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lawless11

Cork Trucker wrote: »

Step 1. Did you get lessons? and i don't mean just the 12 compulsory lessons?

Yep, I don't have a sponsor to practice with, so I've done about 24h with my instructor.

Andrew00

lawless11 wrote: »

Got destroyed today for my first attempt. The tester thought that I wasn't "observing" enough when turning so he gave me (brace yourselves) 7 grade twos and a grade 3 for it. I genuinely disagree but what can you do, my instructor found it very strange as well. Otherwise got another 10 grade twos scattered around their marking scheme that weren't even explained to me, and 7 grade ones.
I was very disheartened at the time so didn't thought about asking more.

I wouldn't mind failing on a "reasonable" basis, but I feel some of those grade 2s were really not justified looking at the feedback from my instructor.

Onto the next attempt in the new year.

They need to fill the "fail" quota before Christmas

ohnonotgmail

Andrew00 wrote: »

They need to fill the "fail" quota before Christmas

It is funny how the fail quota seems to vary so wildly depending on the test center.

Cork Trucker

lawless11 wrote: »

Yep, I don't have a sponsor to practice with, so I've done about 24h with my instructor.

What did your instructor make of the result? What county did you sit the test in? Don’t be put off by it however! I’ve come in here before to posts by people saying why bother going again, always get back up on the saddle, I can’t comment on the quota bit by the other poster though as I genuinely do not know. All I can say is whenever I did my driving tests, the person directly before me or second before me either failed or did not turn up so the DNS (did not show’s) May form part of this alleged quota.

lawless11

Cork Trucker wrote: »

What did your instructor make of the result? What county did you sit the test in? Don’t be put off by it however! I’ve come in here before to posts by people saying why bother going again, always get back up on the saddle, I can’t comment on the quota bit by the other poster though as I genuinely do not know. All I can say is whenever I did my driving tests, the person directly before me or second before me either failed or did not turn up so the DNS (did not show’s) May form part of this alleged quota.

Yeah he was really surprised, he expected me either to pass or narrowly fail but not 17 grade 2's like. He said I was unlucky with the type of person I obviously got.

Otherwise I did the test in Finglas. And my instructor told me that apparently there was a batch of 3 people that passed, then the other batch of 3 people (me included) failed. Don't know what to make of that (and in any case that won't help me) but I will definitely try again in the new year. I am simply going to see family abroad until the 27th so I will get back at it with some more lessons in the new year.

Cork Trucker

lawless11 wrote: »

Yeah he was really surprised, he expected me either to pass or narrowly fail but not 17 grade 2's like. He said I was unlucky with the type of person I obviously got.

Otherwise I did the test in Finglas. And my instructor told me that apparently there was a batch of 3 people that passed, then the other batch of 3 people (me included) failed. Don't know what to make of that (and in any case that won't help me) but I will definitely try again in the new year. I am simply going to see family abroad until the 27th so I will get back at it with some more lessons in the new year.

17 is alot, bar the serial failer in Cork (20+ times) i've only ever known one other person to get so many grade 2's on a sheet, that was in Wilton in Cork. Was it just the 1 grade 3 you got? While grade 1's don't count toward the test result, i would still take notice of them. I lived in Finglas for a while 20 years ago, what you are saying was circulating even back then, so i can only assume there is some sort of truth or major coincidence. Enjoy the Christmas break and don't let it distract you too much, new year new start new licence

lawless11

Cork Trucker wrote: »

17 is alot, bar the serial failer in Cork (20+ times) i've only ever known one other person to get so many grade 2's on a sheet, that was in Wilton in Cork. Was it just the 1 grade 3 you got? While grade 1's don't count toward the test result, i would still take notice of them. I lived in Finglas for a while 20 years ago, what you are saying was circulating even back then, so i can only assume there is some sort of truth or major coincidence. Enjoy the Christmas break and don't let it distract you too much, new year new start new licence

I know a few others with 20+ grade 2's so I guess it is rare but also I would imagine most people wouldn't love to talk about it aha... Have even a friend who tried to pass it 7 times haha.

