But I am strangely optimistic!
I failed my driving test. *sigh* It’s too embarrassing to talk about.
I think my problem was I was expecting it to be harder, so I made myself UBER nervous. I was PERFECT for 3 hours in the car, and then I got into the seat with the driving woman and I f*cked up royally.
I was kind of waiting for someone to pull out and smash into me or something totally awful since I’m so used to driving in Montreal with the weird streets and weird drivers, and today was just NOT my day with that guy pulling out behind me at the last minute and my having turned around, having been the SPLIT SECOND he came up behind me which caused the instructor to BRAKE HARD to stop me from hitting that car. Bad luck.
On the plus side, I learned a whole bunch of new nasty things about driving instructors from my awesome driving instructor in Cornwall.
1. They will tell you HALF of what is required, so that you fail and come back for more lessons.
No joke, apparently Young Drivers does this A LOT. They tell you at the end of the course that you need 6 more lessons and THEN you’ll be ready.
It’s just to sell more lessons.
2. They will not only tell you half of what is needed to pass, but sometimes MORE than is needed just to confuse you.
Like staying PERFECTLY in the middle of the lane and making you feel like you SUCK because you weren’t perfectly centered in the lane, like a whole bunch of sh*t that is very important.. BUT ONLY AFTER YOU LEARN HOW TO DRIVE.
And not while you’re learning how to drive at all because you’re so busy concentrating on just being in the car. I just had my old instructor’s voice in my head going “And now slowly merge to the right..” and it screwed me up because it made me even more nervous because I felt like a failure.
3. Learning how to parallel park is a cinch.
You just need to learn the proper method. The whole backing up and cranking the wheel hard twice while backing up is a load of crock.
Doing it the other method where you angle the car 45 degrees, back up, straighten the wheel, and then back up until the bumpers meet, and then crank the wheel is HELLA simpler and a lot easier to understand/learn. I parallel parked like a Queen today.
4. Driving schools try to save as much money as possible.
This means, they don’t put you in the car nearly half as often as they should, and they spend most of the first half of that, sitting around, talking about what that driver did wrong, or what THAT driver did wrong and pointing out people’s bad mistakes instead of letting you get behind the wheel.
Why? Because it costs gas, and it wears on the car.
5. Schools try and keep their cars as long as possible.
A good school, is one that has a car, never more than 2 – 3 years old.
And a good school does NOT have a KIA that does NOT have power-assisted steering or is very dirty and awful to drive in. A good school has a decent car that is comfortable.
6. The best instructors are easy going and they don’t try to destroy your confidence by saying That was ALMOST good.
They just say That was good, but let’s try doing it again to get used to it.
See the difference?
The first phrase from my first driving instructor in Montreal shattered my confidence in wanting to try.
The second phrase, was from my second driving instructor, who was a LOT easier to deal with and handle in Cornwall and I felt a hell of a lot more confident.
I am going to kill it next time.
In the end, I failed. Yes. I will retake the test in about 3-4 weeks, whenever I can get an appointment, but the key is that I failed, but I am happy about it. Confident even.
I AM A GOOD DRIVER.
I just needed to have a better instructor from the get-go, that’s all.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
If it makes you feel better I failed drivers ed in high school. LOL. 😛
P.S. yes I know this post is old, oh well. Damn why did I have to discover your website a few years too late? 😉
*LAUGH* Sorry. I deleted a lot of stuff too, in an effort to clean my blog up.
I was able to take driving lessons (at the insistence of the older relatives) YEARS AFTER I was taught by my older siblings.
I must admit, that driving school didn’t teach me anything I already knew and the instructor was just useless. It’s like I paid for the course just to drive their instructor around.
On another note, it is also true that cars and driving has fascinated me at an early age and I kept observing my parents and older siblings drive so I was able to keep the pointers into my head early on. And since they were driving stick shift, I learned stick shift as well.
Once you do know stick shift, automatic is as easy as a breeze.
Sum total, driving school don’t really teach you much. But having interest in driving from since, say, you were a wee kid, does have its advantages especially if you have observed other people driving early on.
