Test Preparation

Thumpette

Hi Guys,

I just got the date for my test last week, its on at the end of November. I'm really happy with the test details, I got SGS, I got Baldoyle and I got mid morning- so I think the only thing that will hold me back now is my driving! :P

When I began driving I got 5x2 hour lessons and since then (about 5 months- tho I have my permit 8 mths) I have been practicing as much as I can. I have driven to Donegal (accompanied of course) and to Mayo- as well as a lot of local driving, so I am confident enough with actual driving.

I dont have a clue on reversing round a corner and the turnabout is going to take a lot of practice- as well as practicing all the noral turns etc.

What would you recommend now in terms of lessons/ pre tests. I was thinking of trying to have a 2 hour lesson soon, then maybe a pretest the week before and a pre test either that morning or the day before? Does that sounds about right or does anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers

Cassie1

Your best bet is to get a pre-test as soon as you can. That way if you need to take further lessons you will have the time to get used to driving the right way. You may not need many lessons so dont book a load of lessons or per-tests til you know how much work you need to do.
What are your thoughts on that?

wil

Cassie1 wrote: »

Your best bet is to get a pre-test as soon as you can. That way if you need to take further lessons you will have the time to get used to driving the right way. You may not need many lessons so dont book a load of lessons or per-tests til you know how much work you need to do.
What are your thoughts on that?

AAAARgh.:eek:

That would be My first thought.

Look, I will say this again, you can take a million pretests and never improve - because - wait for it - you are not learning anything - you are just demonstrating what you dont know to someone you are paying to tell you what you want to hear.
Why pay good money to someone to drive them around for an hour.
Ask them to teach you for that money

You know on the morning of the Leaving cert, do you
A look blankly through loads of questions you dont know the answers to,
B ask the examiner to give you a quick exam before you sit down for the real one
or
C look at cram notes and solutions to questions given to you by your teachers who may have some idea what they are talking about.

I am think of starting a campaign against the "pretest" - lets call it a Pretest protest.
A Post-test pass-test pretest protest

I call schenanigans on the next person who suggests pretests are the great alternative to actually learning to drive.

Cassie1

wil wrote: »

AAAARgh.:eek:

Look, I will say this again, you can take a million pretests and never improve - because - wait for it - you are not learning anything - you are just demonstrating what you dont know to someone you are paying to tell you what you want to hear.
Why pay good money to someone to drive them around for an hour.
Ask them to teach you for that money


Couldn't agree more. I've heard of a lot of people booking a heap of pre-tests. Surely the instructor can't tell how much you have to work on til they see what your doing wrong. Is it just a way of getting money off you? Maybe I'm just being sceptical but it doesnt seem right. It's like buying something you haven't seen.

wil

Cassie1 wrote:

Couldn't agree more. I've heard of a lot of people booking a heap of pre-tests. Surely the instructor can't tell how much you have to work on til they see what your doing wrong. Is it just a way of getting money off you? Maybe I'm just being sceptical but it doesnt seem right. It's like buying something you haven't seen.

Spot on - its the easiest money any instructor could get. They sit beside you for an hour and you dont expect them to say much.

Remember when your teachers came in with hangovers or bad colds and didnt feel like teaching - they gave you exams or loads of questions to do.
Well pretest is really the hungover teachers equivalent in the driving world.
Same money but alot less work.

Your instructor who takes you for proper lessons and sees you for many hours should have a better idea of your potential to pass on both your good days and bad days without having to pay them money for not teaching you

Wishbone Ash

Cassie1 wrote: »

Your best bet is to get a pre-test driving lessons as soon as you can

There, I corrected that for you!

Alanstrainor

Hahaha, although i did get a pretest, before my test and thought it was helpful, and calmed my nerves, there is no sustitute for lessons, and multiple pretests is a bit of a joke!

Annee

I'm really glad I read this thread now - I'd never really thought of it like that before...

I'm applying for test the this weekend, so it'll probably be 2 months before I actually do the it. I took about 5 lessons at the start and now I'm just practicing with my dad and boyfriend but I definitely want to take a few more lessons before the test.

Good luck to the OP by the way

Thumpette

Thanks everyone for the responces. I agree totally that loads of pretests are pointless- thats why I was planning to get a lesson first- and if I need more I will get that. Do you think in general one pretest is a good idea? If it is what would you say is a good timelapse?

I could either get one the week before, the day before or the morning of the test.

Cheers

RedzDrivingScho

Hi Thumpette......

My advice to you is the same as I would give anybody....in the run up to your test take 5 lessons....and let one of them be a pre-test.....that'll give you enough time to practice all the manoveurs and then a final lesson to allow you simulate the driving in a test condition.......

Pre-test after pre-test is a waste of time.....

Hope that helps......

Thumpette

Thanks redz, sounds like a plan alright...

One last thing, the driving instructor who I did my previous lessons with (seems very good but a little indimidating) pretty much refused to do 1 hour lessons with me and would only do 2 hours. He was saying it was because the traffic was very heavy, but to be honest it was never that bad, also he often took a 15 minute smoke break in the middle of the lesson and dropped me home 10 mins early and was charging 80 euros!

Are most instructors happy enough to do one hour lessons or do most plump for 2?

Green Giant

One hour should be plenty to take in everything. Fair play to you for hacking two-hour lessons, I used to be knackered after 40-50 minutes of mine!

