Failed Driving Test

ThunderZtorm

Just had my third test. In my opinion, I drove faultless. I have about 3.000 kilometers under my belt now, a lot of it on challenging roads all over Ireland. I've driven in high sun, dawn, dusk, middle of the night, stormy rain and fog. I've been commended for my calm and safe driving by a Finnish ambulance driver, two Irish driving instructors and several of my friends, relatives and so forth. Heck, even the bloke at my first test said that I was a good and safe driver, but as the car stalled three times at traffic lights, he failed me due to bad control of accelerator.

To put it short, I've been driving a lot.

Now, the latest test (In Finglas, Dublin, just like the other three tests I've had), he gave me two grade 3's and 9 grade 2's.

I disagree completely with both reds and at least 4 blues (those were the ones he explained to me):

red 1: Failing observation to the right in a roundabout. I did no such thing, I had a clear line of sight about 300 meters up the road to the right and I know for a fact that no cars were coming. I cannot see how this could've ever been noted as a fault.

red 2: Passing a red light at a pedestrian crossing. Again, I disagree. Situation was this: Driving 50 km/h, crossing ahead of me, turns yellow with me 20-25 meters away from the line. I have a car tailgaiting right behind me. Only way I could've stopped at the line would've been to hammer the brakes and have the car behind me crash into me. I make the evaluation that stopping based on distance to line and distance to car behind me would be too big a risk to stop for yellow, especially as I can see that the pedestrians are not beginning to cross the road either.

4 blues for "reaction to hazards". Driving along a small road with parked cars everywhere, I weaved in and out between the cars, keeping on my side of the road as much as possible. According to him, I should've just stayed on the right side of the road instead - even though that would be completely illegal and the lazy way of driving.



This experience today has made me lose the will to try again, really, because what's the point. To me it feels like they look at the name, go "ah, foreigner", and do their very best to dump me for no reason at all besides that.

I've had three actual tests and one non-conducted (due to some imaginary problem with one of my discs), and although this one was the worst, I have not agreed with either of them.

I don't mind a fair test, but I'm getting really tired of getting ripped off by people who seem to be focused on dumping me rather than properly evaluating my driving.

ADIDriving

ThunderZtorm wrote: »

To put it short, I've been driving a lot.

Now, the latest test (In Finglas, Dublin, just like the other three tests I've had), he gave me two grade 3's and 9 grade 2's.

I disagree completely with both reds and at least 4 blues (those were the ones he explained to me):

red 1: Failing observation to the right in a roundabout. I did no such thing, I had a clear line of sight about 300 meters up the road to the right and I know for a fact that no cars were coming. I cannot see how this could've ever been noted as a fault.

To have got a grade 3 there was someone somewhere. Either coming around the roundabout, infront of you as you began to move forward or on the exit. If you had of seen them you would have reacted but it was probably something you did not see.

red 2: Passing a red light at a pedestrian crossing. Again, I disagree. Situation was this: Driving 50 km/h, crossing ahead of me, turns yellow with me 20-25 meters away from the line. I have a car tailgaiting right behind me. Only way I could've stopped at the line would've been to hammer the brakes and have the car behind me crash into me. I make the evaluation that stopping based on distance to line and distance to car behind me would be too big a risk to stop for yellow, especially as I can see that the pedestrians are not beginning to cross the road either.

Was the light red as you went past the line or not?

4 blues for "reaction to hazards". Driving along a small road with parked cars everywhere, I weaved in and out between the cars, keeping on my side of the road as much as possible. According to him, I should've just stayed on the right side of the road instead - even though that would be completely illegal and the lazy way of driving.

The correct thing to do is stay in the middle so long as you do not affect any oncoming traffic. It reason is that you get to see a lot more. 'Weaving' is rarely a good idea.

This experience today has made me lose the will to try again, really, because what's the point. To me it feels like they look at the name, go "ah, foreigner", and do their very best to dump me for no reason at all besides that.

I had a Romanian driver pass today in Finglas.

