Failed my driving test .... Again

sirish1979

Hi all,

Had my 2nd practical drving test today which I failed again. At least it was not as bad as the first time I had 8 driver faults. But my major fault was approaching the round abouts very slowly. How can that be a serious fault I was just being careful I felt.

Anyhow cut the long story short my husband feels that I should not have much gap and should book my next driving test ASAP.

I feel that I am spending too much money and wanted a break so that I can continue again in July during summer holidays ( I am a lecturer).

How many tests does it take an average person to pass their test in UK?

YoungBaker

Definitely book your test ASAP

As hard as it is and gutted as you will feel you need to take this chance to dust yourself down and get on your feet and go another bash at it. The worst you can do is fail again and you will have only lost a few more quid in a test.

I promise you now, if you hold off you will struggle to get up the motivation to go for it again and when you do you may be rusty / less confident and may even struggle to find an instructor who will let you come back without starting from scratch again

If you are at the stage you are sitting your test do not give up! You are close!

stir_crazy

I did it in 3

The first time, I failed because I didn't look out of the back window early enough when parallel parking.

The second time went so badly it was unreal.

Then, I passed the third time with flying colours

I think the best thing would be to take the test again asap, the longer you leave it the more it builds up in your head (at least that's how it is with me!)

TeamLowe

I passed fourth time! First two fails weren't my fault, third totally was lol

Problem with waiting until July is you'll have to pay for lessons until then making no progress to keep up your practise, or you'll have to stop lessons and hope you'll remember it all until July then take more lessons to make sure you're up to scratch to take it again

By getting cancellations it's was six weeks between my first and final test.

And if you had to pass it within a set number of goes then they wouldn't let you keep taking it, so don't worry about it

skintchick

IF you go too slowly it is just as dangerous as going too fast, and also might indicate lack of confidence. Just book another test and go for it - if that was your only fault then you are nearly there!

spacey2012

Undue hesitancy is one of the most common failure areas.
You need to be able to prove you can get round without holding up traffic.
What you see as demonstrating cautiousness, the examiner sees as a lack of confidence in traffic.
Learn to get round within the limits quickly and without any unnecessary hesitancy or over cautiousness or mis-placed courtesy .

Gloomendoom

sirish1979 wrote: »

Hi all,

Had my 2nd practical drving test today which I failed again. At least it was not as bad as the first time I had 8 driver faults. But my major fault was approaching the round abouts very slowly. How can that be a serious fault I was just being careful I felt.

Anyhow cut the long story short my husband feels that I should not have much gap and should book my next driving test ASAP.

I feel that I am spending too much money and wanted a break so that I can continue again in July during summer holidays ( I am a lecturer).

How many tests does it take an average person to pass their test in UK?

Lecturers get the summer off?!!

How much driving can you do between now and July? The thing that boosted my confidence when I was learning was lots of long distance (200 miles plus) drives supervised by my father. I passed first time.

My niece used the same technique and she passed first time last week.

skintchick

sirish1979 wrote: »

How many tests does it take an average person to pass their test in UK?

I missed this bit. I don't know, but I passed first time 21 years ago :eek: We didn't even have to do a theory test in those days, just a verbal one at the end of the practical test.

Erinnire

I'd book it again as soon as possible, Get straight back on the horse.

I hated roundabouts all the way through my lessons and I still don't really like them now when they are busy. One thing I noticed with me though was that I drove better on lessons in the morning, I was more awake and alert and rested and had less chance to be nervous so I was really pleased my test was in the morning. Most of my lessons were at around 4pm and there was a noticeable difference between my lessons at 10am and at 4pm!

I passed first time with 7 minors, at 19, I'd had lessons on and off since I was 17. I remember doing a parralel(spelling) park and being a huge distance away from the curb and the examiner jokingly saying "its alright the curb wont bite"

I also remember not indicating off a roundabout because the instructor was chatting away to me about his holibobs with his missus and me realising as I came off the round about I turned round to him and said "oh Bullocks, That's your fault that is, distracting me with your holidays, I'm trying to drive here" Jokingly of course but I think noticing my mistake, pointing out I knew what was wrong and not panicking or stressing about it helped.

I was advised to chat to the examiner throughout as well, I'm quite a chatty person anyway but I think this to make you appear more confident. Although I wouldn't do it if you felt really uncomfortable or it was distracting you!

I was also 37 weeks pregnant, so when we met at the test centre I asked him if he had some towels and warm water on the car and whether he could take a test route near the hospital.

YorkiePud_3

Just 8 driver faults is good ... stop running yourself down ... !! You are allowed to have more than that and STILL pass your test ... !

As has been said, undue hesitancy is what they call it and driving slowly can be as dangerous as driving too fast. Believe it or not, it's not a get out for the Examiner to fail you although I know it might seem like that ... !

Speaking as the daughter of a driving instructor (and he taught me too ... without World War Three kicking off ... !), if you are approaching the roundabouts too slowly then you shouldn't have been put in for your test yet ... ONLY when you are able to approach them at the accepted speed should you have been put in for it ... and that's your driving instructor's fault, not yours, so please don't feel bad ... !

What should have happened is that your instructor should have taken you around every single roundabout time and time again until it became completely second nature to you and you approached them at the accepted speed without hanging back or being slow ...

I tell you, it was fatal to say to Dad, "I'm not sure about this," or to approach anything slower than I should because he'd have me round the roundabouts time and time again ... and the more you do it, the better you feel about it and you do quicken up that little bit and that makes the difference when you've got the examiner sitting beside you ... !!

Thing is ... if a car behind you is expecting you to come at the roundabout at a quicker speed, HE will speed up and (wrongly) assume you won't be going slower, so you can cause a prang that way ... that's why they say it's dangerous.

If you've got someone with a car who will take you out and let your practice, that would be brilliant ... but don't just do what you feel okay about, get round those roundabouts over and over again ... I used to be terrified of them and would slow right down but the more I did them, the more I speeded up just that bit and now I hardly think about them ... even if you're not outwardly nervous of them you might subconsciously be slowing down that bit too much ... but as I say, that's something your instructor should have gone into with you and helped you stop doing it ...

My own advice (and I know Dad's too) would be to get yourself back in for your test ... if you can, book an hour lesson before your test too ... and don't be surprised if you drive shockingly bad in that hour ... use it to get any nerves out of the way and then you take your test straight after ... you're not driving "cold" then if you see what I mean ... and you could always ask your instructor for a lesson solely on roundabouts ... whatever you do, don't give up because Dad used to say even if a pupil went on holiday for a week, he could really tell they'd had a break, even if they just missed one lesson, they were a bit scratchy ... the more you keep it up, the better, so it's best not to let much time pass ...

Do NOT be put off though ... you know what you need to work on so you can re-book and ask your instructor (or someone who will let you drive their car) to get you going round roundabouts over and over again ... you will be sick to death of them (!!!) but it works, I promise you ... !!

You've done smashing to get just those faults ... just get this cracked and you should sail through ... GOOD LUCK ... !!!

Dunroamin

I passed first time at the age of 50, although that was in an automatic. Mind you, I passed the manual test first time a couple of years later. Sorry.

Do you actually want to be able to drive or are you doing it because you feel you ought to? I got nowhere with lessons until I had to get my licence quickly when my husband lost his and then I passed in a couple of months.

Driving's not for everyone.