Leave a comparable distance between you and the vehicle in front if it is a truck or suchlike. Basically, if that vehicle breaks down you need to be able to safely overtake it (or undertake it, which in this case is legal).

Hopefully I don't need to remind you that you should always drive well, not just on the day of your test. With this in mind, after passing take at least an hour before driving home. Shaky hands are not a safe thing to drive with.

Yavvy

ok so one final question... Im in third gear and doing say 30 mph, I see that I have to stop ahead so I begin to break. Normally i would also shift down through the gears to complament my breaking. When i come to a compleat stop I put my foot on the break and clutch. take the car outta gear and pull up the hand break. then feet off all pedals and wait to go.

Then when moving off, foot on the clutch, car into gear, off with the HB and off i go.. ( obviously i have checkled mirrord and it is save to do so.)


I have that right dont I ?

Mick L

Originally posted by Alany
ok so one final question... Im in third gear and doing say 30 mph, I see that I have to stop ahead so I begin to break. Normally i would also shift down through the gears to complament my breaking. When i come to a compleat stop I put my foot on the break and clutch. take the car outta gear and pull up the hand break. then feet off all pedals and wait to go.

Then when moving off, foot on the clutch, car into gear, off with the HB and off i go.. ( obviously i have checkled mirrord and it is save to do so.)


I have that right dont I ?

I was taught to approach the stop in second and to stop in second. Handbrake up THEN into neutral. That way if you're hit from behind in the time it takes to put the handbrake up, the car should just cut out and stop rather than roll forward into the car in front of you.

One other thing, if you've been driving since the last test you may have picked up some 'bad habits' such as coasting, driving with one hand on the wheel and one on the gears. And what Kananga said, observation. I thought my neck was going to give way from turning it around so much back and forth just to make it obvious that I was checking each mirror.

MrPudding

Originally posted by Kananga
Do use the handbrake if you think the car will roll when you release the footbrake.

I know the UK is slightly different in some thing but it is similar in others, I would check the handbreak thing. In the UK if your car stops moving, for however short a time, you are required to apply the handbreak. Not applying it is considered a serious error and if you do it a couple of times you will be failed for it. Might be worth checking properly.

MrP

Andrew Duffy

You've just failed.

The car must never be out of gear without the handbrake applied. Imagine what happens if you are shunted from behind: your foot slips off the footbrake, you rapidly coast forward into the junction in front of a bus...

As for gearing down while braking, its a matter of choice. There are two main approaches to it:

- Travelling at 30Mph in fourth gear (not third, incidentally). You need to stop ahead, so apply the foot brake. Just before the car slows down to an appropriate speed to go to second gear (18-20Mph), clutch and change, still applying brakes. As you slow to about 4-5Mph, apply the clutch as well as brakes, stop, apply the handbrake and come out of gear.

- Travelling at 30Mph in fourth gear. You need to stop ahead, so apply the foot brake. Clutch and change to third. Apply footbrake. Clutch and change to second. As you slow to about 4-5Mph, apply the clutch as well as brakes, stop, apply the handbrake and come out of gear.

The advantage of the first method is that your brakelights are always on, the disadvantage is that your tester may not like the change from fourth to second. I did it that way and passed (first time with about 10k miles driving), but I'd recommend sticking with and refining the method you're used to. Talk yourself through it, particularly applying the handbrake before taking the car out of gear.

seamus

Originally posted by Alany
ok so one final question... Im in third gear and doing say 30 mph, I see that I have to stop ahead so I begin to break. Normally i would also shift down through the gears to complament my breaking. When i come to a compleat stop I put my foot on the break and clutch. take the car outta gear and pull up the hand break. then feet off all pedals and wait to go.

Then when moving off, foot on the clutch, car into gear, off with the HB and off i go.. ( obviously i have checkled mirrord and it is save to do so.)


I have that right dont I ?

All except - don't change into first gear until you've come to a complete stop.

Depending on the traffic lights, whether you put your handbrake on or not can be ambiguous. If you're at the front of the queue, you can keep it in gear, so that you're not holding up the traffic behind when the lights go green. But if you know the lights, you can judge yourself when/whether to leave it in gear or not.

Sleipnir

You won't FAIL for doing this once or twice.

You never skip a gear (e.g. from 4th to 2nd) unless you a truck driver, it's a bad habit really and a tester would just assume you don't know how to work the gears properly. Just go down through them as fits your speed as you normally do. Re-learning how to stop at this stage is just going to confuse you on the day.
You're doing it right so just keep doing it!
Just keep it mind - handbrake, then into neutral.


You don't need to keep checking your speedometer as you are coming to stop. You sound like a good enough driver to know by the sound of the engine when you need to change gear.

Also, after you've done all your pre-tests, go out on your own the night before (as long as you're on your 2nd license of course!) and just
drive.
An hour of just you driving along mentally noting what you're doing. The tester obviously won't point out what you're doing wrong so just take this time to mentally note what you need to remember.

You'll be nervous for the first few minutes but that goes away pretty quickly until you're just motoring along with some quiet guy sitting in the passenger seat!

You sound pretty aware about how your driving is so I think you'll do just fine.