I've had three actual tests and one non-conducted (due to some imaginary problem with one of my discs), and although this one was the worst, I have not agreed with either of them.

This is a paradoxical question. What was the imaginary question?

I don't mind a fair test, but I'm getting really tired of getting ripped off by people who seem to be focused on dumping me rather than properly evaluating my driving.

.

ThunderZtorm

ADIDriving wrote: »

To have got a grade 3 there was someone somewhere. Either coming around the roundabout, infront of you as you began to move forward or on the exit. If you had of seen them you would have reacted but it was probably something you did not see.

I assure you there was nobody there, NOBODY. No cars, bikes, pedestrians or stray dogs or anything. I was checking it from quite far away. It's the small tiny roundabout in Finglas where the road on the right is slightly uphill and completely open/void of buildings, so there's quite a good view of the right side. There was one car on the left, but he correctly waited to see where I was going and didn't enter the roundabout before I was clearly leaving it.

ADIDriving wrote: »

Was the light red as you went past the line or not?

It was yellow.

ADIDriving wrote: »

The correct thing to do is stay in the middle so long as you do not affect any oncoming traffic. It reason is that you get to see a lot more. 'Weaving' is rarely a good idea.

Strange how neither my instructor nor the two other testers I've had have made a note of it then as these are the first faults in "reaction to hazards" I've ever gotten. Very mixed signals I'm getting as to what you should do when even the testers don't agree.

ADIDriving wrote: »

I had a Romanian driver pass today in Finglas.

Sorry, but I have no other explanation as to what is going on otherwise.

ADIDriving wrote: »

This is a paradoxical question. What was the imaginary question?

Apparently my insurance disc suddenly had a wrong date in one of the places (the small expiry date was incorrect - the large one was correct and all my other papers were correct as well.) Nobody else (two other testers) had had problems with it and it was clear to anyone that my car is insured - but suddenly, it was a problem.

Daxve

red 1: Failing observation to the right in a roundabout. I did no such thing, I had a clear line of sight about 300 meters up the road to the right and I know for a fact that no cars were coming. I cannot see how this could've ever been noted as a fault.

Did you actually slow down before entering the roundabout and look to your right (that is could the tester see that you looked to your right not just a quick eye shuffle) or just carry on straight through. You should treat it as if there was something there even though there isn't, you know there's nothing there but the tester needs to see that you are aware of whats going on around you and are prepared for the unexpected.

red 2: Passing a red light at a pedestrian crossing. Again, I disagree. Situation was this: Driving 50 km/h, crossing ahead of me, turns yellow with me 20-25 meters away from the line. I have a car tailgaiting right behind me. Only way I could've stopped at the line would've been to hammer the brakes and have the car behind me crash into me. I make the evaluation that stopping based on distance to line and distance to car behind me would be too big a risk to stop for yellow, especially as I can see that the pedestrians are not beginning to cross the road either.

Bit of damned if you do damned if you don't situation unfortunately. The tester is looking to see if you where prepared for the lights to change so you should have reduced your speed a bit coming up to lights in anticipation of them changing this is especially true if there are pedestrians standing at the lights waiting to cross you should have seen them thought to yourself OK they have pressed the button and the lights may change so I need to slow a bit even if you can still see a green light.

4 blues for "reaction to hazards". Driving along a small road with parked cars everywhere, I weaved in and out between the cars, keeping on my side of the road as much as possible. According to him, I should've just stayed on the right side of the road instead - even though that would be completely illegal and the lazy way of driving.

Never weave in and out pull out to over take the obstruction - parked car if there are more cars parked stay on right hand side until you clear them then move left again. If you meet another car coming in the opposite direction you either pull in if there is space and let them pass or if there is no space the other driver should not proceed until you have cleared the parked cars - I know easier said than done your relying on someone else to see that you have no space to pull in and that they shouldn't proceed.

At the end of day we all do the above but for your driving test it has to be exactly how they want it once you have that pink license you tend to revert back to how you always did things.

