Driving on American license after one year

Hang on, I thought we had established it is necessary 

Non-EU who can do a simple swap, yes.   But for EU license holders the 12-month limit doesn't apply. 

Ah, thanks.

Vicky

This just happened to a colleague of mine. He was driving for 2+ years on a Brazillian licence and got rear ended by another driver, just as a cop was driving past. No joke.

The insurance company won't pay up because his licence wasn't valid. Now he's stuck as we work doing shift work in a tiny village with very minimal bus service. You may be the safest driver in the world, but it's other drivers you can't trust.

I very foolishly drove for some time on my US licence, but wised up and realized it wasn't worth the risk. I got my provisional licence and have failed my theory twice!
It's a pain sometime to get lifts to and from work, but I'm hoping I'll pass my driving tests next time around!

This just happened to a colleague of mine. He was driving for 2+ years on a Brazillian licence and got rear ended by another driver, just as a cop was driving past. No joke.

The insurance company won't pay up because his licence wasn't valid. Now he's stuck as we work doing shift work in a tiny village with very minimal bus service. You may be the safest driver in the world, but it's other drivers you can't trust.

I very foolishly drove for some time on my US licence, but wised up and realized it wasn't worth the risk. I got my provisional licence and have failed my theory twice!
It's a pain sometime to get lifts to and from work, but I'm hoping I'll pass my driving tests next time around!

Was it the HPT part of the theory that you failed?  The written part is easy as long as you pass the dvd study guides.  I'd say it's easier than the american version since the dvd study guides have the same questions as the actual test.

Yes, it was the hpt part of the test and I studied obsessively  the study guide and dvd. 17 years of driving and not even a fender-bender, but I can't pass that hazard perception!

Do you "Over Click" are you being seriously realistic about what you see as a Hazard??  I know quite a few fail for that reason.

The computer percieves it as cheating.

This won't help at all, but the HPT test is exceptionally stupid.  I passed it a few weeks ago, but just by one point (after getting 50 out of 50 on the theory test, so I don't think a lack of study and preparation were the problem).  In both the training DVDs and the actual test there is no feedback on why you got a particular score on a particular scene (in the actual test you don't even know what points you got on what scene; only that you got 2 1s, 2 5s, 3 4s, etc.), so you can't even try to improve based on your previous performance.

Anyway, rant over and I feel your pain.   

I was once advised by a BSM instructor that I could get an international license when in the US and keep renewing it every time I went back.  Sounded a little dodgy to me so I never did.  Never got a UK license either 

Yes, it was the hpt part of the test and I studied obsessively  the study guide and dvd. 17 years of driving and not even a fender-bender, but I can't pass that hazard perception!

It seems my wife has the same issue on the practice dvd.  It's not something you can practice for imho.  It all has to do with your reaction time.  I've passed the HPT everytime, even on the actual test.  What I've noticed is that if I use the software on my slower computer, I always fail with a score of around 30/75.  If I switch to my faster laptop, I get 50 and up.  So the speed of the computer does matter.  It's a stupid test and I suppose that's why it was added because the theory part is so easy.

I was once advised by a BSM instructor that I could get an international license when in the US and keep renewing it every time I went back.  Sounded a little dodgy to me so I never did.  Never got a UK license either 

Someone brings this up EVERY time the topic comes up, but driving on an international license is only good for one year--just like the American license.  It's really just a translation of the license that works in other countries but is based on your US license.  Oh, and before it also comes up, as it always does, leaving the country does not begin your year again.  It has been tried in high court and the expats failed.  You have one year from your original date of entry--that's it.

As far as American license holders driving in the U.K. are concerned, an IDP (International Driving Permit) serves no useful purpose and you might just as well save the time and money.   Ditto for U.K. license holders in the U.S.

In both the training DVDs and the actual test there is no feedback on why you got a particular score on a particular scene (in the actual test you don't even know what points you got on what scene; only that you got 2 1s, 2 5s, 3 4s, etc.), so you can't even try to improve based on your previous performance.

Anyway, rant over and I feel your pain.   

This is true for the actual test - you won't know how you're doing until after. But to prepare for the test I used this dvd (). It has over 400 practice videos, I basically did 40'ish videos to get an idea as to what they're looking for. You also get to review your performance after each clip so it certainly helped. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I was clear what they were looking for, it was quite easy. Simply, they focus on "moving" hazards and not on stationary hazards...

For theory test I used this () -- the questions on the test are *exactly* the same from this book, word for word - I finished this part of the test in 13 minutes out of the alloted 57 mins!)

Both these combined helped me score a 50 on theory (minimum required: 43 out of a possible 50) and a 62 on hazard perception (minimum required: 44 out of a possible 75)