I had 7 grade 1's and one grade 3 yes.
Thank you for your kind words

Posy

lawless11 wrote: »

Otherwise I did the test in Finglas. And my instructor told me that apparently there was a batch of 3 people that passed, then the other batch of 3 people (me included) failed. Don't know what to make of that (and in any case that won't help me) but I will definitely try again in the new year. I am simply going to see family abroad until the 27th so I will get back at it with some more lessons in the new year.

I was in the same boat last year. Failed in Finglas in November, and although suspected that I would, it was awful having to face into the new year with the thought of doing the test again, more lessons, more nerves etc... but onwards and upwards- I actually got another test date in Jan, but deferred it, had more lessons and more preparation (no sponsor for me, either) and passed number two test in early March.

Both times I had lovely, fair testers- so fingers crossed you'll get one of them next time.

caldew

If your instructor is telling you rubbish about if 3 pass therefore 3 must fail he is an idiot.

You did have a poor result, but with correct instruction you should be fine. Find a new instructor who knows what they are talking about.

Phoenix Wright

Jesus, I am never going to pass based on this. Third provisional is up the first week of May, eight lessons done but none since July and no car to practice in. Insurance is just so expensive as a learner, and getting the theory test out of the way when I was 20 is proving to be a fatal mistake

lawless11

caldew wrote: »

If your instructor is telling you rubbish about if 3 pass therefore 3 must fail he is an idiot.

You did have a poor result, but with correct instruction you should be fine. Find a new instructor who knows what they are talking about.

You are saying something I didn't say. Not that X "must" fail, just that on the day and hour of my test, it happened this way. And as I mentioned, I am not trying to imply this was not a pure coincidence.


Anyway no need to be condescending about my instructor, I don't think you know him/her personally so . The instructor as all humans sure has flaws but loads of others have passed with him/her.

24 hours is really not enough driving to be test standard. I understand it’s obviously hard to get more without shelling out hundreds on lessons though. But most of us require a good bit more than 24 hours to pass the test.

I wouldn’t read too much into the quota stuff either. I don’t believe that really happens but if it does, it’s probably borderline candidates that would suffer.

17 grade 2s probably means you need some more experience. Book the test again and try to get another 24 hours at least before it.

One last piece of advise to everyone out there. A driving test can be somewhat like a job interview. Dress well, shower and get the car washed and valeted beforehand. The testers impressions can have a big impact. I was shocked at the filth of some cars when I was doing my test.

punisher5112

Phoenix Wright wrote: »

Jesus, I am never going to pass based on this. Third provisional is up the first week of May, eight lessons done but none since July and no car to practice in. Insurance is just so expensive as a learner, and getting the theory test out of the way when I was 20 is proving to be a fatal mistake

Have you any family or friends that could give you a few spins off road such as a car park in an industrial estate for example.

Could you get on someone policy as a named driver and get going.

zepman

Phoenix Wright wrote: »

Jesus, I am never going to pass based on this. Third provisional is up the first week of May, eight lessons done but none since July and no car to practice in. Insurance is just so expensive as a learner, and getting the theory test out of the way when I was 20 is proving to be a fatal mistake

Yeah that sucks. I went through 3 learner permits in a span of 6 years. Spent a lot on lessons during the time I had the first 2. But the lessons were spread out over 2-3 years and I had no access to additional practice. So I never got good enough. Due to my circumstances, I couldn't get any lessons during the time I had the 3rd permit, so once it expired I decided not to renew it as I knew my circumstances wouldn't change for some time.

It was only in January this year that I applied for my 4th one (the 3rd one had been expired for 2 years at that time). This was only because I was in a position to afford a second-hand car and insurance. More importantly, I had moved very close to work which made it easy to get a mate from work to accompany me for regular practice outside of my lessons. This made the difference and I passed my test only 2 months later.

So, if you find that you will be unable to get the necessary amount of driving practice at present (i.e., frequent lessons, or lessons + additional practice with the help of family/friends), then I would not renew the learner permit now. You have 5 years to renew it without losing the validity of your theory test and EDT.

Phoenix Wright

punisher5112 wrote:

Could you get on someone policy as a named driver and get going.