Alanstrainor

Posts moved to a new thread, please don't drag up old threads.

ThunderZtorm

Daxve wrote: »

Did you actually slow down before entering the roundabout and look to your right (that is could the tester see that you looked to your right not just a quick eye shuffle) or just carry on straight through. You should treat it as if there was something there even though there isn't, you know there's nothing there but the tester needs to see that you are aware of whats going on around you and are prepared for the unexpected.

I did slow down, got down into 2nd gear as you should etc and clearly looked to the right for somewhat longer that I'd normally do. Apparently he didn't see it, there's no other explanation.

Daxve wrote: »

Bit of damned if you do damned if you don't situation unfortunately. The tester is looking to see if you where prepared for the lights to change so you should have reduced your speed a bit coming up to lights in anticipation of them changing this is especially true if there are pedestrians standing at the lights waiting to cross you should have seen them thought to yourself OK they have pressed the button and the lights may change so I need to slow a bit even if you can still see a green light.

Hmm, good point about slowing down - still though, I'd hold that in the situation I had, it would've been far more dangerous to stop based on the distance I had to the light and the distance to the car behind me. Granted, if he bumped into me it would be his fault, but still - who on earth wants to be in an accident on your driving test.

Daxve wrote: »

Never weave in and out pull out to over take the obstruction - parked car if there are more cars parked stay on right hand side until you clear them then move left again. If you meet another car coming in the opposite direction you either pull in if there is space and let them past or if there is no space the other driver should not proceed until you have cleared the parked cars - I know easier said than done your relying on someone else to see that you have no space to pull in and that they shouldn't proceed.

As I said to the other poster, it's strange that two other testers and my driving instructor did not agree on that then. I mean, yeah, it does seem more logical, but I've never gotten faults for this before.

ProudDUB

1. The Roundabout. You should always slow down and look to your right as you approach and enter a roundabout. By "look" I mean a significant turn of your head that is held for several seconds. If you did not do that you will get dinged. Your clear view from 300 meters away is irrelevant. The tester may have been looking down at his sheet as you approached the roundabout. He may not have had the clear view that you did that no one was coming. What you did when you got to the roundabout is what mattered to him. If you didn't make it OBVIOUS that you looked to your right, you will get dinged. He will take what you do at this one roundabout as indicative of what you will do at every roundabout. If he thinks your observation is lacking at this one roundabout, regardless of whether there were other cars around or not, you'll be marked for it.


2. The yellow/red light. I think you were going too fast as you approached it. If you are approaching a pedestrian crossing, with people waiting to cross the road, the lights will change sooner rather than later. You should be slowing down gradually in anticipation of them changing. Cars behind you would see what you are doing, and would adjust their own speeds accordingly.

If you had to stop so suddenly when the lights changed, that a car behind you would slam into you, you were going too fast to begin with. Yes, the other car should not have been tailgating & he'd get the ticket if he hit you, but your actions could and would have stopped a crash happening in the first place. You also lower the risk of you driving thru the intersection as pedestrians are entering it.


3. Passing parked cars. No way should you be weaving in and out of parked cars. Who on earth told you that that is ok? If there is a continuous line of parked cars, or one every other 2-3 driveways, pass them all in the center of the road. Then move back towards the left when the blockage is clear.

The Finglas test area contains A LOT of residential streets where there are going to be lots of cars parked on the street. Are you getting lots of practice driving around the area where the test will be? Are you doing pre tests with qualified instructors telling you how best to navigate around hazards such as parked cars? You should be if you want to pass your test. If any of them are telling you it is ok to be weaving in and out around these obstacles, they need to be reported to the RSA and be stripped of their credentials.


4. The average UK/Irish driver drives about 19,000-24,000 km a year. You have only done 3,000 km. That is not a lot of driving experience overall, especially if you want to consider your driving to be "faultless". No one drives faultlessly. Ever. I have done approx 300,000 km of driving over the past 18 years. Never been in an accident or gotten a ticket. Yet every day I make a mistake or make an error of judgment. I know I do. I am only human.