Andrew Duffy

You never skip a gear (e.g. from 4th to 2nd)

Every book I read about driving mentions this debate and they all come to same conclusion that it's a matter of choice.
It's certainly not as black and white as you put it. How do you safely overtake someone driving at 35-40Mph (in a higher limit, obviously) without going from fifth to third? Sometimes going from first to third is the only way you can safely negotiate turning right into fast heavy traffic. Maybe you drive a 2.5L Mercedes or something...

Sleipnir

Originally posted by Andrew Duffy
Every book I read about driving mentions this debate and they all come to same conclusion that it's a matter of choice.
It's certainly not as black and white as you put it. How do you safely overtake someone driving at 35-40Mph (in a higher limit, obviously) without going from fifth to third? Sometimes going from first to third is the only way you can safely negotiate turning right into fast heavy traffic. Maybe you drive a 2.5L Mercedes or something...

Because when you start doing this you'll may eventually start going
1st-3rd
3rd-5th
1st-4th
5th-2nd
2nd-4th

and when you're confronted with an emergency, you won't know what gear you're in.

first to third is the only way you can safely negotiate turning right into fast heavy traffic.

I would dsay that is certainly a situation where you need the acceleration of second gear. Going from 1st to 3rd when pulling into fast moving traffic means you will go in at a sluggish pace because you'll be lacking in power.

Anyways, this is for another thread Andrew, for the sake of Alany's driving test, I would not recommend it.

Lafortezza

I got my test on the second time in Wicklow town, apparently one of the harder routes in ireland for doing your test.
The first time I scared the life out of the tester by tearing through wicklow town main street at about 30mph at 4pm when all the schools were just out. obviously failed, i was just concerned about "maintaining progress"!

2nd time round I had a bit more experience, and halfway through the test the tester kind of put his clipboard down and sat back a bit, which was reassuring.

at the end he told me that you can make several minor mistakes once, but they have the right to fail you if you make those mistakes more than once.
So basically if you do some little things wrong and you see the tester scribbling away, all is not lost as long as you haven't made any major mistakes, and you aren't repeating that same minor mistake several times

good luck!

Andrew Duffy

Fair enough. I forgot to say, "Good luck!". I absolutely recommend refining your current style for the test - trying to learn something new now is a bad idea.

Oh, as for 1st - 3rd, I meant that staying in first for longer than normal is sometimes neccessary to avoid bus-driver-style steering when pulling out quickly.

Yoda

What is it with Ireland and this test? In the US the test is pretty easy, and everyone expects to pass, and pretty much everyone does. Here it seems to be an arcane labyrinth of strange rules and unknowns.

And US drivers are better than Irish ones, too. At least they understand the concept of "lane". At least, that's my take on observing driving habits here over the past 14 years, having been a driver in Arizona, California, and Oregon previously.

Actually I lost my licence since I haven't driven since I came to this country. I'd renewed my Oregon driver's licence once but just not driving I forget and let it lapse for two years, which means I'm licenceless now.

And that means that to get a new licence I will have to undergo the humiliation and worry of passing the Irish test!?

(One thing I will never understand is the Irish use of the "handbrake". In the US it's called an "emergency brake" or a "parking break" and is never used while manoeuvering. It seems to me that learning to do that would be like learning to eat pasta with a spoon.)

seamus

Originally posted by Yoda
(One thing I will never understand is the Irish use of the "handbrake". In the US it's called an "emergency brake" or a "parking break" and is never used while manoeuvering. It seems to me that learning to do that would be like learning to eat pasta with a spoon.)

Because it's a brake that you pull with your hand? . It's not exactly an emergency brake, but is useful as a parking brake.

And I eat pasta with a spoon. For smaller pastas, a fork just slows you down.

Yoda

My point is that US nomenclature only ever uses "emergency brake" and/or "parking brake" and US driving culture would therefore never use the device in the midst of a three-point turn; it might be used when facing uphill at a stop sign or traffic light, but even then, not "canonically" as in a driving test.

Capt'n Midnight

Just so there is no confusion - you don't apply the hand break unless stationery
If you pull it while moving you would probably create an emergency.

3 point turn - you can't turn a big car in 3 turns - that's why yer man tells you to turn the car around, if you don't thinkyou can do it in three then five is fine. The trick is to start straightening the wheels before you finish each of the arcs - apart from observation / indication / bumping another thing not to do is to turn the steering wheel while the car is stopped (don't scrub the tyres)

Reversing around corners - you need to find a point in the rear side window that you can follow the path with (if that makes any sense)

Unfortunately - most of these things take practise.
Unfortunately - the hardest thing to do is the most important - relax.

Any muppet can steer a car along a road - that's because roads are designed to be easy to drive on. The manouvers show you have more control over the car.

Be thankful "parallel parking" is not on our test.

Yavvy

PASSED !!!!

easy peasy..only had one green X

your allowed 8 before you fail !


Thanks so mush for all the help !

Alan

Mick L

Congratulations.

Must be a relief to have it over and done with.:)

Sleipnir

Congratulations Alany!

seamus

Congrats Alany,

Now you'll have the baby transporting duties......

Yavvy

indeed.. private driver for the little madam for about ..say .. 20 odd years

seamus

Originally posted by Alany
indeed.. private driver for the little madam for about ..say .. 20 odd years

You wish....

Wait till all the others come along

dmeehan

Originally posted by Alany
indeed.. private driver for the little madam for about ..say .. 20 odd years

wait till she hits 17, then she'll want to driver YOUR car:D