How many times Failed Driving Test?

I read your post I don’t need to study it to understand you are implying that those who passed their test on the first attempt are worse drivers than those who did not.

Passed on my third try, the day after an accident involving my foot and I was in agony. I think it was because I went in with a "no way I'm gonna pass today, I'm fcuked" attitude.

The first two times I was highly stressed out and feeling the pressure to pass, and made stupid mistakes.

okay ted, I’ve made it up to defame you, such is my only desire in life.

My son passed on his 4th attempt he is now one of the safest drivers I know, I passed first time many moons ago not a hope would I pass one today.

Huh?? so some totally incompetent buffoon gets free driving lessons but everyone else has to pay?

We need to get the repeat failers to either commit to improvement, or off the road. So learner permits should be 1 year, and double in price each time you renew.

Having months-long waiting lists is just stupid though. If there weren't so many no-shows (€500 fine would sort them out) and complete incompetent eejits wasting test slots they're never going to pass, the situation would be a lot better.

That's what they all tell themselves

failed twice in Churchtown, first was one moment of a stupid lack of awareness amid a pretty decent test.

Second was the biggest arsehole I ever met testing me. Asked me unnecessarily difficult theory questions, like what 3 things can you not do in the zigzag lines coming up to a zebra crossing…not in any of the theory books as far as I can remember. But then stared at me blankly without any encouragement when I tried to answer. Was a mess by the time I got to the car and failed miserably, doing stupid stuff I’d never do.

Third time was a charm in Skibberean. Nicest chap ever, closed the book half way through and just had a chat.

I think having a tester that puts you at ease, talks calmly and is clear with questions and instructions, helps

I wasn't told what turn off, on a roundabout to take, so took 2nd, got a fail, this was at Wilton, Cork

i was waiting for my son to finish his test. I got chatting with her partner, who was waiting for her.. He told me that this was her 18th attempt. I had no reason to disbelieve him.

I know that area very well, and if you took the second exit on any of the roundabouts there, you were doing exactly what you are supposed to do (if not instructed otherwise, proceed in your direction of travel). If you did your test a long time ago, I suspect you had the prick who failed me on my second-last test.

I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned the inconsistency of testing yet. Back in the 1990s lots of people in Cork city used to book tests in Skibbereen, not because it had no roundabouts (which was true), but because it had a very high pass rate. Cork City, on the other hand had a very high failure rate in the 1990s and 2000s. Generally, cities were harder than rural towns. (And it seems that’s still true: Driving test pass rates from the RSA - data from 2023, although I notice Skibbereen is now harder to pass in than Wilton)

When they brought in SGS to clear the huge test backlogs in the late 2000s, a lot of those differences disappeared across the SGS-run centres, but remained in the local authority ones. Also, the pass rate was higher at the new centres, as the new testers were testing to what the law actually required, rather than prejudices uilt up over years about what a “good” driver should do. I know of one person who got marked down at the Cork test centre for not indicating incorrectly (i.e., “right”) when approaching a roundabout to take the second exit…

I failed 3 times & got it on the 4th. Honestly the first one I was a bag of nerves so made a lot of silly mistakes. 2nd one was in a different test centre with a noted high rate of failures. Got a guy who almost went out of his way to make me feel uncomfortable. 3rd one back in the original centre & just barely failed as had 1 too many grade 2's for silly things that I knew better. 4th time had the same tester as 1st time & sailed through with only 3 grade 1's that don't even affect the test.