Driving test tomorrow! Help me!

Ronan|Raven

I never said I could drive alone legally Only on my 1st provisional and tbh I take the chance as around here short of walking there is no transport available.

leeroybrown

Hard luck Ronan.

I know from experience that there is nothing like time on the road to relax you in the test car. I had close to 10,000 miles racked up before I sat my test. When I sat in on the day of the test, all I needed to do was concentrate on some minor flaws I had to iron out before the test.

laoisfan

I never said I could drive alone legally Only on my 1st provisional and tbh I take the chance as around here short of walking there is no transport available.

and i am sure you are not the only one!!

anyway, put your test down to experience. keep the chin up and get out there and drive!!

--laoisfan

lan

Originally posted by laoisfan
ps. i was waiting about 12.5 months....which i think is the norm in portlaoise. athlone has the shortest, i think 6 weeks.


--laoisfan

Athlone is 19 weeks now, everyone probably saw it was so short and applied there.

I think Ennis has the shortest now at 12 weeks

http://www.drivingtest.ie/drivingtest/HTMLContent/frameset.html

Link is on the side, waiting times by centre.

leeroybrown

Posted by Ronan|Raven
Then after that trying to get my concentration back some twat slams on breaks at corner and parks. The local animals that inhabit roscommon town as always surprised me even further with parking arangements. Trucks parked on corners (both sides) of the junction I had to exit and on a hill. Managed it in the end but was stressful.

For those here who have never driven in Roscommon Town, on a bad weekday afternoon it can be awkward to drive through without the added pressure of having someone testing your performance. A wierd mix of bad streets, dodgy corners, poor parking and poor drivers. In a normal half hour in traffic there, theres a very good chance you'd have to do something that comes close to a test failure just to keep moving through it.

When I got my test date I was initially annoyed because a test at 4pm on my birthday was irritating. The I thought about it a bit and realised:

- It was a Saturday (less erratic traffic in Roscommon)
- Roscommon were playing Galway in Castlebar so everyone was leaving town.
- There was another big match on TV beforehand so everyone else was in the pub or at home watching TV.

It was great. Moderate traffic with no one ditching cars in the middle of the street.

Urban Weigl

laoisfan wrote:

at one point i was doing 35 mph in a 30 mph zone but the tester actually approved (even though he was not supposed to comment). there was about 10 cars behind me (there were roadworks, parents after dropping off their kids to school etc). he said i used a bit of common sense i.e. not holding up traffic. i came back down to 30 as soon as it was feasible.

That seems to be good common sense unfortunately. When I did my test, I was just 18, and was failed for not going fast enough. My driving instructor instructor thought I'd have no problem passing, and recommended that I drive a little bit faster than the limit if anything.

Anyway, we have one of the cars where the tester could not see the speed, and at one point I accidentally went almost 40 in a 30 zone. Still got failed for going too slowly though.

Probably the fact that I was very young didn't help, and that it was my first test, I suspect.

PowerHouseDan

I got a driving lesson 2 days before my test and drove as i did as always,was just 17,the driving lesson i got was with a guy who just retired 2 weeks before had he was a driving tester,He said i should have no problems passing but it depends what driving tester you get,which pissed me off but i passed with flying colours,2 ticks but i think its fairly unfair that it depends on what tester you get its a joke,judge you on appearence etc

impr0v

leeroybrown wrote:

....A wierd mix of bad streets, dodgy corners, poor parking and poor drivers.....

How does it differ from the rest of the country? I think avoiding tough towns to drive through is almost impossible, and a false economy, as the applicant will have to face all the above in the real world anyway. Having said that, with the obstacle course that these choked county town centres become, the tester has to employ some common sense, as to make it through while strictly adhering to the rules would take quite a while. During my test I gave someone in front of me who had failed to notice that the lights were green a blast of the horn, and cut quite close to a delivery driver unloading on the road side, yet still passed.

seamus

Heard a good story today about a girl who simply couldn't reverse around corners, and so got 8 of her mates, made sure they were familiar with the route, and they organised themselves and shifted around so that every time the tester came to ask her do the reversi, there was a car in the way

Sounds good, but probably an urban myth.

PBC_1966

Ronan|Raven wrote:

Failed and with flying colours!

Bad luck. You seem to have the right philosophical outlook though. Get some more practice and experience, and have another go.

One good thing is unlike our european neighbours upon failing, I can continue to drive!

Not unlike your immediate, next-door neighbors though!

From an outsider's point-of-view I remember driving around Roscommon, and I can't say it sticks out in my mind as being especially better or worse than most other Irish towns. Even managed to park there with a caravan in tow, so I guess I must have hit a quiet day!