Help with driving test reversing maneouvre please

barbiedoll

He's been very unlucky, and it can knock your confidence. I failed my previous test because a driver came round the roundabout without indicating, he looked like he was going straight across but just as I pulled out, he appeared to change his mind and ran straight across me. The instructor hit the brakes a millisecond before I did and I knew then that I had failed.

He did tell me that I was unlucky and that most people would have reacted the same as I did. He told me to reapply as soon as possible which really helped my confidence, I didn't feel such a "failure" and I sailed through the next test.

Tell your son to learn from his mistakes and not to take it to heart too much, he will get there in the end. Maybe he should just have a "refresher" lesson once a fortnight or monthly? Get him out to practise as often as he can and keep an eye on his mistakes, jumping the (amber) lights is something we all do but it's not a good idea on a test!

toffee'n'tom

barbiedoll wrote: »

He's been very unlucky, and it can knock your confidence. I failed my previous test because a driver came round the roundabout without indicating, he looked like he was going straight across but just as I pulled out, he appeared to change his mind and ran straight across me. The instructor hit the brakes a millisecond before I did and I knew then that I had failed.

He did tell me that I was unlucky and that most people would have reacted the same as I did. He told me to reapply as soon as possible which really helped my confidence, I didn't feel such a "failure" and I sailed through the next test.

Tell your son to learn from his mistakes and not to take it to heart too much, he will get there in the end. Maybe he should just have a "refresher" lesson once a fortnight or monthly? Get him out to practise as often as he can and keep an eye on his mistakes, jumping the (amber) lights is something we all do but it's not a good idea on a test!

Thanks for that. You've been so unlucky too - it probably didn't happen on the previous test or the one before but it wasn't even that severe. Just a judgement call we all make every day. We have a refresher lesson every week. He has been taking it in our own car as, basically, it's cheaper to have lessons in your own car, and he drives every day. It's always me who is with him and, although I'm not an instructor, I do have partial instructor training and I think I'm fairly constructively critical when necessary.

Anyone reckon it's better to take it in an instructor's car? Or any other hints or tips? Does anyone think that there is a percentage pass rate for the week or day? And does anyone think that boys are treated more harshly?

dggar

toffeentom wrote: »

Thanks for that. You've been so unlucky too - it probably didn't happen on the previous test or the one before but it wasn't even that severe. Just a judgement call we all make every day. We have a refresher lesson every week. He has been taking it in our own car as, basically, it's cheaper to have lessons in your own car, and he drives every day. It's always me who is with him and, although I'm not an instructor, I do have partial instructor training and I think I'm fairly constructively critical when necessary.

Anyone reckon it's better to take it in an instructor's car? Or any other hints or tips? Does anyone think that there is a percentage pass rate for the week or day? And does anyone think that boys are treated more harshly?

I may be wrong but I thought tests had to be taken in duel control cars.

StatisticallyChallenged

No they don't, I just did my test last month in our car. You need a second mirror for the examiner though.

londonTiger

toffeentom wrote: »

Well my son failed his driving test for the third time today. He's never failed on the manoeuvres. It's been something different every time.

With an OP like that there is little doubt he would have passed. Had he taken lessons from a professional instructor he would have known exactly what to do. I'm sure there are probably other mistakes he is doing which you are unsure about.

I know instructors are expensive, but it's for the best, plus motoring is expensive. at £20 a lesson he could have 100 hours of lessons which could be equivalent to one years insurance. So relatively speaking driving lessons aren't that expensive.

toffee'n'tom

londonTiger wrote: »

With an OP like that there is little doubt he would have passed. Had he taken lessons from a professional instructor he would have known exactly what to do. I'm sure there are probably other mistakes he is doing which you are unsure about.

I know instructors are expensive, but it's for the best, plus motoring is expensive. at £20 a lesson he could have 100 hours of lessons which could be equivalent to one years insurance. So relatively speaking driving lessons aren't that expensive.

I don't quite know what I've done or said to prompt or deserve those comments. I have mentioned that he has had an instructor in an earlier post. He's had an instructor from day one and I only took him out in my car when he'd had a good number of lessons and the instructor felt it would benefit him. He then preferred driving my car, and that is the car he would use after passing his test. In addition it is cheaper than using the instructor's own car (it's £20 using our own car)..

I've only taken him out to supplement lessons as the instructor feels that an hour a week maybe sufficient to learn how to pass a test but not to gain experience as a driver. He's drives to college and drives when I need to go out shopping. He drives when we go out for days. Although the instructor tellls us, in a nice way, we are now wasting our money paying for lessons we continue to do so so he doesn't fall into bad habits.

We're not fortunate enough to be able to afford the insurance without a second thought. We've both saved really hard to be able to cover the car for him to drive.

