Driving test pass rate of 54%

Harry Palmr

Among the latest raft of stats about Irelands drivers from the CSO is a pass rate which is itself barely a pass. Pretty damning one would have to think in an era when mandatory lessons by a professional and a written theory test are now required. It's been about a billion years since I passed so can any nippers tell me if the lessons and theory tests are worth a damn and are they professionally carried out in your experience?

selectamatic

I know when I was doing the test as a young buck my biggest concern was having to shuffle the fecking steering wheel.

It just made everything else feel awkward.

So in reality I'd put a big part of a high fail rate down to a poorly designed test.

Del2005

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Among the latest raft of stats about Irelands drivers from the CSO is a pass rate which is itself barely a pass. Pretty damning one would have to think in an era when mandatory lessons by a professional and a written theory test are now required. It's been about a billion years since I passed so can any nippers tell me if the lessons and theory tests are worth a damn and are they professionally carried out in your experience?

Most likely lack of preparation.

Sure don't most think that they are grand to drive on their own, so if they can't even learn the basic law of driving how are they going to learn the hard bit. Also the 12 lessons are the minimum requirement so people are taking the test after these rather than when properly trained.

cruizer101

Just heard this on news myself and thought was very low. I would have thought be around 70%.
Given everyone is getting lessons these days you would think they would only be going for test when instructor says they are ready. Bit worryingly low I would think.

bear1

My driving test was in September 2005.
Theory was a doddle.
Showed up in my mother's new Nissan, signed the it's insured form and away we went.
Up to the top of loughrea, turn back down to the centre.
Pull into a car park. Parallel park.
Then back onto the road and into a housing estate, reverse in a spot and then a 3 point turn.
Got 100% and was done in 20mins.

languagenerd

A few reasons:
* It's quite easy to fail: one big mistake - a grade three - is an automatic fail even if you do everything else perfectly. As it should be, really, because it means you did something dangerous, but it also means one moment of panic/bad judgement/reacting incorrectly to another driver's bad driving will fail you.
* Nerves: lots of people get a kind of stage fright on the day and that can mean they're jerky on the clutch/brakes (4 grade 2 errors for the same thing - game over) or blank on the theory qs and make lots of little mistakes they normally wouldn't (8 grade 2s overall - game over)
* The aforementioned "sure it's grand" people, who don't think they need lessons/practice and go for it as soon as they finish their twelve lessons, regardless of how ready they are.
* The massive expense of it all - some people can't afford extra lessons and/or rush into doing the test in the hopes they'll scrape a pass and get cheaper insurance with a full licence.
* Some tests never go ahead due to the car being faulty - I think these might be marked as a failed test too.

dennyk

selectamatic wrote: »

I know when I was doing the test as a young buck my biggest concern was having to shuffle the fecking steering wheel.

It just made everything else feel awkward.

So in reality I'd put a big part of a high fail rate down to a poorly designed test.

I steered hand-over-hand on mine (because **** if I was going to try to learn a new steering method after twenty years) and the tester didn't care one bit. There's nothing in the marking guidelines that requires shuffle steering, only that the testee be in control of the car at all times (e.g. don't cross and lock your arms or try to palm-steer or use any similar inadvisable methods, don't let the wheel slide through your hands by itself, and avoid over/understeering, taking both hands off the wheel, or driving with one hand for long periods of time). That said, what with tester discretion and all, wouldn't surprise me if there are some testers out there who will mark folks for not using whatever steering method they think is the "right" one.

The sample size in big enough to indicate that the standard of driving / driving the way you need to in the test to pass first time just isn't there.

I did my test in 2001 I think, before the days of mandatory lessons etc, I was driving for 18 months at the time and got 2 pretest lessons, the instructor was telling me I'd pass after the first pre test lesson but I got the second one anyway. (I think he didn't want to give me the second lesson as I didn't allow him smoke in the car :pac: )

caldew

Although I am sure there must be bad eggs in both camps, I don't think the testers or the instructors are at fault.

I feel there is a general apathy towards road safety. We all know people who drive unaccompanied whilst holding a learner permit and we all know parents who let their children do this.

Insurance companies appear to condone this as well. When did you hear of an insurance company claiming costs from an unaccompanied learner involved in a crash?

There is also apathy from the Guards, who put little effort into changing these habits. I don't know if this comes from managemant or the rank and file.

I would also question the RSA's commitment to road safety. They appear to be focused on making money by outsoursing each section they are in charge of (NCT, NDLS, Theory Test).

Next time you are driving just count the amount of mistakes you see. Some frustrating but a lot just downright dangerous.

