Rear view mirror

Spectreon666

I have my test tomorrow and very nervous about it. Whenever I have someone watching me drive eg. My driving instructor, I drive slower and tend to make mistakes...basically I drive better on my own!!

What is really getting me though is observation. When reversing and turning left and right is fine, it is just my rear-view mirror on the straight. I check it when im slowing down on the ramps on the road but thats basically it.
How often should I check it on the straight?
I concentrate on the road too much and forget to check it. Will I lose alot of marks for it?

aniascor

You should check it regularly on the straight. At a minimum once every 8-10 seconds.

Alanstrainor

Spectreon666 wrote: »

I have my test tomorrow and very nervous about it. Whenever I have someone watching me drive eg. My driving instructor, I drive slower and tend to make mistakes...basically I drive better on my own!!

What is really getting me though is observation. When reversing and turning left and right is fine, it is just my rear-view mirror on the straight. I check it when im slowing down on the ramps on the road but thats basically it.
How often should I check it on the straight?
I concentrate on the road too much and forget to check it. Will I lose alot of marks for it?

It's all about being confident, the examiner will say to you, "drive as you normally would", and that really is the best thing to do, forget there's anybody there. Driving too slow is almost as bad as driving too fast, you'll get marked down for lack of progress so i'd try not to drive too slow, keep the speed limit at 50kmh, or what ever the speed limit is. As for the mirror, every ten seconds is about what they're expecting, make your movements obvious, i.e. Turn your head to look at your mirrors, it may seem weird but the examiner needs to see you looking at your mirrors. You say you concentrat on the road too much, i know it's hard, but try to keep more of an open mind, to look out for hazards and the like. I hope this helps you, and best of luck with the test.
Alan.

--amadeus--

You can never check your mirrors often enough, on a test or otherwise. Other traffic - and especially motorbikes - can come up behind you at speed and if you aren't doing a "sweep" of all of your mirrors (passenger door, rear, drivers door) regularly you won't know about it.

On the test check them so often that you'll think that the examiner will think you're taking the mick. And make it really obvious; a handy tip is to set the mirrior so that you can't see out of it with just a glance but you have to actually move your head. This helps accentuate teh movement for the tester to spot.

Wishbone Ash

--amadeus-- wrote: »

You can never check your mirrors often enough, on a test .........


.................On the test check them so often that you'll think that the examiner will think you're taking the mick

I don't think that's great advise amadeus.

It is important before moving off, overtaking, changing lanes,
roundabouts, turning right, turning left, slowing and stopping and the use of the mirrors should be correctly timed - not too early or too late.

Overuse your mirrors and you could be penalised for inappropriate observation of the road ahead!

Remember - the tester requests that you drive in a 'normal' manner.

iconnect

Spectreon666 wrote: »

I have my test tomorrow and very nervous about it. Whenever I have someone watching me drive eg. My driving instructor, I drive slower and tend to make mistakes...basically I drive better on my own!!

What is really getting me though is observation. When reversing and turning left and right is fine, it is just my rear-view mirror on the straight. I check it when im slowing down on the ramps on the road but thats basically it.
How often should I check it on the straight?
I concentrate on the road too much and forget to check it. Will I lose alot of marks for it?

Just a bit of advice you may find helpfull
Check your middle mirror when you change gear,before braking and when moving off. Then if you haven't done any of these for a while check it again.
Just link your middle mirror to a hand or foot movement (when they move you check the mirror). This is a good way of remembering to check. This only a tip and not meant as gospel truth.