I have my permit

[RoJoHen]

It's one thing to cut the program if it was an elective. It sucks, but it's understandable. In my school, though, Driver's Ed was a graduation requirement.

 

[KJbushway]

It was an elective, which many kids used, I would of. But now a local computer repair store shares space with a place that does the driver aid courses.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

You might want to find out what kind of driving test it is beforehand if you are worried. What I mean is, some places have their own course set up, and some places use a set route through city streets. My test was in a residential neighborhood nearby that passed a school and used some main roads. My final parking test was on a regular residential street. If you know the area where your test might be, you can drive around there to practice so that you won't be so nervous during the test.

Where i live, the block where they test is clearly marked that if you are caught "practicing" you'll get penalized in some way (off the top of my head i can't remember what it says specifically). So be wary of that.

PRACTICE. A LOT before you actually take the test.

And this may sound stupid, but make sure the car is in tip top shape. I used my boyfriend's car when i took my test (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and that day it needed power steering fluid. It whined and groaned and it was a bitch trying to do my parks with a steering wheel that refused to move.

I failed.

 

[Roger Wilco]

The second try, I got as far as the parallel parking. You have to maneuver your car into a spot between two yellow poles without hitting either them or the curb. I hit one of the poles.

Why aren't you allowed to hit the curb? I usually hit the curb intentionally in small parking spaces when I'm parallel parking as a reference point after reversing so I'm not too far away from the curb when I'm done.

 

[RoJoHen]

The second try, I got as far as the parallel parking. You have to maneuver your car into a spot between two yellow poles without hitting either them or the curb. I hit one of the poles.

Why aren't you allowed to hit the curb? I usually hit the curb intentionally in small parking spaces when I'm parallel parking as a reference point after reversing so I'm not too far away from the curb when I'm done.

Because you're not supposed to hit curbs.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I don't see why it should be a problem unless you're driving a Ferrari or something.

 

[Lindley]

The only tip I can give: When the examiner says "go slow", get clarification on what speed they want. I figured that 25mph was pretty slow and failed as a result.

 

[TheGodBen]

I have had my permit since july 2010. The first time I drove, I was nervous.

So was I, but that's because my girlfriend texted me when I was sitting behind the wheel for the first time and asked if we could talk. I knew what she wanted to talk about, told her I was in the middle of a lesson and that we'd talk later, and when I got home that evening she broke up with me, sending me into a period of depression that lasted for a year or so. But the one good thing that happened to me that year was that I learned to drive, got a car, got my license, and now driving is one of my favourite things to do.

My first time driving on the road, my instructor brought me to a dual-carriageway, pulled in on the on-ramp, told me to get behind the wheel and drive. I was expecting him to take me to an industrial estate where I could drive around slowly, but there I was driving at 100kph, overtaking trucks, and absolutely terrified that my hand would slip and the car would careen off the road.

I aced the theory test, and I got one minor fault on the driving test. I was turning left on a T-junction (we drive on the left), I looked to the right to find a gap and when one appeared I started to pull out before looking to the left. In an ideal world, that wouldn't be a problem, but I should have looked left before starting to pull out just in case some idiot was trying to overtake in the right-hand lane where it was illegal to do so. So watch out for things like that.

Someone actually broke the law by crossing a double line and passing me.

You will encounter far worse than that on the road and you have to be prepared for it. I read on the news last week that there's a section of motorway near me where the cameras catch someone driving the wrong way at least once a day. Now I'm somewhat nervous whenever I drive on that road.

Anybody else have funny or embarrassing permit license stories they want to share?

When I was on my learner permit, there was a bizarre quirk in Irish law that said if you were on your 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th... permit then you had to drive with a full licence-holder in the passenger seat, but on your 2nd permit you were allowed to drive unaccompanied. As a result of this, the police would never pull over a learner driver that was on their own to check their licence, and most learner drivers, even those on their first permit like me, would drive unaccompanied. I was stopped several times to have my tax and insurance checked, but never my licence. One time, my car broke down outside a prison, blocked traffic on a main road, two police officers came over, helped me to push my car out of the way... and they still never checked my licence.

About a week after passing my test and getting my full licence, the law was changed so that all learner permit-holders had to be accompanied and the police started to enforce that rule. A few days later, I was stopped at a checkpoint and asked to present my licence, which I did, and was then given the okay to continue. I still have trouble believing that I got away with that.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Driver's Education was a mandatory class in high school for me, which included several weeks of behind-the-wheel training, so passing the test was pretty easy for me.

We had a driver's ed class (an elective) for the written portion of the test, but we never actually got behind a wheel. We had to go to separate driving schools not run by the high school for that.

In my first lesson I had a large fiesty woman as my instructor. I was REALLY nervous and all sweaty and shaky, it was awful (god I hate driving). I got honked at by three different people that day (mostly for going too slow) and each time she would yell out the window and flip them off, it was hilarious.

Make sure you know where everything is in the specific car you are using for your test! They will ask you to point out the different buttons and controls. They asked me to point to the defroster and luckily I guessed correctly, but I had no idea where it was. Hey, I live in California! And I had done most of my driving in the spring and summer.

 

[KJbushway]

^ they cancel driving test in snow and rain.
My driving test would have to be on a bright and shiny day.

 

[Dukhat]

Why aren't you allowed to hit the curb?

Because it's a driving test. You're not supposed to hit things on a driving test. That's the whole point of the driving test; to be more cautious and do things that you don't normally do when you're actually driving for real.

 

[B.J.]

I did my original driving test in Georgia back in 1990. I think I had it fairly easy, especially compared to some states or areas, since I did my test on the State Patrol's own closed course. I was a bit nervous (like everyone else), but I had added pressure since the examiner also brought along a trainee to watch. I was driving a Ford Aerostar and we had taken out the back seats for cargo, so he had to sit on a box! I think I did okay, since the only comment I heard was after I parallel parked, she told the trainee "This is what I consider good." Of course, I promptly hit the cone after she said that! (And trying to parallel park between cones in a minivan is a bitch!)

 

[RoJoHen]

Why aren't you allowed to hit the curb?

Because it's a driving test. You're not supposed to hit things on a driving test. That's the whole point of the driving test; to be more cautious and do things that you don't normally do when you're actually driving for real.

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