If you open your mind to the idea that you are not perfect, and that you still have a lot to learn, that could be the key to your changing your driving habits & passing your test. No offence, but based on the reasons for your Grade 3's, & your rather dogmatic opinion that you are in the right, you kinda need to.

ADIDriving

Quote; "Apparently my insurance disc suddenly had a wrong date in one of the places (the small expiry date was incorrect - the large one was correct and all my other papers were correct as well.) Nobody else (two other testers) had had problems with it and it was clear to anyone that my car is insured - but suddenly, it was a problem."

Insurance is not like tax. The date in the smaller print is the correct one. It is not a case of the end of the month.

DEVOTION

Passing the parked cars is an interesting one.

Am I correct, in gathering from the comments above, that the proper action is to drive down the middle of the road if there are parked cars on both sides of a narrow road? What's to stop a tester from marking you down for encroaching too far on to the other side of the road?

ADIDriving

DEVOTION wrote: »

Passing the parked cars is an interesting one.

Am I correct, in gathering from the comments above, that the proper action is to drive down the middle of the road if there are parked cars on both sides of a narrow road? What's to stop a tester from marking you down for encroaching too far on to the other side of the road?

Well it is impossible to get past a parked car on a narrow road without crossing to the other side of the road
@ ThunderZtorm Did the examiner tell you that it was that particular roundabout?

DEVOTION

ADIDriving wrote: »

Well it is impossible to get past a parked car on a narrow road without crossing to the other side of the road

Hardy har har. :rolleyes:

the_syco

ThunderZtorm wrote: »

I did slow down, got down into 2nd gear as you should etc and clearly looked to the right for somewhat longer that I'd normally do. Apparently he didn't see it, there's no other explanation.

I know of some people that gave audio cues, such as "look right, no traffic", etc.

Also, keep an eye out for the "stop" lines, without a stop sign. They seem to like marking you down on these. Have seen them at roundabouts, and some places that I would usually have had right of way!

If you think the Finglas lads are bad, don't go near Naas. Naas just tick the boxes, and tell you that your instructor will telll you where you failed. The lads in Finglas will actually tell you what you did wrong.

It'd be worth your while doing a pre-test test, as they'll bring you round a typical course, and tell you what you failed on, and how you failed them.

The parked car thing; one thing they told me to do was to keep a doors length from the parked car, and to indicate when passing out a parked car. Helped my avoid a red tick that failed me the previous time.

ADIDriving

DEVOTION wrote: »

Passing the parked cars is an interesting one.

Am I correct, in gathering from the comments above, that the proper action is to drive down the middle of the road if there are parked cars on both sides of a narrow road? What's to stop a tester from marking you down for encroaching too far on to the other side of the road?

Sorry, to answer more precisely. Yes you are correct. Their training, knowledge of correct driving and supervisors will stop them from giving a mark incorrectly to someone driving properly.

DEVOTION

ADIDriving wrote: »

Sorry, to answer more precisely. Yes you are correct. Their training, knowledge of correct driving and supervisors will stop them from giving a mark incorrectly to someone driving properly.

Thank you. Would I be correct in saying that one should not worry about how far they are encroaching on to the other side of the road once they are leaving a car door's width between their car and the parked cars?

ADIDriving

DEVOTION wrote: »

Thank you. Would I be correct in saying that one should not worry about how far they are encroaching on to the other side of the road once they are leaving a car door's width between their car and the parked cars?

Subject to oncoming traffic, yes. By the way you don't need to have a full doors width if your speed is slow enough, but that one is far more subjective.

Cathalog

Sadly, the driving test is a negatively marked test. You could have given an incredible reaction to a hazard and saved someone's life - and the examiner wouldn't give a damn. There are no "bonus points". It's the system and whether you like it or not, it's just the way it is. All your little faults will add up.

