Knowing this may reduce your driving test nerves. (Great Britain)

Driving test knowledge that may help you feel more confident when you do your driving test in Great Britain.

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This video is a guide intended to help people who are learning to drive with a driving instructor in Great Britain, it is by no means a replacement for driving lessons with an appropriately qualified driving instructor.

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00:00 It’s Normal
00:15 Easier than you think
02:14 Reversing myth
03:11 Don’t know what to do
04:37 Take your driving instructor
06:08 Lane guidance
07:20 Rushing
08:33 Be ready
09:14 Reduce the pressure
10:33 Make manoeuvres easy
14:27 Don’t give up

Being nervous on your driving test is completely understandable it’s normal but it is possible to decrease your nerves and increase your confidence with a bit of advice and a deeper understanding of what the examiner is actually looking for firstly the good news is the driving test is probably a

Lot easier than You’re Expecting when you’re learning to drive most likely you have been taught to jump through loads of Hoops to pass the driving test which makes the driving test sound complicated for example you must do a handbrake start every time you move away or you

Have to do a robotic six point check whenever you’re moving away from the side of the road keep your hands at ten and two pretty much all the time unless you’re changing gear never cross your arms across my arms have I failed and when you’re reversing if you see anything you

Must stop and wait now I have a video on driving test myths I’ll leave a link to it up there I used to believe this was true I used to believe that’s what the examiners wanted but I’ve been teaching people for a while now I started in 2009

And that’s what I used to teach people when I first became a driving instructor but over the years of taking people to test and talking to examiners I’ve learned that they’re not actually interested in this stuff what they want is for you to drive safely and legally

When you moved away from the side of the road were your observations good enough to make sure you could see no one was coming before you went usually checking behind whatever mirror is helping you see behind and your roadside blind spot and of course ahead as well there’s

Going to be some people saying that they failed the test for crossing their arms when they steered the wheel but it’s not the crossing the arms that would have caused the fail it would be they’ve gone to turn and they’ve been unable to turn enough because they’ve crossed their arms and

Then they’ve had to sort of rush and make it back as they’ve gone around the bend so they weren’t able to keep the car going where they wanted to go all the time that was because of their steering technique which happened to be there crossing their arms probably too much like that

But if you stay well and keep the car where you want it to go then the examiner should not fail you if you drive safely and legally you should pass I’m not going into every myth in this video because that’s not what this video is about and that will take too

Long but I will give you another example one myth is that if you’re reversing if you see anybody at all coming towards you you must stop but that’s not true in fact many years ago I had a pupil fail for doing just that and it was entirely my fault

Because that’s what I told them to do because that’s what I had been taught to tell my pupils to do they were reversing around the corner to the left a maneuver that’s no longer part of the test and they kept stopping for cars on the other side of the road

We weren’t affecting them and the examiner failed them for taking too long but of course if you don’t stop for cars that you are affecting then that would likely be a fail if you see a car coming or any kind of vehicle and you are affecting them stop give way see what

They’re going to do if they come past let them pass if they’re going to let you finish your maneuver then carry on and finish your maneuver your driving instructor is not going to be able to show you every situation you’re ever going to come across during your lessons

During your test and certainly after your test you’re going to come across situations that you have not seen before I’m sure today when I drive every so often I’ll see something that I haven’t seen before and I’ve got to figure out what to do so what can you do

Well there used to be an examiner he’s retired now and when he could see that the learner driver was struggling to decide what to do in a situation he would say what can you do now the examiner isn’t allowed to tell the pupil what to do but they can give

Encouragement if they can see you getting flustered they can pull you over at the side of the road tell you to take a breather for a few seconds tell you to try and stay calm try and enjoy the drive and then let you go again and there’s nothing wrong with

Saying what can you do because the examiner isn’t telling the people what to do they’re just giving encouragement encouragement to think for yourself and that’s the Golden Rule here whenever you come across a situation that you’ve not seen before you’re not sure how to deal with it

Think for yourself think what can I do that’s safe and legal and if what you do is safe and it is legal then you should still pass take your driving instructor with you on test not only can they see you drive so that if something goes wrong they’re more

Able to help you but the driving test passed quota myth now I’m going to underline myth there because it is a myth the driver and vehicle standards agency do not set how many pupils an examiner can pass but what they do and this is the problem