I was insured on my mother's car, but unfortunately the insurance company raised the quote by 2k this year and I was not getting enough use out of it to justify going elsewhere. Having a willing and available sponsor is proving tough at times

Phoenix Wright

zepman wrote:

So, if you find that you will be unable to get the necessary amount of driving practice at present (i.e., frequent lessons, or lessons + additional practice with the help of family/friends), then I would not renew the learner permit now. You have 5 years to renew it without losing the validity of your theory test and EDT.

I will definitely keep that in mind as an option > I wonder what figure I would he looking at to get my own car and insured? How much did it cost you out of curiosity?

Practicing will make all the difference for me I think, even if having a sponsor alongside you at all times is a drag having a smaller car would be very beneficial

zepman

Phoenix Wright wrote: »

I will definitely keep that in mind as an option > I wonder what figure I would he looking at to get my own car and insured? How much did it cost you out of curiosity?

Practicing will make all the difference for me I think, even if having a sponsor alongside you at all times is a drag having a smaller car would be very beneficial

The car I bought was priced at €5k with finance, but the dealer accepted €4.5k as I was paying cash. There were cars cheaper than that too. For the insurance, pretty much every provider was quoting upwards of €2k. The cheapest I could find was a black box young drivers insurance with a quote of about €1800, which included my wife (also on a learner permit) as an additional driver. I paid most of it in monthly instalments, so with surcharges, it worked out to €1900.

We had saved up for this over a year earlier but had no access to a sponsor at that time, so there was no point spending that money. Only went ahead with it once I knew I'd have a sponsor regularly accompanying me. If things hadn't fallen in place, I'd have spent the money on getting more and frequent lessons.

I wanted to put no pressure on myself when it came to driving. So, at the start of this year I set myself a comfortable goal of passing the test by the end of the year, no matter how many attempts or lessons it took. But I went from not wanting to sit behind the wheel in January (my sponsor test drove my car and drove it to my place after I bought it) to passing my test in April. I only took 6 lessons. I had booked 10 initially, but after the first few, my instructor said that I won't need that many. So practising in between lessons certainly made all the difference!

Getting someone's time regularly is difficult, yeah. See if you can get time from a few different people, so it won't be really be an imposition on a single person. All it takes is a couple of practice sessions every week (about half an hour each) between lessons.

Phoenix Wright

zepman wrote:

The car I bought was priced at €5k with finance, but the dealer accepted €4.5k as I was paying cash. There were cars cheaper than that too. For the insurance, pretty much every provider was quoting upwards of €2k. The cheapest I could find was a black box young drivers insurance with a quote of about €1800, which included my wife (also on a learner permit) as an additional driver. I paid most of it in monthly instalments, so with surcharges, it worked out to €1900.

I just wanted to say thanks very much for the response - I completely forgot to reply with the constant going over Christmas but all of that is very helpful to know. It seems buying as new a car as possible is going to be important, though I'm definitely finding that the quotes vary considerably and there doesn't seem to really be rules set in stone!

Wellyd

Failed in gorey today. Could’ve kicked myself for it. All observation issues which I’m usually not too bad at. Driving instructor Had me feeling confident enough but sure not much I can do. Booked the test again before I left the test centre car park. Fingers crossed for the second time round

Cork Trucker

Wellyd wrote: »

Failed in gorey today. Could’ve kicked myself for it. All observation issues which I’m usually not too bad at. Driving instructor Had me feeling confident enough but sure not much I can do. Booked the test again before I left the test centre car park. Fingers crossed for the second time round

All grade 2's?

Wellyd

Cork Trucker wrote: »

All grade 2's?

Yep all grade 2s

Posy

Wellyd wrote: »

Booked the test again before I left the test centre car park. Fingers crossed for the second time round

I booked my second test within a hour of failing my first.
Onwards and upwards, a few tweaks and you'll pass the next one easily!