Failing on the first time though, isn’t something embarrassing. It would be embarrassing if you gave up on it after the first failure especially when driving can benefit you a lot with your work.
Good luck and I wish you the best on your next exam!
Hey! I recently (Oct. 14th) took my first ever driving test and I failed too! Well, I got enough points to pass, but was disqualified for VIOLATION of the LAW! 37 in a 30…but there were no speed limit signs!
I’m glad you’re feeling good about it. I was initially devastated, but quickly recovered and find it amusing.
Have no fear. I failed my permit test FOUR TIMES! You will be fine, the best is to practice, practice, practice. And parallel parking is all about confidence and vision, they make bumpers on cars for a reason!
Great blog and great insights. You have a new reader girl!
I remember I was so nervous when I went to take my driver’s test, luckily I passed the first time. A lot of people don’t though, I’m sure you will pass it with flying colors next time!
I passed the first time. I borrowed a friend’s two-door topaz because my dad was going to make me take it in their Ford Expedition at the time – hell no.
Anyway, I remember passing the cone part and realizing I will never be able to pull that off again.
At least not very well.
I failed the first time too. And because I did an illegal maneuver, I didn’t even get to finish the test! I had to back around a corner, but when I did it a tire went on the sidewalk. Didn’t do this at all in driving school. Looking back, I found that just practicing and getting driving experience helped the most. In my state, they require 50 hours of practice with a licensed driver.
Keep practicing and you will pass. Good luck!
Sorry to hear it didn’t go as well as you’d planned. Good luck with your re-test!
Don’t feel bad. I’ve failed twice hahah. And I think I’m a decent driver, they are just so particular about things!!
And the second time, my tester was “in training” so there was a person in the back seat examining her. So my “tester” tested me very hardly cause she needed to get the job.GR!
I had similar experiences with my driving lessons. He booked a test for me hoping failure would motivate me. Surprisingly I passed (and was told I’m a careful driver). He was so shocked he didn’t talk for the first 10 minutes we stood in line to get my license.
Good luck on your next test!
Don’t feel bad. Almost everyone fails their driving test. If everyone passed the first time, then how would the testing centre make any money?
My driving class was kind of the opposite of yours. They tought you EXACTLY what you needed to pass the class.
Unfortunately, they glazed over the rest. For example, they knew in the test that we would do a parking in reverse, and even which parking spaces would be used. So they would take us to the DMV, and have us reverse park in those spaces. The rest of the parking, ie parallel etc. We did once each.
They did this with other stuff too. basically just having us run over the test area over and over again, and by the end I knew which traffic lights had turning arrows etc.
The only problem with this is that when I got my car, I pretty much had to figure everything else out on my own. I park in the street, so it would have been helpful to learn how to parallel park LOL.
BTW, you can err on the side of caution. All of the points I lost were because I was being too careful (ie doing things the way the instructor wanted).
Oh, and a cat ran out in front of me. I didn’t swerve, but I did slow down a bit to give it a chance lol
good luck for next time! i know some of my friends are still going for their 3rd/4th test! and the main thing is practice everyday because then you get used to it 😛
Hi there-better luck for next time my dear, not long now!
Don’t feel bad, I’m a pretty smart gal and I failed my first driving test, too.
1. Because my mom informed me wrongly about where I was supposed to stop at stop signs, and…
2. Because I went slightly up the curb and into someone’s yard while doing the three point turn. Turns out, those back city streets are a lot narrower than the country dirt roads I had practiced on (and that you could U-turn anything on).
Better luck next time!
Good for you for seeing the good about failing your test. I feel your pain, though. I had a bad driving instructor too, who, on my first day on the highway yells “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” all of a sudden. Totally freaked me out… on the highway and I didn’t even do anything wrong! I remember after a few driving sessions feeling like I still don’t know how to drive. 🙁
And yes I know what you mean by parallel parking. I aced it on both my G2 and G tests.
I hope your new driving instructor does a much better job than the Montreal one. Good luck!