I failed my first test for reaction to hazards too(4 blues in one line) - was sickened. Felt like I was unfairly faulted, felt like giving out s**t on boards, but after a few days I accepted that what I was doing (looking over my shoulder when overtaking parked cars) was dangerous.

You should not be weaving between cars unless there is oncoming traffic and you must do so. Any driving instructor will tell you that.

You check your mirror, signal, move out, cancel signal and stay out. Take my advice and you will not be getting marked on this in your next test. (Just don't check behind your shoulder what ever you do :P )

As for the red light situation, my instructor always told me to slow down to a speed that suits 3rd gear going through traffic lights. And boy did I take this advice onboard. Lights change instantly - and suddenly you can find yourself in a very bad situation if you're driving at 50km/h.
He also told me that, at pedestrian traffic lights, you can continue ahead at 50km/h UNLESS you see people standing beside them. In that case, you should really prepare for the lights to change.
Learn and practice this for your next test - it's really good advice.

Keep trying - you'll get there. Just take in every single thing you did wrong and practice it for the next time. Don't start saying "ah he failed me cause I'm a foreigner" - you will learn nothing! I was saying to myself for a few days after my failed test - "He failed me cause I'm a 17 year old male - one of the biggest dangers on our roads" - but I got over it quickly and moved on.

Final bit of advice (sorry for the essay), if you're getting a tester that's "not nice", email the driving testing section at RSA and ask for a different one. My first tester made me incredibly nervous - rushing me to start off "Hurry up now, before the traffic gets bad". My second tester was much nicer - he actually seemed to be talking to me when giving directions, and not through me! He even laughed (lightly) at one stage of the test when I was stopped at traffic lights and some guy drove up beside me in a cycle lane!!! And if that wasn't bad enough, he then just broke the red light!

ThunderZtorm

I'd like to thank everyone for the kind replies - I realize that my post was somewhat on the "aaargh" side of things, but you all took it quite seriously and explained very well how I seem to have messed up.

I still hold that the red mark at the roundabout was incorrect, but I guess I didn't show clearly enough that I was looking to the right.

The comment about the audio cues, does that actually work? Because, to be fair, I'm not a big fan of clearly turning my head as that, in my opinion, would distract me too much (One more thing to think about, as if there weren't enough already).

For me, having driven more than 3.000 km before my driving test is insane - in Denmark we have 20 driving lessons, then a test - that's all we get, so for me 3.000 is an extreme amount of pre-test driving.

Alanstrainor

It doesn't matter how much driving you do before the test, 1000, 30,000, if you're not driving by the book you wont pass. Simple as that.

The test absolutely should be a "negatively marked test" as Cathalog put it. You are expected to do everything right, not doing things by the book can have serious consequences. It may seem harsher to someone who has failed, or who has yet to do a test, but at the end of the day once you pass, you'll have the license for life; and they should pull you up on every mistake you make.

Cathalog

One more thing.
If you want a quick new test date, ring up the RSA every single day to ask for a cancellation. I got my re-test within a month! I think you must wait about a week or two after your previous test before you can actually ask for a cancellation, but ring them up and they'll tell you what the story is.

starlit

ThunderZtorm wrote: »

Just had my third test. In my opinion, I drove faultless. I have about 3.000 kilometers under my belt now, a lot of it on challenging roads all over Ireland. I've driven in high sun, dawn, dusk, middle of the night, stormy rain and fog. I've been commended for my calm and safe driving by a Finnish ambulance driver, two Irish driving instructors and several of my friends, relatives and so forth. Heck, even the bloke at my first test said that I was a good and safe driver, but as the car stalled three times at traffic lights, he failed me due to bad control of accelerator.

To put it short, I've been driving a lot.

Now, the latest test (In Finglas, Dublin, just like the other three tests I've had), he gave me two grade 3's and 9 grade 2's.

