Driving test fail-Churchtown

boylanniamh1

Hi,

Yesterday I failed my driving test for the first time. I was given 10 Grade 1 faults, 11 Grade 2 faults and 3 grade 3 faults. I think that I was judged unfairly in the test as I know myself that I drive as bad as to incur all these faults. I was also given a grade 3 fault for Rules/ Checks. When I read the driver tester marking guidelines online, it says that a grade 3 fault for Rules/Checks is not applicable. The tester seemed in a real rush and when we came back in after the test he told me that I was driving way too fast. During the test, I was afraid I was driving too slow as I was driving at a speed of around 40km/h and thought I would fail for lack of progress.

I have read up about appealing the result but dont think it is really worth the bother. I am on the cancellation test list in churchtown but I was told on the phone yesterday that cancellations are highly unlikely as there is a 19 week wait for a test.
I am wondering whether I would be better applying to a different test centre or would I require a lot of lessons in that area in order to be familiar enough with it?

ED E

Ennis	73.25
Newcastle West	70.64
Roscommon	70.17
Clifden	70.12
Sligo	69.63
Kilrush	66.38
Tralee	64.55
Carrick-on-Shannon	63.31
Loughrea	62.93
Donegal	62.12
Galway	61.96
Athlone	61.93
Killarney	61.78
Tuam	61.52
Mallow	61.39
Longford	60.18
Mullingar	59.95
Skibbereen	59.64
Ballina	59.62
Tullamore	59.19
Waterford	58.84
Buncrana	58.51
Castlebar	58.16
Limerick	57.66
Clonmel	57.08
Nenagh	56.89
Cavan	56.78
Birr	56.48
Monaghan	55.72
Gorey	55.11
Carlow	54.26
Dungarvan	53.98
Letterkenny	53.89
Tipperary	53.81
Overall Average	53.65
Navan	53.61
Cork	52.64
Dundalk	52.53
Thurles	52.26
Kilkenny	52.10
Portlaoise	51.93
Wexford	51.57
Shannon	50.74
Naas	49.16
Wicklow	48.87
Finglas	48.05
Rathgar (Closed since 16/01/2016)	47.44
Raheny	46.53
Tallaght	45.22
Dun Laoghaire (Opened for testing on 20/01/2016. Closed since 11/06/2016)	45.16
[B][COLOR="Red"]Churchtown (Opened for testing on 20/01/2016)	42.41[/COLOR][/B]

From the RSA, 2015 stats are the latest. Find somewhere else (I'm local, they're cowboys in all aspects).

boylanniamh1

Thanks ED E. I am local as well and know the roads well. Afraid if I go somewhere else I will not know the roads well enough.

mikeecho

So. I read half The post, then I checked the OP s post count.

Trol

.G.

Not knowing the roads could be helpful too, help you focus more.

endacl

mikeecho wrote: »

So. I read half The post, then I checked the OP s post count.

Trol

At what post count did you stop being a troll...?

HeidiHeidi

When I did the test (a long, LONG time ago admittedly) I purposely went to a centre that I had never been to and didn't know the area of as I was afraid I'd be too familiar with the routes in my local one having done lessons in that area (expecting to be told to turn left, for example, because that's the way the instructors brought me all the time).

Did me not a bit of harm, I passed first time.

May or may not be applicable these days.

Stone Deaf 4evr

boylanniamh1 wrote: »

Thanks ED E. I am local as well and know the roads well. Afraid if I go somewhere else I will not know the roads well enough.

Not being funny, but shouldn't you be able to drive everywhere and demonstrate capability? It underlines the fact that people are more interested in passing a test than getting better at driving.

beechwood55

One grade 3 fault means failure. So even if you were marked incorrectly for the Rules/checks, the tester still gave you 2 other grade 3 faults which when put with 11 grade 2 faults would indicate that you are not as good a driver as you might think you are.
Did you do much practice in the weeks before the test?

boylanniamh1

beechwood55 wrote: »

One grade 3 fault means failure. So even if you were marked incorrectly for the Rules/checks, the tester still gave you 2 other grade 3 faults which when put with 11 grade 2 faults would indicate that you are not as good a driver as you might think you are.
Did you do much practice in the weeks before the test?

