SGS Galway Test

majiktripp

Just did my driving test this morning in SGS Ballybrit, passed first time and was very impressed with the Driving Tester. Yesterday I was due to sit the test at 13:45pm but received a phonecall in the morning to notify me they had to cancel due to a backlog,so it was postponed till this morning.
I sat the test at 8am more a less,scheduled for 8.15am but the tester asked could we leave early and I thought this was fine (less traffic!).
Straight away she was very curtious, quite calming infact, she had a slight accent in her voice , sounded South African but I cant be sure.
I have nothing but praise for her as I was fairly nervous after having hyped myself up yesterday for it only to have it postponed.However her instructions were clear and concise without being harsh, she sounded like a GPS unit to be honest but I thought this was great.
I have posted a picture using Google Earth where I have traced out the route I took along with marking where the hill start and 3 point turn were carried out.
We ventured no where near Lurgan Park where the reverse around corner/3 point turn usually are so I recommend to anyone about to sit the test not to soley rely on practising down there.
All in all I was very happy with the SGS centre and would tell anyone due to sit the test there not to worry too much, just practise all over Renmore/Mervue/Lurgan Park area and you should be fine!.
Heres the map.

Sherifu

Congratulations.

Das Kitty

Fair play.

Lucky you with the tester. Mine tutted the whole way, I even caught him throwing his eyes up to heaven when I was checking my blind spot coming off a roundabout!

Still passed though, thank the baby jebus, dunno if I could have done that again.

Fey!

Well done. Have you burned the L plates yet?

majiktripp

Fey! wrote: »

Well done. Have you burned the L plates yet?

Not yet, high on my list of things to do though! Trying to get Full license sorted asap,leaving country for a year in a month so would be nice to have full drivers license set to go.

Aurora Borealis

Fair play to ya for posting the map. Have mine soon so need to get practising out that side of town..

Can't quite make out where you've marked the hill start or reversing though...

Congratulations and happy motoring!

AB.

tonyhiggins

I sat mine at 13:45 yesterday!! It was actually about quarter past one as they were just ready to go so I appreciated that too. Went to Lurgan Park for reversing and turnaround, more or less reversed around the street where I grew up which was funny. Passed!!

majiktripp

The hill start I had was near the back of Renmore, theres a windy downhill road that swings to the left and then up a steep enough hill,on the map near Dun Na Mara drive.
The reverse around a corner and 3 point turn were on a street, if you turn right by dan dairies, then further down that road its the second turn right, then down that street its the forst right. Sorry the map isnt as clear as I wanted it but hopefully you get the areas I'm on about.

amy85

i did my test up in ballybrit too and passed it tester was really nice.
was she by any chance quite a big lady? with an unusual name?

Toto Wolfcastle

majiktripp wrote: »

Not yet, high on my list of things to do though! Trying to get Full license sorted asap,leaving country for a year in a month so would be nice to have full drivers license set to go.

Do they send the licence out to you in the post in Galway? (I got mine on the spot in Cork but I'm told this only happens there and possibly Limerick.)

Congratulations! A girl in college failed hers with SGS recently and hasn't shut up about the 'clearly incompetent' tester. I'm willing to bet it was more to do with her!

majiktripp

janeybabe wrote: »

Do they send the licence out to you in the post in Galway? (I got mine on the spot in Cork but I'm told this only happens there and possibly Limerick.)

Not that I'm aware of, still going through the process of applying via the Galway County Council for the full license, nice for people in Cork or Limerick though!

Toto Wolfcastle

majiktripp wrote: »

Not that I'm aware of, still going through the process of applying via the Galway County Council for the full license, nice for people in Cork or Limerick though!

Well I should have said on the spot in the Motor Tax Office! But it's still nice.

Fair play to you though, I don't think I could pass my test in Galway!

JohnCleary

Is the Ballybrit centre different to the Doughiska one? Or is that the most stupid question ever posted on boards?

I know there's one centre in Doughiska, and theres 2 centres in Galway, not sure if you're including the Ballybrit AS doughiska

-Edit- think I answered my own question by looking at the map... d'oh

majiktripp

Nope I think there bothe two seperate centres as far as I know, when I got the letter it was directing me to the one in Ballybrit behind Tom Hogan Motors, however a lively debate with my friend who swore that the NCT Centre had the new Driver Testing Offices soon turned into a midnight drive to both sites to prove him wrong...and also myself as I thought there was only one test centre. So there you have it , as confusing an answer as the question itself.

MargeS

so is the test centre in west side gone? I will have to sit my A test soon.

majiktripp

No test centre in Westside is still there , thats the "offical" centre run by RSA (?) the other two in the East Galway area are run by ubcontracted crowd SGS.

ZorbaTehZ

majiktripp wrote: »

Nope I think there bothe two seperate centres as far as I know, when I got the letter it was directing me to the one in Ballybrit behind Tom Hogan Motors, however a lively debate with my friend who swore that the NCT Centre had the new Driver Testing Offices soon turned into a midnight drive to both sites to prove him wrong...and also myself as I thought there was only one test centre. So there you have it , as confusing an answer as the question itself.

Yup, I had that same problem, my letter was all over the place.

Gz on passing. I did mine in february but mine was a quite a different route that yours tbh. Took 2nd exit at that roundabout and went down to the estate on the left and did all the stuff there, then went back to centre.

Re the full license, go into the town hall with a passport pic and fill out the form there, and they'll mail out the license within a week (got mine 4 days after in the post)