RedzDrivingScho

You shouldn't have a problem with finding an instructor to give 1 hour lessons......anyone who wont accomodate 1 hour lesson is probably not very accomodating in other areas also.....

Hope that helps

the corpo

Thumpette wrote: »

One last thing, the driving instructor who I did my previous lessons with (seems very good but a little indimidating) pretty much refused to do 1 hour lessons with me and would only do 2 hours. He was saying it was because the traffic was very heavy, but to be honest it was never that bad, also he often took a 15 minute smoke break

I would imagine an hour a lesson is the norm, with the occasional 2 hour lesson reserved for parking manouevres etc.

A smoking break??? If this guy is from a school, I'd report immediately

Thumpette

the corpo wrote: »

A smoking break??? If this guy is from a school, I'd report immediately

Yeah I thought it was cheeky alright- it was always dressed up as a break where we went outside the car to check its position on the road or something but it turned pretty quickly into a smoke break and random chit chat. I dont smoke myself so i was a wee bit annoyed about it- but at the same time I was usually kinda glad of a break at that stage. I was more annoyed about the being dropped home early in all honesty.


If anyone has any details of good instructors who would know the Baldoyle area please PM me

I dont know at this stage whether to stick with the person I know or risk someone new....

Thumpette

Well my test is coming up now 2 weeks tomorrow. I have done 2 x 2 hour lessons so far. I have been told that I have the odd bad habit, putting down the clutch too early when I want to come to a stop, and tending to drift away from the left a little when driving on straights. Apart from that it is mainly just little mistakes here and there- unfortunately they all add up!

I had never done reversing around the corner and turnabouts before these last lessons but am actually managing surprisingly well. Its been hard to practice much without the instructor cos its so dark in the evenings now.

Anyway I have one more 2 hour lesson the week before the test booked. I am also thinking of having a pretest the morning of the test. Is this advisable? My test is at 11, so if I did one should I do it right before or at 9?

I have also been reading the rules of the road as much as I can, so I hope I will be ok with the theory portion. Any advice at this stage would be greatly appreciated!

RedzDrivingScho

A lesson before the test is a good idea to ease the nerves and get into the "zone" of the driving test......

Wouldn't call it a pretest as such as the instructor should be giving good advice as regards the test.....rather than just telling you what was wrong.....

hope your instructor will give you an hours lesson....you said previously he wouldn't....

Best of luck with the test

Tech3

mainly 3 things there are usually strict on:

progress when road is clear ahead, my instructor wasnt as strict on this as much as my tester.

observation when driving straight on checking junctions and mirrors when turing right/left and moving off.

Position on the road when driving on the straight.

good luck on the test:cool:

macroman

For the practical manoeuvres it's just a case of taking your time, with the reversing around the corner just keep between your rear window and mirrors, stop halfway through to check to the right and continue the manoeuvre - also if any traffic or pedestrians come anywhere towards your stop, handbrake up and hazards on! Turnabout in the road is a bit tricky, just get your hands moving just as you take off - have your car on full lock before you get to the centre of the road.

Theory is fairly straight forward. They'll ask you three or four questions regarding the rules of the road (when can you overtake on the left etc.), a few signs, some technical checks (we did that in the office as it was freezing outside!).

Progress is just keeping a reasonable speed for the conditions and location - i.e. slow down at school zones in the rain. They'll get you on ramps, I made sure it didn't catch me and was making good progress off them (must've been as got no marks for it). Observation during the test means being like a nodding dog - in mirrors every 100ft or so, looking early into junctions etc. Position is just left of centre - and around 1/2 metre from the boundry (buslane, kerb, cyclelane).

Keep your cool, and you'll be grand. I was driving perfect until the last mile when a <fellow> on a roundabout threw me off (he was in wrong lane with misleading signal!).

Alanstrainor

macroman wrote: »

For the practical manoeuvres it's just a case of taking your time, with the reversing around the corner just keep between your rear window and mirrors, stop halfway through to check to the right and continue the manoeuvre.

Just to clarify this point. Be sure to check over your right shoulder before you begin to turn. As the front of the car will swing out, you dont wont to clip into anything/anyone!
+1 to the above though, take your time, keep your cool.

macroman

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Just to clarify this point. Be sure to check over your right shoulder before you begin to turn. As the front of the car will swing out, you dont wont to clip into anything/anyone!
+1 to the above though, take your time, keep your cool.

Yep forgot to mention a BIG BLINDSPOT look! Same for Turnabout and everytime you stop during a manoeuvre do all your observation checks before proceeding.

xIsabelx

I had the same driving instructor for my initial lessons and my pretests. My driving test is tomorrow and I've had two 2 hour pretests to prepare for it...I found them incredibly helpful. I guess I can't really speak until after my test tomorrow though! :pac:

Thumpette

Thanks for all the advice everyone

Best of luck tomorrow Isabel- let us know how it goes! Fingers crossed!

xIsabelx

I passed!

Yes, the pretests were such a great help!

RedzDrivingScho

Congratulations......now..don't forget to get your licence asap so because strictly speaking you can't drive unaccompanied on a pass cert.....

Safe driving for the future....

Thumpette

Yay- fantactic news- well done!

macroman

xIsabelx wrote: »

I passed!

Yes, the pretests were such a great help!

Congrats