Lockheed

Failed my test first time last year, had a rubbish ADI and picked up many faults from my time with her. Taught me to move the car with the clutch at low speed then apply accelerator after (which just stalls my dad's older car so all it did was confuse me) and I failed for mostly observations (but i went into the test very very unsettled and was expecting a fail). Different ADI, taught me ABC for footwork and told me to keep the ball of my left heel on the ground and simply use the clutch that way and rest foot on the footrest - that was the click moment for me, driving now makes sense. Every lesson with my new ADI we pick up on another bad habit which I had formed so it can be resolved. Since then my observations have fallen into place and i am quite competent in checking mirrors and blindspots when needed. Test booked for mid September. Wish me luck.

Trey13

Failed for the third time today. No marks given for the hill start, turnabout or three point turn. No marks given for observation or signals, signs, rules etc. I got two blue marks for position on the straight aswell as two marks for position turning left. I have to feel incredibly hard done by here to be honest.

What is the “correct position” in the straight? And what’s the correct position turning left?

And will they know I’m sitting it for a 4th time?

Thanks

QJJQJDE

Trey13 wrote: »

Failed for the third time today. No marks given for the hill start, turnabout or three point turn. No marks given for observation or signals, signs, rules etc. I got two blue marks for position on the straight aswell as two marks for position turning left. I have to feel incredibly hard done by here to be honest.

What is the “correct position” in the straight? And what’s the correct position turning left?

And will they know I’m sitting it for a 4th time?

Thanks

Failed myself there about an hour ago. Messed everything right up. Kicking myself for the amount of stupid mistakes I made. In all the practice I did I never once did the mistakes I'm after doing there.

Olwas2014

QJJQJDE wrote: »

Failed myself there about an hour ago. Messed everything right up. Kicking myself for the amount of stupid mistakes I made. In all the practice I did I never once did the mistakes I'm after doing there.

Oh no! What happened? From the sounds of it, you should get it the next time!

J_R

Trey13 wrote: »

Failed for the third time today. No marks given for the hill start, turnabout or three point turn. No marks given for observation or signals, signs, rules etc. I got two blue marks for position on the straight aswell as two marks for position turning left. I have to feel incredibly hard done by here to be honest.

What is the “correct position” in the straight? And what’s the correct position turning left?

And will they know I’m sitting it for a 4th time?

Thanks

Hi,

The correct position on the straight is a "Safe but not excessive distance from the left. This is not a fixed line but varies as conditions change - such as visibility, speed, weather, traffic and road conditions. You must give yourself enough time to be able to stop or avoid any obstruction that suddenly appears. Normally it is roughly the width of a car door (3 Foot).

Correct position turning left. start turning when you front wheel is level with the point where the kerb begins to curve and keep it parallel with it as you go around.


And will they know I’m sitting it for a 4th time? No. and they do not care. They only mark your current driving.

QJJQJDE

Olwas2014 wrote: »

Oh no! What happened? From the sounds of it, you should get it the next time!

Murphy's Law happened. Gear popping out, didn't look over my blind spot before moving off, gears popping out again, bit harsh on acceleration in first. Stress just completely wiped my mind clean of anything I'd ever learned. No clue what I was doing wrong with the gears but it kept giving me grade 2's over and over for progression and lack of control or whatever.

No idea what I got wrong or how many times because I just got a generic fail sheet with things I have to improve on circled. No help whatosever.

Olwas2014

QJJQJDE wrote: »

Murphy's Law happened. Gear popping out, didn't look over my blind spot before moving off, gears popping out again, bit harsh on acceleration in first. Stress just completely wiped my mind clean of anything I'd ever learned. No clue what I was doing wrong with the gears but it kept giving me grade 2's over and over for progression and lack of control or whatever.

No idea what I got wrong or how many times because I just got a generic fail sheet with things I have to improve on circled. No help whatosever.

I’m very sorry to hear. It happens anxiety gets the better of people and that sounds like what happened you. It’s gears that I have to work on as well so you’re not in the boat alone on thst one. Progression can be a pain which is also what I’m told to work on

SecretsOfEarth

Failed first time today, 10 Grade 2's - bit sickened as some of them were so obvious in my eyes. Forgot to indicate once when pulling in to a stop at the kerb (did it on two or three other separate occasions but forgot once!), didn't move over enough to the left at a junction when turning left, and a couple of other annoying errors. Hoping that I'll improve enough to get it on the next go.