Is they monitor the pass rate of the examiners let’s say there’s a driving test center which over all the examiners has an average pass rate of 45 but there’s one examiner there who’s passing sixty percent of the pupils over the course of a year the devious say think well they’re clearly not

Marking it to the same standard as the other examiners they’re probably marking it incorrectly so they investigate that Examiner and what people believe is that to avoid being investigated examiners try to self-regulate their pass rate if their pass rate’s going up they’ll be more harsh and fail more people if their Pass

Rates going down below the average for the area they’ll try and be less harsh and personal people I’m sure that does happen we’re talking about 1 500 people here that’s how many examiners there are you’ve all take and some of them are probably going to do that to avoid being

Investigated but if they just do their job properly they’re going to be somewhere in the middle anyway however if you take your driving instructor with you well they’re not going to do that they’re not going to do any funny business because they’re being watched it’s not always obvious what Lane you

Need at a junction generally it’s left lane to go left and a head and right lane to go right if there’s two lanes I have a video about roundabouts which includes Lane Choice up there sometimes it can be different and there will be Road markings and road signs to tell you

That let’s say you need to use the right lane to go ahead on this occasion if there’s road signs and Road markings nice and early to tell you that then you should follow those your examiner isn’t going to give you help but they will give you help if it’s not obvious that

You need a different Lane to normal let’s say they want you to go ahead second exit a roundabout usually you would choose the left lane on this occasion at this roundabout it’s actually the right lane you need but there’s no road signs and the only Road markings that there are are near the

Give way line at the round about too late to be helpful they will help you in these situations they will say at the roundabout I would like you to go ahead say second exit but on this occasion you may find it easier to use the right lane that’s them understanding that there’s

No way of you knowing you need to use the right lane so they’re giving you advice my advice is to take their advice when they give you those directions don’t allow yourself to rush I Rush sometimes and when I do things go badly it’s not just about driving I could be

Rushing cooking chopping an onion and cutting myself rush around the house stub my toe bang my head when you rush bad things happen and what helps me is when I catch myself rushing realize I’m doing it and slowing myself down and control myself so my advice is

If you start to rush when you’re driving and when learner drivers are feeling flustered quite often their response to feeling flustered is to rush which leads them feeling more flustered which leads them rushing more and you get this positive feedback loop which is not helpful well if you catch yourself rushing slow

Yourself down that’s my advice don’t allow yourself to rush slow yourself down for a little bit go at a lower speed than you normally go just for a bit just to clear your head and think I’ve got this I can think clearly I can figure out

What to do I’m in control and then return to normal speed yes you may get marked down for going a bit slow for a while that’s possible but if you allow yourself to rush the mistake you can make from rushing is probably going to be far worse this is

Probably the single best thing you can do for confidence on your driving test make sure you’re test ready before you go to test if you go to test before you’re ready then you’re not going to be confident you know you’re not ready but if you are ready that’s going to help

Your confidence immeasurably you’re still going to feel nervous of course but not as nervous as if you’re under prepared how do you know when you’re ready well make sure you can pass a full length mock test with your driving instructor without any help and the last couple of lessons before your test you

Should have been able to drive the majority of those lessons with very minimal help from your instructor try to come to terms with the possibility that you may fail and have to do the driving test again if you go into your driving test feeling like you must pass that is an immense

Amount of pressure and that’s going to make the test harder if you go into it feeling like well I like to pass but I can always do it again that’s going to make the test easier now I know there’s a long waiting list I’m filming this on

The 22nd of August 2023 and yeah the waiting list is still long but I’m yet to have a pupil who has not been able to find a driving test at relatively short notice when they have tried to what they’ve had to do is they’ve had to

Go online check to see if there’s any dates available and they’ve had to do that several times a day for several days and when they do that actually usually within a few days a test booking pops up and they grab it and book it and usually it’s within a couple of weeks so

Knowing that can make you feel more comfortable that you’re not gonna have to wait like six months to do another test if you do fail search for cancellations you should be able to find one if you search regularly enough you should be able to find one relatively

Soon I’ve not had a pupil who’s not been able to do that yet understanding that can take away some of the pressure don’t make your Maneuvers harder than they need to be during a driving test when you’re doing a maneuver your examiner is more interested in good observations and