I'm amazed the pass rate is as high as 54%

brightspark

The pass rate was only around the 50% mark when I did the test in 1992, back when the theory test was just being able to identify a few road signs that the tester pointed to. I think the year I passed in Thurles it had one of the lowest pass rates of about 48%, other areas were about 52%.

Back then I had helped the statistics by attempting the test after about half a dozen lessons, thinking I knew it all.

With the mandatory lessons I am surprised the pass rate hasn't improved significantly.

Whatever about mandatory lessons, there should be a system where instructors have to sign a form declaring you ready for the test..too many fails and they should be restricted in the amount of forms they can sign afterwards.

Publicly displaying an instructors pass rate might also be useful, you could then decide which instructor to hire based on their successful training of others.

MascotDec85

If you think about it 12 hours of driving is nothing. A lot of test candidates attempt the test after this paultry number of hours behind a wheel. If you consider your first couple of days in a new job, were you an expert after 1 1/2 shifts?

As instructors, we can train pupils to the best standard we can but we can’t control what they do when we aren’t there. We can’t control their nerves, we can’t control how they react to a situation that crops up and we certainly can’t control what stupid things other roads users will do when our pupils are out on test.
This week, sitting in the test centre car park I was chatting to another instructor. As his pupil was driving along the car park another car pulled out of a section of the car park and the idiot driver wasn’t looking. We were both there watching this. The other ADI’s lad didn’t slow but weaved between my car and the offending car without slowing or stopping. So, in the last 5 seconds of the test, the lad fails. Extremely tough on him but he didn’t do what he should have done. This is just one example.

iusedmename

I'm something of a connoisseur of failing the test - five times.

The instructors were generally very professional and fair.

Looking at the markings each time though, it looks quite random. First time, missed by a hair, second had twenty odd faults, third had 12, fourth had 16, etc I'd honestly say that it has a lot to do with the tester's disposition, the one who only just failed me was a jovial fellow from the get-go, the one absolutely took me to task was surly from the time he opened the door.

To be clear, I realise I'm not a good driver -if I were I'd have passed - but the fact that number and type of mistakes were so up and down makes me think there's a big element of chance.

Dravokivich

I passed on my 3rd attempt. It's not odd to hear of people making multiple attempts, nor should it be. When i went back to my instructor to talk over them, i opened up by saying I know it's not difficult to pass, but it's incredibly easy to fail. Personally I looked at those faillings as lessons to learn from. Even when i passed, there was a couple of things I took critically from it.

I don't find the overall pass rate surprising. But I don't see why it matters. I was speaking with someone who was put off by doing a test in Tallaght because there's some perception about a high failure rate there. I asked her why did it matter to her? So other people fail, how is that a reflection on her being ready to do it and able to complete it successfully?

Alanstrainor

iusedmename wrote: »

I'm something of a connoisseur of failing the test - five times.

The instructors were generally very professional and fair.

Looking at the markings each time though, it looks quite random. First time, missed by a hair, second had twenty odd faults, third had 12, fourth had 16, etc I'd honestly say that it has a lot to do with the tester's disposition, the one who only just failed me was a jovial fellow from the get-go, the one absolutely took me to task was surly from the time he opened the door.

To be clear, I realise I'm not a good driver -if I were I'd have passed - but the fact that number and type of mistakes were so up and down makes me think there's a big element of chance.

It is interesting isn't it?

But perhaps it is not surprising to see variation in the results. Driving is such a varied exercise. It is expected that every time you drive it will be in some way unique. Weather, other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, time of day, mood, confidence etc etc, will all have impact on the drive.

12 lessons is a really short amount of instruction time. After 12 hours of guitar lessons you might be able to badly play Wonderwall. The 54% pass rate seems about right to be to be honest. I would love to see the same statistic for other countries.

EDIT:

UK: In GB around 1.6 million people sit the practical car test per year, with a pass rate of around 43%.
Japan: 35% pass rate
South Africa: 39% pass rate
Netherlands: 40% pass rate
Luxembourg: 20% pass rate

Mr.H

My first test I flew through it. It was so easy and the tester seemed happy enough. But on the way back I got cocky and treated a stop sign as a yield. To be fair the sign was missing and the line faded, but I knew it was a stop sign. He said nothing but I knew straight away I failed. When we got back to the center I had two grade one marks and this one stupid grade three that killed me. It wasn't a lack of experience driving as the road was empty and it's a real world situation that anyone would have done. But for the test it's an automatic fail.

My second test I only realised on the day that the car wasn't taxed. Was up a couple of days. Not my car so I wouldn't have known but I should have checked so again my fault.

Now in month four waiting for my third test. I know I'll pass as I am a good driver. I drive with care for others, don't over hesitate and I don't play with my phone and crap while I'm driving. I just need the fricken test