How many times did it take you to pass your practical UK driving test?

I started to learn when I was 17 and took a test and knocked a little old man off his pushbike by accident on the test itself!! ( I only clipped him a little, he was not injured in anyway - I was doing about 5mph ) but of course that was a adamant fail! I was mortified...and never learnt to drive again until I was 25 and passed when I was 26...I had to be persistent and I know it can get really disheartening but persevere and when you pass it will be the making of you.

Looking back at the bike incident now..We can all giggle about the old man all dressed in blue spandex body suit dinging his bell frantically and yelling explitiffs as he fell into a bush...me jumping out the car and asking him if he is ok...him saying yup but I think you may have failed your test - its something from comedy sketch.

I also had a friend who informed me she had passed her test 1st time and I was shocked a week later when I opened my local paper to see a article about a girl who finally passed after 15 attempts with my friends piccy next to it! lol )  So just trying to say that some people take more tests than they let on..and they may say they passed 2nd or 3rd time but for all we really know they could have taken 8 or 9!

Everyone is different...so don't compare yourself to others.

P.S I drive a disco purple fiesta...If you see me coming, your safer to walk on the road than you are the pavement 

Good luck! keep going! 

I started to learn when I was 17 and took a test and knocked a little old man off his pushbike by accident on the test itself!! ( I only clipped him a little, he was not injured in anyway - I was doing about 5mph ) but of course that was a adamant fail! I was mortified...

haha... this story has made my day!! too funny

haha... this story has made my day!! too funny

 

haha... this story has made my day!! too funny

I'm just picturing the driving test scene in Clueless. 

Argh - I didn't pass 

It was my own fault admittedly - the only issue was the emergency stop. I hadn't done one for awhile and tbh I just have crap reflexes when I KNOW an emergency stop is coming up. The examiner said "if it was a child you would have hit it"  Well...I didn't go on to tell him I'd been driving for years in the US and a child has run out in front of me before and I did stop  Oh well...have booked another test 

Uggh... the emergency stop is terrible!!!
(((((hugs)))))

Argh - I didn't pass 

Bad luck.  I think the emergency stop is one of those things which can never really mirror a true-to-life situation.  The examiner can assess your physical ability to handle the controls in a way which brings the car to a halt as quickly as possible, but the perception of when you need to make such a stop and what triggers your brain into performing it is always going to be a little different between a real emergency and just waiting for him to bang the dash.  I can't help thinking that this will become even more of a difference in perception for experienced drivers who will engage emergency-stop mode almost sub-consciously in a real situation.

I don't know if you did the emergency-stop on previous attempts, but there's a chance you won't have to do it next time.  It always used to be part of every test, but a few years ago the rules were altered and it's now only included in one out of every three tests.

Argh - I didn't pass 

It was my own fault admittedly - the only issue was the emergency stop. I hadn't done one for awhile and tbh I just have crap reflexes when I KNOW an emergency stop is coming up. The examiner said "if it was a child you would have hit it"  Well...I didn't go on to tell him I'd been driving for years in the US and a child has run out in front of me before and I did stop  Oh well...have booked another test 

Sorry about that. I didn't have to do the stop as I was 7.5 months pregnant at the time and the examiner exempted me from doing it.

Hey, that's an idea....   

Argh - I didn't pass 

It was my own fault admittedly - the only issue was the emergency stop.

Awwwe! Sorry to hear that! When I had my emergency stop, she gave me the whole spiel about 'now we're going to perform an emergency stop.. etc' and about 5 seconds after I set off and wasnt even in 2nd gear yet she said 'STOP'.  I was expecting her to let me get up to 3rd going 30mph or something... so it actually did surprise me.  I did fine at that part but its not hard to stop when your still in 1st gear  

Best of luck next time, let us know how you get on

Sorry about that. I didn't have to do the stop as I was 7.5 months pregnant at the time and the examiner exempted me from doing it.

He probably just decided to put you in the two-thirds category of candidates who don't have to do it now for that reason.   I don't think there was ever an allowable exemption for pregnancy when the emergency stop was a part of every test.

about 5 seconds after I set off and wasnt even in 2nd gear yet she said 'STOP'.  I was expecting her to let me get up to 3rd going 30mph or something...

That does seem odd.  It always used to be reckoned that they'd let you get up to around 25 mph or so.

That does seem odd.  It always used to be reckoned that they'd let you get up to around 25 mph or so.

Yeh, i thought so as well and always practiced it going 20-30mph... so that def. surprised me!