Good control than they are expert Precision driver levels of accuracy what I mean by this good observations good all-round 360 degree check often enough that if someone approaches you will notice before they get to you and when it comes to good control that means you should be able to keep the car going

In the intended Direction slowly not rolling down the hill all the time and shooting backwards and stopping they’re actually very lenient when it comes to accuracy take the parallel parking exercise they say pull up alongside the car reverse backstop near the curb and within two car lengths of the car two car lamps

That’s a big space don’t make it hard by trying to make it a quarter of a car length use some of that space to make it easier and don’t try and get an inch from the curve that’s going to make it harder and more risky even if you stop within a drains width

Of the curb they are still likely going to pass you if however you think you are too far from the curb don’t be afraid to adjust pull forwards come back and try and get a bit closer many people say you only get one adjustment on your driving test

But that’s not true okay often it is the case let’s say you reverse into a car park parking space and it goes horribly wrong nowhere near you go out come back again and you haven’t made it better well the examiner is probably going to call it a day there and go that’ll do

However let’s say you haven’t failed yet and you reverse back and it doesn’t go very well you’re not in the space you pull forwards you come back and this time you make it a lot better but it’s not quite the ticket well they’re probably going to wait there and

Give you more time they may even say are you finished if you’re not finished don’t say you are go forwards and come back and try again if the examiner’s had enough they’ll say that will do they’ll stop you and finish the maneuver don’t be afraid to check either so if

You’re in the space and you’re not sure you think you might not be in the space you might be over the line secure the car Hanbury cup neutral Park if you’re in an automatic open the door and check or if your parallel parking you’re not

Sure if you’re too close to the curb or well you can’t be too close to the curb can you you’re beyond the curb if you’re too close you’d know about that you’re not sure that you’re too far from the curb is what I meant to say if you can

Lower your electric mirror to have a look you can do that see if you’re close enough or not and then return it but whatever you do don’t give up on your maneuver until you have finished I’m just editing this video and I think I’ve made it sound like the examiners are giving a

Hint when they say are you finished but it’s not a hint they’re not suggesting that you need to change your position they’re just asking can we get on with the rest of the test have you finished and if it’s the end of the test sometimes you do your maneuver at the

End of the test and they can finish the test and if your examiner asks you to stop during your maneuver that doesn’t mean you’ve done it badly it just means they’ve seen enough you’ve done enough you could easily have passed if you’re doing your parallel park exercise it’s

Quite common for people to get parallel to the curb within two car lamps but then keep reversing back in a straight line longer than they need to then the examiner says stop I’ll do move on if you’ve done it well good observations good control got parallel to the curb

Nicely then you should pass what I’m saying here is that if your examiner asks you are you finished don’t tell them you have until you are sure you have don’t give up on your maneuver until you are happy with it and that leads me on to my

Final bit of advice in this video don’t give up even if you think you’ve made a mistake it may not be as bad as you think it might not even be a mistake at all might be another myth and if you do give up then you are more

Likely going to fail I can think of two examples where the examiner has intervened with the Dual controls yet my pupils have still passed and they are just the examples I can remember there’s probably more and how many times have you heard that if the examiner has to intervene it’s an automatic fail

The examples where one was for the angle start my pupil was asked to pull over stop within a car length for the car and they are starting to get a bit closer than the Carling for the car so the examiner stopped them so that he didn’t get too close and couldn’t do the

Maneuver another example was a mini roundabout I was sitting in the back quite busy car looks like it’s going straight it’s not singling we’re turning left they’re going straight to go past us so we can go they’re not turning in front of us and I’m thinking yeah it

Looks like we can go we go we start moving and suddenly and unexpectedly the car turns into our path and the examiner Slams on the brake and so don’t I and then the examiner goes that car thought you were psychic didn’t they there’s no break back there Richard

Because of course I didn’t hit the brake I just hit the back of the seat from a normal reaction or going for the brake when I well I see something like that happen The Examiner still passed the pupil because the examiner does not expect a new driver to have the same

Levels of skill as themselves that would be unreasonable they do understand that people taking the learner test are new drivers and as long as they got good enough levels of skill that they’re not causing a hazard they’re safely driving and they’re legal then they should get a

License they don’t expect them to be super expert fast reactive drivers who are 10 years 20 years experienced they know they know the driver will get better with practice so the examiner decided they still deserved the license well that’s all for this one if you found the video helpful please give it a

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