Driving Test!!

yola

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Yippeee!!

My 18 year old step-son just passed his driving test!!

(7th attempt . . . oops)

I'm so pleased for him - it's just what he needs to lift his confidence!!
 

bodlover

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Good for him!!!
I started having lessons a while ago, but fell out with my instructor (plus I couldn't afford it much longer.. its SOOO expensive!!) so I stopped. Well now I have started again, I still don't "Like" driving, but I'm getting there, not quite test material yet though... haha.... not too long to go!!
 

jeanie g.

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Yola, We'll pray for your nervous system. May it remain intact!
 

whisker's mom

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I'm glad for him...but kind of wondering what caused him to fail 6 times before? Hopefully, whatever it was,....has improved drastically!:tounge2:

Bodlover: Good luck! I only got my licence when I was 25 and couldn't live without it now. It's worth the expense!
 
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yola

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G - he was SO nervous that he kept making silly mistakes. For instance, at a roundabout which was stuffed full of traffic a women who was on the roundabout, and not going anywhere cos of the queue left a space and signalled he should drive through.

I understand it was safe, he assessed the situation AND FAILED for doing so.

So it was a mixture of taking the test too early and being unprepared, having some real old s@*t of an examiner, and being nervous to the point of being unable to function.

Each time he failed, the anticipation and worry became worse.

This time I got him some herbal pills to aid relaxation, and he'd been taking them for a week or so.

Did the trick! My mum gave me half a tab of valium when I took my test (20 yrs ago . . .) because I'd worked my self up into such a lather I coduld hardly function by the test date. That worked too!
 

katl8e

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Driving tests must be tougher, over there. When I got MY first license, in 1974, I had to pass a written test and my road test consisted of parallel parking. They allowed three tries but it took only two. It helped that I was driving a small car.
 
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yola

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Yes - they've always been tough. I took 3 goes to pass. When I took my test though there was no written part, now there is.

The examiners are briefed to be especially tough on young drivers. Some of the young lads drive like idiots as soon as they get their licences.

My dad was lucky though. He learn to drive during the war (WWII) in the Iraqi desert, and when he arrived in the UK he just traded in his licence for a full UK one. Now that's what I call jammy - no junctions or traffic lights in the desert!!!
 

whisker's mom

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Did I forget to mention I failed my first driving test???
Went up a one way street,... the wrong way. Still don't know why my driving instructor was THAT mad at me for????? And, to make matters worse, he failed me on the spot!!!! I too, was extremely nervous...I kept saying "I'm sorry...I'm sorry....I'm sorry" Goofball.
 

jeanie g.

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When I was in high school the instructor took us to a quiet neighborhood with loads of stop signs. We took turns driving there and back ( a very steep unpaved street the last few blocks). When the state police gave us our test, they asked several questions and had us do 3 point turns, etc. Almost no one failed when they took the course in high school! We learned on a manual transmission so that we could drive anything, and one girl would have been driving for several blocks without putting the car in second. We called her low-gear Lucille. Then the teacher would finally ask, "When were you going to change gears, Lucille?" She PASSED,
 

nathalie

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wow, i passes mine first shot (still waitin for that first car though...for some reason mum said no to an 88 light blue bmw convertable). the lady sat there in the parking lot when we were done listing off a gazillion things i did wrong. I'm just thinkin "i so failed, there's no way I passed, this sucks...." etc. and she's all "But, you passed anyway!". whew!
 

angelzoo

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Yola: I'm happy that you are happy, but no offence, I hope he didn't pass all those other times because he was nervous, not because he's a terrible driver.
There's already to many idiots out there on the road.

Honestly, they need to make the whole driving test MUCH harder.
 

sockiesmom

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I've passed the written part, and I'm starting drivers ed in September. I'm slated to take my driving test in January (though I might wait til all the ice and snow is gone...)
 

okeefecl

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The driving test in Maryland was pretty straightforward. You had a written test, and a driving test on a course at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The only part I did really bad on was the parallel parking-I took long. It's funny, only a few years later I learned how to parallel park a long van!

Driving class, on the other hand, was a b!tch. For my last practice, the instructor took me into Baltimore on a Saturday afternoon when the Orioles had a ballgame. I still don't like driving in the city during the day. Oh, and he was later arrested for molesting students (I didn't have any problems with him, but I was questioned by the police).
 
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