Driving Test Disaster

Hello,

Hope you are all well. So on Monday, I had my first ever driving test at 9:37am. If you haven't guessed by the title of this blog, I sadly did not pass. I thought however it would be beneficial for me to do a blog talking about the driving test experience and how it went so that any of you who are maybe having lessons or have a test booked can know what happens and how my experience went.

So, my driving instructor did an hours lesson with me before my test begun to go over the manoveures and just do a few test routes to refresh my mind. For those of you who aren't aware, you get asked on your driving test to complete one manoveure. It used to be two but they recently changed this so that you now only have to do one, however this may be different if you aren't from the UK. You will get either a bay park, parallel park, reverse around a corner or a turn in a road. You could also get asked to perform an emergency stop. I will get to what one I had in a second. I also went over all of the show me tell me questions. These can be found online if you google them (link here) and your instructor will usually talk you through these once you have passed your driving theory test. This is something we do in the UK, so don't be alarmed if you are not from the UK and you don't do show me, tell me questions. The show me, tell me questions are asked before you drive and you get asked two questions. This could be one show me and one tell me or two tell me questions or two show me questions.

So anyway, my driving instructor picked me up from my house at 8:20am. I would recommend a morning test as the roads are less busy therefore you stand a better chance of driving better. I had to pay for a two hour lesson as I was using my instructors car for 2 hours. This cost me £44 plus the driving test fee which was £62. If you are from the UK and would prefer a weekend or evening test, you have to pay £75. To your test, you have to bring your provisional licence, and your theory certificate (if your test centre asks for it, mine did not). I also brought a bottle of water and some Kalms tablets to settle my nerves beforehand and my mobile which I turned off before my lesson begun.

So anyway, we drove around for an hour and did my manoveures and learnt how to do an emergency stop and then I drove us to the test centre. I parked up, and got out of the car and sat in the test centre. My examiner then came out and I can't tell you how happy I was that it was a man. His name was Mark and he seemed so lovely and sweet and made me feel at ease. I showed him my licence and he asked me to sign the double declaration. The double declaration is a little box that you sign that states that you are insured on the vehicle and that you have lived in the UK for over 185 days or 12 months. Once that was signed, we went outside and did the eye test. This is something that every student is made to do. You have to be able, as a driver, to read a number plate that is 20m away. You get three attempts on your test and if you fail to read the number plates on the attempts given, you fail straight away. Luckily, I had my glasses on and was able to successfully read the number plate.

We then approached my car, where I was asked to open the bonnet. I opened the bonnet and was asked 'Open the bonnet, identify where you would check the engine oil level and tell me how you would check that the engine has sufficient oil'. This was the tell me question. I replied with the corect answer and then we moved onto the next question. The next question was 'Tell me how you would check the tyres to ensure that they have sufficient tread depth and that their general condition is safe to use on the road.' This was another tell me question, to which I replied with the correct answer. I was then asked to get into my side of the car and make myself comfortable. Once I was comfortable the examiner gave me my first set of directions and I was on my way. 

Luckily, the route that I had gone on when I had my hour lesson beforehand was the route that I got for my driving test, so I was very familiar with all the roads. All was going well and I was checking all mirrors and really concentrating, making sure to impress the examinor. I then had a set of instructions to follow which was to take the next road on the left. This road on the left couldn't have been anymore tighter or horrible. It was so tight and to make matters worse the road I was about to go up was an uphill road and some young lad in his white polo was tailgaiting me the whole way up to the turning. Because of this, I panicked and didn't get my gear in time so I ended up going around this tight bend in third gear. Because I was in third gear, I then stalled and was stuck facing uphill and on a slight angle with the polo still tailgaiting me the whole way. I got first gear and tried to get my clutch control correct but when I took my foot off the brake, I rolled and almost hit the car behind me. As soon as I had done that, I knew I had failed so I just continued the test just doing the best I could. 

When it came to manoveures, I was given a parallel park. Luckily these are one of my favourites so I was confident when doing the manoveure. I got no minors for my parallel park. I also recieved an emergency stop, for which I also recieved no minors. I then had my independent drive. This is 10 minutes that you are given to show what you can do without being told directions etc. This went fine and I recieved no minors for that. I then drove us back to the test centre, knowing I had failed and he told me just that. I knew I had failed so luckily I didn't feel too bad about it, but it still hurt that the one thing that I'm usually really good at, I failed on because I let my nerves get the better of me. Even the examiner was disappointed and said that my drive was excellent and that I was a really confident driver but because of that one little mistake, he had to fail me. 

So there you have it. That was my first driving test experience. Some words of wisdom for people planning to book or putting off booking; Just do it. Honestly, if I hadn't have put it off, I would've passed by now but where I put it off for months, I had to wait ages. Also, all UK drivers, the current earliest test that I can find avaliable is September, so book it now and practice up until the day of your test. Also, if there is anything you want to practice with your instructor, ask them. They are there to help you out. Another word of advice is that the test is only 38-40 minutes long and the test flies by. The examiners are all human, just like you and I, so you don't need to be scared of them. They are just there to see what you know and what you've been taught. 

My next test is in August, but I'm constantly refreshing the cancellations page to see if I can get an earlier test and do my driving test sooner. See you all soon

Bye guys

No more elastics!

Hi guys,

I had an orthodontic appointment today and I no longer have to have my elastic bands on! I am really happy that I don't have to wear them anymore as they were really annoying and inconvenient and painful at times but now I just have braces! They replaced the wire on my bottom jaw but aside that, I was done.

I have two appointments, one in September and the other in October so that's exciting! I'll let you know more about them soon. I'll try and blog between now and them appointments so keep your eyes peeled,

Bye guys,