Yes I did. I have being doing a lot of practice at least 2 hours everyday and 6 pre test lessons.

august12

boylanniamh1 wrote:

Yes I did. I have being doing a lot of practice at least 2 hours everyday and 6 pre test lessons.

A lot of this is pot luck, where you might pass with one tester, you could possibly fail with another, and also depends on their humour on the day and then again you might meet a genuinely nice tester with no ego and not on a power trip, in other words, a normal human being.

boylanniamh1

When you get a second test appointment in the same test center, can you be given the same tester again?

beechwood55

boylanniamh1 wrote: »

When you get a second test appointment in the same test center, can you be given the same tester again?

Yes. You have no say in who the tester is.

Extrasupervery

That's ****e Niamh, try showing your results sheet to your ADI to see if they can shed some light on it. I think they try not to put you with the same tester twice, don't think it's guaranteed though. I've taken a cancellation for Churchtown, I'm not very familiar with the area. I don't know whether to drive out there immediately and familiarise myself with it or just go there fresh and see if that helps. I knew Finglas very well and was so sick of it.

Alanstrainor

You need to look at what the marks were given for. Tbh that is a lot of marks against you, I would be hesitant about just writing off the results as the tester being harsh.

You mention driving at 40km/h, on a main road I would expect you would be marked repeatedly for lack of progress for doing so. Perhaps the comment about speed was due to some other point of the test (perhaps in the estates around there?). Bring the sheet to your instructor and go through it in detail. The sooner the better as you will remember locations and things from the test.

I don't know if I would read too much into the percentage pass rates for each test centre, I would focus on working on the areas you were marked against instead. Also I think there is certain advantages to knowing the area, yes you should be able to apply what you know to any road in the country. But for a test, knowing the locality is beneficial. There are lots of strange and non-standard junctions and roads in this country, I wouldn't like to come across one for the first time in my test.

applesrock

Hi op,
Sorry to hear about your test result. Churchtown is a very difficult centre to pass as the route can bring you from narrow streets around rathgar where there is huge congestion coupled with on street parking and conflicts with oncoming traffic as regards who has right of way all the way out to nutgrove & rathfarnham where you may have to deal with buses pullling in and moving out several times over the course of the test. If you are not a confident driver it is a tough route.
I failed in churchtown when it operated out of the Orwell centre but later passed in a country town.( with more & better practice). If you are having difficulty I would strongly encourage you to consider somewhere with more free flowing traffic that is easier to get practice in. Eg tallaght, parts of west Dublin. I had a number of practice lessons in churchtown & huge portions of the lesson were spent sitting in traffic & I learnt very little.

atat23

Sorry to hear you failed, but 3 grade 3 faults seems pretty bad.

Although I did my driving test in Churchtown and failed on single grade 3 because the instructor told me I didn't check my blind spot when changing lane, I did, but apparently not enough or didn't make it noticeable enough, who knows.

The whole thing knocked my confidence tbh and I have another test coming up and I really wish they could take the human instructor out of it a bit more, have actual test cars with cameras and eye tracking to ensure each test is as fair as possible.

Neringao

Finglas test centre avoid avoid failed 2wice for minor stuff money making scheme in there. Also attitude of testers!!!!!!

Neringao

Neringao wrote: »

Finglas test centre avoid avoid failed 2wice for minor stuff money making scheme in there. Also attitude of testers!!!!!!

Not to mention attitude of failees. Great to see testers carrying out their duties so diligently. Trouble is those who fail usually sit into their cars unaccompanied to inflict their bad driving habits on an unsuspecting public.

Neringao

yoajing

I got a few minors for speeding (and by speeding, I mean going 2 km/hr above the limit) and not turning enough at sharp bends. One more minor and I would have failed. I think it's beneficial to learn the area. You know what to look out for especially. I know people say that you can apply what you've learn in any location but, really, it's a test -- the more you're comfortable with the area, the higher the chance for success. Exaggeration with your observations is a must and proceed everything with caution. You'd be more likely to be penalised for over-speeding than going under the limit. Ennis has a higher percentage of pass rates, so if you think it's worth the travel then why not. If you know what mistakes you've done and are practicing the resolve them, and you already have the experience of what the exam is like -- I'd say you've got the next one under the belt!

biko

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