Small tip during test: Don't give up

I did my test in Raheny during the week and thought I'd screwed up royally. I turned onto Main street, heading away from Clontarf and up towards the junction with the church/stationhouse here.

The road is essentially one lane, but everyone treats it as two. I assumed we were turning right and took up my spot behind those cars on the right. When the instructor didn't say anything, I queried "eh...straight ahead?" and he said "yes". When the lightst turned green I then said "I'm in the worng lane for going straight" and his response was "straight ahead, please".

I panikced on the inside, and thought I might be finished only 3 mins into the test. I even contemplated turning right and then coming back to the junction from a different angle. Was completely unsure of how badly I'd messed up so just decided to treat the rest of the test as if it never happened. So I indicated left, moved into the correct lane when it was safe to do so, and finished out the rest of the test.

I passed in the end (not creating this thread as a humblebrag, just trying to reassure others who may find themselves in the same boat). When i queried that incident he said "You made a mistake and i gave you a grade 2 fault, but you recovered it correctly and didn't let it affect you. If you had turned right, it would have been grounds for disqualification there and then".

So, don't give up if you make a balls of it. Might not be as bad as you think.

Sam Quentin

I thought you had a tip..
Like a crash.

Alanstrainor

Awesome. Great to hear your kept your cool, well done!

CramCycle

I done the same years ago. Left turn, stopped you on a hill and the car stalled. had been nervous as hell until this point, about 5 minutes in. Figured I failed and that I would get a good round of practice in. Relaxed me immensely.

Got back and passed. I listed off everything i done wrong and he looked at me, and said, well I didn't notice all of those. Recovered correctly from the stall agus sin

MascotDec85

Great advice. Like I tell all pupils, if you make a mistake, leave it where it happened. Don’t drive along the road mulling over what you did or didn’t do 500 yards away. If you see yourself making a mistake, fix it! If it’s too late and you’ve already made the mistake, F*ck it! Move on, you can’t rewind and undo it.

Well done for keeping your cool mate ðŸ‘🻠Congratulations

Corkgirl18

Had a similar experience. Was gone less than 5 minutes from the test centre and conked the car on a hill. I presumed this was a grade 3. Spent the rest of the 40 minutes trying to hold back tears and thinking about how I was going to tell people I failed.
Couldn't believe it when I got back to the test centre and was told I passed!

J_R

$hifty wrote: »

I did my test in Raheny during the week and thought I'd screwed up royally. I turned onto Main street, heading away from Clontarf and up towards the junction with the church/stationhouse here.

The road is essentially one lane, but everyone treats it as two. I assumed we were turning right and took up my spot behind those cars on the right. When the instructor didn't say anything, I queried "eh...straight ahead?" and he said "yes". When the lightst turned green I then said "I'm in the worng lane for going straight" and his response was "straight ahead, please".

I panikced on the inside, and thought I might be finished only 3 mins into the test. I even contemplated turning right and then coming back to the junction from a different angle. Was completely unsure of how badly I'd messed up so just decided to treat the rest of the test as if it never happened. So I indicated left, moved into the correct lane when it was safe to do so, and finished out the rest of the test.

I passed in the end (not creating this thread as a humblebrag, just trying to reassure others who may find themselves in the same boat). When i queried that incident he said "You made a mistake and i gave you a grade 2 fault, but you recovered it correctly and didn't let it affect you. If you had turned right, it would have been grounds for disqualification there and then".

So, don't give up if you make a balls of it. Might not be as bad as you think.

Hi,

I had a pupil who had a "small tip during test", but her small tip was clipping the wing mirror of a parked car. She knew it was a grade 3 but she bravely soldiered on. Luckily she was on the way back to the test centre and had just a short distance to go.

Saw her entering the test centre, trudging along behind the examiner , head down. Felt really sorry for her as she was an exceptionally good little driver. Little driving experience but nevertheless a really first class driver.

However, she came out beaming, she passed. She said the examiner passed her because "It would be an absolute shame to fail you"

The examiner might also have realised that he was mostly to blame. She had almost completed a really nasty right turn, a sharp right, up a steep short slip road then another sharp right into a narrow road with cars parked both sides. Just as she was straightening he gave her directions for the next turn, "I want you to take the next left". She misheard, thought he said, I wanted you to go left, said "Sorry" lost concentration for a split second, did not finish straightening and clipped the wing mirror.

Moral of the story. As OP says, Never give up

What she should have done was say "Sorry about that chief, and carried on.

My advice. Often it is not the original fault that will be marked but how you recover from it. If you find yourself in a bit of a situation, take a second or two to figure out - What is the safest thing to do.-. It may not be the absolute correct solution but it definitely will be better than a blind panic move as you have put a little common sense thinking into your action.

One other piece of advice, only in exceptional circumstances should you ask the examiner what to do. He is there to see if you can drive safely, make safe rational decisions all on your own, asking his advice proves you are not ready to go solo.