I disagree completely with both reds and at least 4 blues (those were the ones he explained to me):

red 1: Failing observation to the right in a roundabout. I did no such thing, I had a clear line of sight about 300 meters up the road to the right and I know for a fact that no cars were coming. I cannot see how this could've ever been noted as a fault.

red 2: Passing a red light at a pedestrian crossing. Again, I disagree. Situation was this: Driving 50 km/h, crossing ahead of me, turns yellow with me 20-25 meters away from the line. I have a car tailgaiting right behind me. Only way I could've stopped at the line would've been to hammer the brakes and have the car behind me crash into me. I make the evaluation that stopping based on distance to line and distance to car behind me would be too big a risk to stop for yellow, especially as I can see that the pedestrians are not beginning to cross the road either.

4 blues for "reaction to hazards". Driving along a small road with parked cars everywhere, I weaved in and out between the cars, keeping on my side of the road as much as possible. According to him, I should've just stayed on the right side of the road instead - even though that would be completely illegal and the lazy way of driving.



This experience today has made me lose the will to try again, really, because what's the point. To me it feels like they look at the name, go "ah, foreigner", and do their very best to dump me for no reason at all besides that.

I've had three actual tests and one non-conducted (due to some imaginary problem with one of my discs), and although this one was the worst, I have not agreed with either of them.

I don't mind a fair test, but I'm getting really tired of getting ripped off by people who seem to be focused on dumping me rather than properly evaluating my driving.

Sorry to be a bit blunt but to be honest OP, I'd agree with the testers and other posters on this. I haven't sat the test yet but I know from experience of pre-tests that there were aspects on your tests that you would fail. A lot of what you failed on would been related to how you know the rules of the road, have you read the book? It's a lot harder to pass the driving test than you think but don't give up keep trying and try your best!

You may need more experience on the road to be honest. I am driving a few years and I am still learning and making mistakes but with the help of the Pre-tests they are helping me to gradually bring down my faults.

Confidence isn't enough you need to be able to reach a certain standard to pass the test.

3000 km clocked? I've tripled that at this stage I say!? :eek: You need to be driving everyday going through the typical test routes to have any chance of passing. The scene changes all the time as you are driving around.

Its demanding enough driving in different road conditions experiencing them will help you as a driver like night driving, fog, rain, sun and twilight and so on.

A calm and safe driver isn't enough you need to accomplish all round observation, anticipation and dealing with hazard skills as well as skills in all areas of driving and manoeuvres.

Stalling can cause an obstruction depending on the situation if you stall more than once they could fail you on that based on poor accelerator/vehicle control, its possible but depends on the tester and the conditions/scene/situation. Stalling once is ok but when it comes to a situation like traffic lights it could be viewed as causing an obstruction. Just take note of that.

Driving a lot is no use if you not driving often enough like everyday. Every time you go out for a drive its different, scene changes and so on and you need to be able to deal with everything.

Observation on the roundabout well that could be down to anything really not looking at your mirrors not looking at right side in particular before and after roundabout and as you on roundabout look at left in case of a cyclist come in view. Even if a pedestrian or a car or cyclist is not there you need to check if there is, eye shuffling is no good you need to show the tester you are observing and using your mirrors so he has to see you have turned your head to look!

He could mark you down for not doing that as he won't be able to see that you have looked just by using your eyes he has to see that your head has moved and your eyes looking to see if there is a hazard there or not! I have been marked countless of times for not moving my head despite looking at the mirrors and observing!!!

They have to see you in the act basically! Only true way not to get marked down on it, its just a habit you have to get into, turn your head while looking!! Check blindspots also at the crucial times while on roundabout as a car could come too close to you or a cyclist could come up too close as well.

Generally when coming to a roundabout you slow down and be in 2nd gear in case you need to stop. Make sure you in the correct lane and correct position/signal as well.

Passing a pedestrian light it shouldn't matter but slow down at least when you approach a pedestrian crossing if it was a traffic light type of pedestrian light then well basically what ever light it was, you cannot go past a 'solid amber/yellow' light as its about to go 'red' and you must stop so basically it could be considered dangerous doing that unless its not safe to stop. If the amber/yellow light is flashing you can go as its about to go green.

