So, I had my second driving test yesterday.
Perfect drive – probably one of my best. Remembered all the mirror signal manoeuvre crap, pulled off a perfect parallel park, avoided several knobbers driving over my side of the bloody road, wasn’t affected by the rain. All going GREAT.
And then it’s the independent driving part, and I read the sign as straight over the roundabout. Got in lane, approach exit, suddenly worry I’m going the wrong way and instead of doing the sensible thing and leaving at that exit and assessing the situation I decide to carry on around the roundabout. But I’m in the wrong lane and haven’t signalled.
FAIL.
What a stupid cock-up. I mean, yeah, I felt like crap and thought I was going to hurl, but it’s no excuse for such an amateur move.
Oh well, third time lucky.
28 Oct at 3:21 pm
Gotta be honest, this is something that I do now after driving two years, and that loads of other people do too.
There’s 1 round about that’s near me (big one on to a motorway) that’s SO confusing. You get in the wrong lane (cus you think you should be in the middle lane) and suddenly you realise you needed to be on the right lane. Bam, EVERYONE (including me once by mistake) still carries on to the next exit.
So rest assured you’re not really making any stupider mistakes than the rest of us who’ve passed & been on the road years! I was probably lucky on my 2nd test to get the exact same route as the 1st test, so I knew exactly what to do & where to go. Had it been a new roundabout, there would have been problems!
Independent driving – is that new?
28 Oct at 3:23 pm
I think the independent driving is a year old or so? You get told to follow signs to a certain location. The annoying thing is the route I had to go was probably one of the few parts of Telford I’m not familiar with.
The even more annoying thing was that the lane I thought was wrong that I avoided going down WAS the right way to go. Failtastic.
28 Oct at 4:09 pm
oh, too bad you didn’t passed on your second try. Just be careful on your signals (and the lanes too) Good luck on your next try! I hope you’ll pass! :)
28 Oct at 4:24 pm
I failed my driver’s test 4 times. Now, in the eight years I’ve had my license, I’ve never had a ticket or collision. I’ve also heard stories from friends of their test experiences where they knew they outright broke “automatic fail” rules and still passed! So I hope you don’t get too bummed, but I know the feeling. You’ll make it, I’m sure.
28 Oct at 4:40 pm
Eek, I’m glad they didn’t have independent driving when I did my test(s)… I think I’d fail it even now. I’m absolutely rubbish at going to places I don’t know the way to, I get lost at least once (and have done what you did several times) :(
You’ll do it next time :)
28 Oct at 7:03 pm
I am sorry, Jem. You will get it next time. Don’t worry about it. You can do it. Round about are hard. I once went around six times until I finally figured out which exit I wanted.
28 Oct at 7:28 pm
Oh no :( I’m so sorry to hear you failed again. I’m taking my fourth test next week. After failing three times when I was 18 I said ‘never again’ and it’s only since I’ve become a Mum that I’ve felt motivated to try again.
Really really hope you pass next time, I know how gutting it is to fail on something daft like that.
28 Oct at 10:40 pm
I actually know how you feel, I failed my first driving test because my instructor told me to turn left after I had gotten so close to the signal that I couldn’t get into the turning lane, because we were already at the line I had to detour the original layout of the course and was told afterwards that having done so caused an automatic fail for my test.
I. Was. Furious. Especially since it takes FOREVER to schedule a second test, I argued with both the instructor and the front desk over the fact that because she told me to turn TOO LATE that if I had turned like she insisted I would have violated traffic laws.
Needless to say I wend to a different county office for my next test TWO MONTHS LATER, which I passed just fine. When I told that instructor what had happened at my previous test she explained that she heard that kind of mess up a lot coming from that county. :/
29 Oct at 9:22 am
Try not to worry Jem, I know that is far easier said than done but I’m certain that once you stop worrying about it all you will relax and settle back into the knowledge that your driving instructor has taught you and sail through without any problems. Try not to ‘think’ about how to take your test – just do it. Third time lucky :o) you will get there, I promise.
29 Oct at 4:24 pm
Well you’re still not ultimately failier than me, I failed 2 times too.. but I passed the third time, and I hope you will as well :)
30 Oct at 7:38 am
My secret is that I passed my road test on my third try. It was all for stupid things like that, too. One time I was convinced it was just because the guy didn’t like me. I know the time I passed I did a worse job than the time that evil guy failed me. I bet you’ll pass on your third time too. Don’t feel bad.
Third time’s a charm.
01 Nov at 12:02 pm
Hey, don’t worry about the driving test. My instructor told me that I will never be able to drive a car because “some people are just not meant to”. Now, 20 000 miles after, I can only say he was just wrong and that I am a good and responsible driver.
You go! Third time lucky.