The Practical Test

The striking double L plates for test car😤

I booked 4/8 (Thursday) session 7 for my practical test following the advice of my instructor to book sessions 3-7 on weekdays and avoid Fridays and weekends. I arrived at Room 3 (the warm-up waiting area) 30 minutes before the warm-up time, got my car number from an instructor and waited for my warm-up instructor to come. Got called early and the warm-up session is basically like another practical lesson, I went through the circuit courses and then drove briefly on the road, with the instructor giving me some useful tips and comments. I feel like my warm-up session went better than the actual test HAHA because it's an instructor in the car, not the tester so I was less nervous.


After warm-up the instructor parked the car and told me to remember my car number and which lot the car is parked at (because later have to bring the tester to the car). If you forget also nvm because the instructor will pass you a slip with the car number and lot number written there! After warm-up I followed the instructor to level 2, dropped my NRIC into a red box (the TP testers will randomly pick one later) and waited at the waiting area just in front of the stairs. After awhile my name got called and I brought the tester to the car.


THE PRACTICAL TEST

Circuit: The tester installed the recording device in the car (supposedly in case of any disputes about the result) then told me to drive off. Surprisingly I wasn't tested on the emergency brake (I was so ready to brake on his signal), I roughly remember I did the s-course first followed by vertical parking, then ramp, parallel parking, slope and finally crank course. He kept asking me to hurry up because I was so slow...I admit it but its the test :"( I dont wanna mess up :"( Once he asked me to make a right turn and I was observing traffic and he just said "go, when I say go means can go". I also made a few silly mistakes like forgetting to bring the mirrors back up after parking so I had to stop in the middle of the circuit road to adjust them and the tester said "see ah, now two points for unnecessary stopping". He also made a few comments with regards to my other mistakes, in my mind I was just trying to keep calm and focus because it's absolutely true that TEST NERVES CAN RUIN EVERYTHING 😓. The ability to keep focused is the "make or break" in the test, if you know you've made a mistake, don't think about it and just focus your mind on the present task, which is to drive. Nerves>rush>mistakes>nerves, its a vicious cycle so don't let it happen! Take a deep breath, concentrate only on what's before you.

Road: One of the best things you can hear is "turn right at 50", which means that you have passed the circuit stage! I was so sure I would perfectly nail the "check mirrors and blindspot" aspect because I made sure to do them everytime I turned, changed lanes or merged into a lane but apparently I still got marked down for it...so my best advice is to really exaggerate those actions, whole head must turn and must really look over the shoulder for blindspot check. Got demerit points for "cause other vehicles to slow down or take evasive actions" which if I'm not wrong is due to me accelerating to make a risky lane change to get into the right lane (which was busy with cars) in time for a right turn. It's the only time I accelerated to change lanes in front of other cars, the other times I during the test I just waited for the cars to past then went behind them. I agree with the penalisation tho:(

Made a couple of mistakes but I don't want to go into the details, after we headed back to BBDC the tester asked me "why you never talk, scared ah?" because I didn't answer him when he gave me directions and he was so puzzled...and when I said yes he told me in an encouraging tone "now we finished already ok what". Hmm...wait does that mean I passed??

BUT no confirmation yet so I didn't want to assume things HAHA. Followed the tester to this room where those who have taken the test wait for their results and he printed and passed to me my result slip listing all my demerit points together with two very beautiful words inside, "congratulations" and "PASSED" :D  Then he told me to apply for QDL 4 hours later (after making payment of $50 and getting the confirmation screen, I can officially drive) and that the physical card will be mailed to my home address. I went back to room 3 where an instructor gave a short briefing and its done! The instructor was really nice and at the end he made sure to remind us to put the p-plate before driving. I also had a nice chat with two others who passed :)

And that's the end of my journey of learning how to drive 😁 Will update this blog if I go for driving orientation courses



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