Generally when coming to a pedestrian crossing you slow down, 50km is too high a speed if a pedestrian suddenly appeared would you have time to stop?? you could be faulted for a harsh emergency stop, I often be doing aprox 20-30 coming to a pedestrian crossing and be in 2nd gear.

Ya but in that case you should been slowing down on approach to the pedestrian crossing despite a car tailgating behind you though best to have gone on ahead in case the car behind you crash into your under those circumstances you had no other choice but if you were in a lower gear/lower speed you wouldn't have had to keep going you'd have had time to stop!

When you see a pedestrian nearby a pedestrian crossing you anticipate that they will so unless they are about to cross or foot on the crossing you must stop to let them off and basically be in a lower gear/speed on approach so you can do this safely by stopping to let a pedestrian cross whether they do so or not, especially if they very near it. You can't read their minds.

You be faulted on weaving in and out parked cars or being too close to them. Clearance distance of a door length is the usual when overtaking parked cars and the safe thing to do if there is a stream of parked cars you continue to over take them on the straight by not weaving in and out unless there is a tight spot for cars opposite you trying to pass on a narrow road and you have space to pull in safely for a few mins. Generally if there is a line of parked cars you over take them on the straight without weaving in out unless there is a big gap in between could you weave a bit.

Its not illegal to drive on the right side if you are overtaking a series of parked cars if it means you not too close to them when overtaking them, the cars on the opposite side will have to stop for you if that is the case. Even if stay on the left you could be too close to the cars while overtaking them so its safer to go nearer to the centre right perhaps if staying within the left as possible or go right of the road though illegal to drive on the right side of the road but in the circumstances of overtaking its ok. Give yourself time and plenty of room to do so and look ahead and behind, signal and use mirrors and observation accordingly.

I think the testers couldn't been any fairer than they were, they at least explained what you should have done at certain aspects of your tests so go with what they have said with a pinch of salt it could save you a lot of hassle for future tests. Go with what they have said. Being over confident in your driving maybe making you miss the point of what they are trying to explain to you with the mistakes on your test. Your instructor could look into your test results more closely and see what you need to work on.

I highly recommend to get a couple of pre-test lessons it be a great help to you. Read the rules of the road!

Best of luck on your next test!

J_R

ThunderZtorm wrote: »

I'd like to thank everyone for the kind replies - I realize that my post was somewhat on the "aaargh" side of things, but you all took it quite seriously and explained very well how I seem to have messed up.

I still hold that the red mark at the roundabout was incorrect, but I guess I didn't show clearly enough that I was looking to the right.


There is no need whatsoever to do so. Before moving off the examiner says

Now, you should drive in your normal manner.

and that is exactly how you should conduct yourself in the test. You do not exaggerate any observational checks. If you do, not alone does it look stupid but if you always give a big exaggerated movement it will be blatantly obvious should you forget. And you may well be marked for it. Would you close your eyes for two or three seconds approaching a roundabout ?

If you get marked for observation in the test it is not because the examiner did not see you look but will be because your timing and/or directions are wrong. Or making an unnecessary check. Also an examiner will not mark unless he is certain a fault was actually committed. He must always give you the benefit of the doubt.

The comment about the audio cues, does that actually work? Because, to be fair, I'm not a big fan of clearly turning my head as that, in my opinion, would distract me too much (One more thing to think about, as if there weren't enough already).


For me, having driven more than 3.000 km before my driving test is insane - in Denmark we have 20 driving lessons, then a test - that's all we get, so for me 3.000 is an extreme amount of pre-test driving.

Yes, its called commentary driving and is highly recommended in learning to drive to an advanced level. You may also continue to use it in the test.
(But I did once have a pupil who was told by the examiner to shut up as her commentary was too distracting)

Cathalog

I'm no instructor, but in relation to the comment above, I must disagree. In my normal driving manner, I tend to just move my eyes to the mirrors, possibly with a slight head movement. But in my test, I made sure that I actually turned my head to the mirrors. Did my test twice and was never marked for observation.

