Driving test question

Well done on passing! Who did you use for classes? I did 200 hours thru AA, and hated every second of it,, not to mention my confidence was totally blown out of the water. I am ready to try again tho, but in automatic.

On the test, I was asked to do a 3-point turn (they call it "turn in the road") and backing around a corner.   I also had to do a hill start and a zillion roundabouts, but they did not ask me to parallel park or do the emergency stop.  (I suspect I didn't have to do the emergency stop because of the skidding danger--the road was pretty wet.)  The test took every nerve-racking second of 45 minutes, but at the end I got a pass with 6 minor mistakes.  (You're allowed 15 so that was pretty good.)

I passed mine first try as well.  Also would NOT have done so without my 10-15 hours worth of lessons, despite having been driving in the UK for over a decade.  On my first lesson we did a mock test. I had something like 48 errors.  The day before my actual test we did another moch test and I had it down to 8 I think. As it was on the actual test I only had 3 minor errors (you are allowed 15 -oh but you should note that if you get more than 3 errors for the same action it counts as a serious error and you fail the test. Basically if you do the same small thing 4 times you can fail even if you have no other errors).  I can't stress how important having the right teacher is when it comes to passing the test.  Of course shopping around for a testing centre with a higher pass rate is never a bad idea either.

BTW you will only have to do 2 manouevers, either a parallel park, turn in the road, reverse park, reverse around a corner or emergency stop. They won't have you do any more than that. And your chances of the emergency stop are actually quite slim. Each examiner only has to do it once per day.  They can do it more if they want, but it's not required. Personally I'd choose an emergency stop over a reverse around a corner any day. LOL But they are phasing that one out all together. With anti-lcok brakes there just really isn't much need for it anymore.

Rosie

I used a place called "Cats Eyes Driving School" which is based in South Wales.  I live in Harrow, but decided to go out to Wales for the test because there's almost a 6-month wait to take it in the London area, which would have meant putting "L" plates on the car and no motorway driving for me after next week (when my courtesy year on my US license expires).  I really didn't want that so I signed up for a test centre with a relatively short wait (Barry--about 6 weeks).  The school booked the test and they arranged a very nice B&B for me, also.  The whole little trip was very pleasant except for the driving lessons and test. 

I was advised to take the lessons where I was going to be taking the test.  I cannot stress how important this can be if you are taking your test in an area which is unfamiliar to you.  Doing well on the test is much easier if you know the roads you'll be using. 

The whole adventure cost us £400 but now that I have that pass certificate in my hand, it seems worth it.  My confidence flagged, too, as we were finishing up instruction on the day of the test--my teacher was very picky and didn't let up on the criticism as the test got closer.  This made me a bit panicky so I told him to ease off on the perfectionism a little, because it was making me think I wasn't up to test standard.  He complied and after that things got much better.  I generally found him to be an excellent instructor, if a little tough. 

However, caveat emptor, because I am very used to men being tough on me--been dealing with orchestra conductors for many years and some of them are "right bastards" indeed!