I know this has happened to others. It happened to a son of a friend who continually failed on no minors and one single what they class as 'serious'.

It just seems to unfair when his friend had 15 hours of driving lessons, with no other practice, was taught how to pass a test and passed first time. His parents won't allow him to buy a car or drive their car as they feel they're very over protective and can't trust him on the road. They also think as he's off to uni next year then there's no need for a car. So he's had 15 hours of driving and in four years time will be able to get into any car and drive.

I was just hoping for any suggestions. I'm going to ask the instructor to take him next time. Is it worth the instructor sitting in the back of the car during the test?

LandyAndy

dggar wrote: »

I may be wrong but I thought tests had to be taken in duel control cars.

You are wrong.

Axial

toffeentom wrote: »

Another point is it all depends on the time of day you're taking your test. Instructors tell you to try and get one just after nine and before twelve. Commuting and school runs have finished and the roads are quiet. Two of my sons friends have passed tests at that time. They didn't come across one cyclist, child on the road, no one slammed their brakes on in front of them. Surely there must be an element of judgement for examiners who are conducting tests all day to take that into consideration.

Sorry to hear your son failed. I took my 3rd test yesterday (in Colchester) and passed.

First time was just after 11 and failed because as I pulled forward on one of the mini roundabouts on the dreaded "Magic Roundabout" someone cut in from the left and filled the gap.

Second time (14.30 test) I didnt stop quick enough in the emergency stop.

Yesterday (12.30 test) I passed, and whilst there was a lot of traffic, I didnt meet one bus, cyclist or emergency vehicle!

Also the examiner yesterday was excellent, we would not only tell you what exit to take, but also say where it was heading (i.e go straght ahead over the two roundabouts, towards Ipswich etc which to someone with local knowledge is worth a lot) he helpfully advised which lane to be in as approaching the magic roundabout.

In Colchester they do an 8.20 test, and my instructor says that they always go a different way on this test and go out of town to avoid traffic (else in Colchester you wouldnt get alot further than about 200m down the road!).

Incidentally I had the exact same route yesterday on the 12.30 test as I did first time around on the 11.10 test. I even had the same Show me/tell me questions, so even though they no longer publish routes they clearly have set ones, even down to what quesions they ask!

Wongsky

toffeentom wrote: »

Hi

Can anyone help with this. If you are executing the reverse around the corner maneouvre in a driving test, you're half way round and a car comes up right behind you from that road, what do you do?

I was out with my son today and we were practising that manoeuvre at a junction used on a driving test. As he was half way round a car came along the road he was reversing into and drove quite near to him, so he wasn't able to complete the manoeuvre and it wasn't safe for the car behind to overtake and pull out of the junction.

If that happens on his test - what should he do? It was totally no fault of his. Should he say to the examiner I don't think it's safe to continue with the maneouvre?

thanks

I had this exact same scenario happen to me, in 1996, and it was my 2nd driving test (which I passed).

The examiner asked me to do the maneuver, I started, just had the car around the corner, but not completed the maneuver, a car approaches from behind on the side road, so I stop, but the awkward sod wouldn't just go around me. He was a man "of a certain age" if you get my meaning (firmly in his 50s, and determined not to be helpful, but just stopped and asserted his presence).

At this point I asked the examiner what I should do - what I really meant was about performing the required maneuver, as opposed to dealing with the driving on the road - something that hadn't come up or been discussed in my lessons - he just said something like "I can't advise you what to do..." which I understand what he meant, but all the same, I wasn't actually asking about what to do about the car and the other driver, but what could I do about performing the maneuver - thinking there was nothing unreasonable about trying to enquire about whether I could drive off and we could repeat it somewhere else (it was really about test procedure I was enquiring).

Anyway, in an odd, somewhat uncharacteristic moment of lucidity, it suddenly occurred to me what to do - which is what people have advised / suggested here, I drove around the corner to the starting position, stopped, waited for the road to become clear and did it again, fully, without incident.

I passed the test, so obviously it wasn't totally the wrong thing to do. In those circumstances I do think examiners could be more helpful - it's not about telling drivers how to deal with things on road that they should be able to deal with - after all, in normal driving you'd probably just drive off there'd be no compulsion to actual complete reversing around the corner, but more about the somewhat artificial scenario of the driving test where you have to complete requested maneuvers, and how that could be accommodated - accepting that people in the middle of their driving test are probably under stress and have probably never been advised about this scenario from a test / procedural perspective.

gpc273

OP it won't make any difference to the outcome of the test if the instructor sits in.
Its not about fair or unfair, its whether or not your son drives in a safe manner for the duration of the test. All this discussion on what to do if he encounters another vehicle on a Left Reverse exercise should have been covered by his instructor.