Now, I didn't look like an absolute idiot staring down the mirrors, but imo, turning your head is a must.

Again, I'm no instructor, and it's just my opinion.

you don't need a big exaggerated movement, but you do need to move your head somehow or they can't see you're looking
when i was learning to drive and my instructor thought i wasn't checking enough, she'd ask me ever so casually "what did the sign outside x house say?" ... and I'd tell her, because I had been looking (this was 'look around everywhere before you do your reverse')
but the tester can't check like that, so you need to show them at least a little bit that you are looking

ThunderZtorm

The ones commenting my experience - I think it's because I'm used to the Danish system. In Denmark we have 24 driving lessons in total (16 on roads, 8 on technical closed-off areas doing slippery driving and other stuff like that), and that's ALL we get to drive legally before the driving test, unless we fail and have to take more.

We don't do the whole driving around normally until AFTER we have the license.

For a Dane, having driven 3.000+ km before your driving test is an incredibly high amount of experience.

J_R

bluewolf wrote: »

you don't need a big exaggerated movement, but you do need to move your head somehow or they can't see you're looking
when i was learning to drive and my instructor thought i wasn't checking enough, she'd ask me ever so casually "what did the sign outside x house say?" ... and I'd tell her, because I had been looking (this was 'look around everywhere before you do your reverse')
but the tester can't check like that, so you need to show them at least a little bit that you are looking

Hi,

Sorry do not agree. Am now retired but when I was a driving instructor I never ever advised my pupils to do anything specifically for the benefit of the examiner. In teaching observational skills, I explained the when the where and the why. (And to practice assimilating what they see). I never ever said that it must be done this-a-way or that-a-way in the test. In fact I never made any distinction between everyday or "Test" driving.

If it was necessary to exaggerate, then the examiner would say so at the start of the test.

Cathalog

J_R wrote: »

bluewolf wrote: »

you don't need a big exaggerated movement, but you do need to move your head somehow or they can't see you're looking
when i was learning to drive and my instructor thought i wasn't checking enough, she'd ask me ever so casually "what did the sign outside x house say?" ... and I'd tell her, because I had been looking (this was 'look around everywhere before you do your reverse')
but the tester can't check like that, so you need to show them at least a little bit that you are looking

Hi,

Sorry do not agree. Am now retired but when I was a driving instructor I never ever advised my pupils to do anything specifically for the benefit of the examiner. In teaching observational skills, I explained the when the where and the why. (And to practice assimilating what they see). I never ever said that it must be done this-a-way or that-a-way in the test. In fact I never made any distinction between everyday or "Test" driving.

If it was necessary to exaggerate, then the examiner would say so at the start of the test.

That is how it should be, but realistically, how is an examiner supposed to know if you've moved your eyes towards a mirror? They can't, unless they stare at you, which they don't. And you could get marked for it.
That's just my opinion - it'd be a risk not actually turning your head to your right mirror, so why would you take it?

ADIDriving

Firstly, it is very easy to tell when someone is checking mirrors without having to stare at them. This is speaking from experience as an instructor. EVERYONE gives a little turn, even the ones who insist they don't.
Secondly, the examiners can only mark the mistakes they see. If they are not sure they won't mark it.
This misconception about having to turn in an excessive manner is built up by people getting marks for mirrors and observation when they though they had done enough but had not.

Chris_Heilong

Its not a fair test, that just the reality, you could be the best driver in the world and still fail on the day with a particular test, like a referee in a football game they dont see everything and or make judgment calls but I will say I dont think you failing would have anything at all with you being Foreign. If the situation at the yellow lights was as you said then you were in the right, If you come across parked cars then you should remain a doors length from them if possible and as long as you can see them a head of you remain out until it is clear and then slowly move back to your correct road position, every thing is about slow and smooth movement. Get a pretest before you do the test as its as much about driving the way the tester wants you to drive as it is about driving correctly.