Car test: things to practice

[Moonie]

Alright,

Hopefully I'm getting insurance on one of my parents cars for my 18th, I can already drive fairly competently (stop, go, steer etc. competently), but I'm getting the insurance in order to practice for my test.

Can anyone tell me some things I should practice that are required for the test, things like reversing around corners, parallel parking etc., and any tips on the best way to do them?

Thanks in advance.
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Don't practice it until you get it right, practice it until you don't get it wrong.
Presenting the one and only Chinkmobile

[Itchy]

3 point turns, parallel parking each car has a specific formula to do it, the car I learnt to drive in you drew level and reversed then at a certain point the central pillar IIRC you turned full lock then once you passed another point centre wheel then full lock the other way.

The 3PT is the same, reversing round a corner is a tad iffy, just go practice on a tight one, a sweeping one and an inbetween one.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Dischord]

The only thing that makes it difficult is the mirror checks, actually reversing around a corner is easy. Also if a car or pedestrian is near you will have to stop, handbrake on etc It's worth getting a couple of lessons off a proper instructor as it'll save you money in the end.
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2012 KTM EXC 250

Check out my vids - https://www.youtube.com/user/KTMSparky/videos

[Moonie]

I'm planning on having a few lessons with a proper instructor too, I just think that if I'm paying £25 an hour I might as well be practiced on as many things as I can.
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Don't practice it until you get it right, practice it until you don't get it wrong.
Presenting the one and only Chinkmobile

[MattHirst]

One thing to remember is, it isn't a 3 point turn, it's a turn in the road.

If you can't make it in 3 'manouvers' then don't worry, just reverse again and make it round, not worth hitting the curb for.

I learnt in a new corsa and providing i had the seat in the same place and same height, mirrors in same place (get used to where to put them after a few lessons) then i had certain points that i used (ie bottom corner of rear side windows inline with rear of parked cars).

Reversing around a corner i found the easiest, along with the turn in the road. With the reversing around a corner just make sure you keep parallel to the curb and don't end up with a huge distance when you finish (going by what my instructor told me), he said about 1ft from the curb is acceptable, it got my through my test anyway.

Parallel parking i just about nailed in my lessons and fortunatley didn't get it in my test as i didn't really like doing them (although i could if i had to) but i've rarely done them since passing so i'd be crap at it by now so couldn't really tell you how to do them.

I believe Skudd (Or immensley large bits and he's called now) is a driving instructor so he maybe able to give you some 'methods' on how to do things.
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It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, then it's bloody hilarious!!!

[ms51ves3]

[Poseidon]

[Ariel Badger]

Talking on the phone whilst opening a bottle of vodka and reading a map.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Handsome]

[MattHirst]

[Flip]

Ram raiding. Shaggin' in the back seat.

[Ariel Badger]

[trevoriv]

Its not referred to as mirror signal manouvre much anymore, its POM, prepare, observe and move as you need to do more than look in just your mirrors and a signal isnt always required.

Sounds daft but the thing im struggling with at the moment is 10-2 on the steering wheel and feeding the wheel. I've only done 4hrs of lessons and im okay driving on my own now with very little instruction but i just cant feed the wheel, it feels so slow and unnatural.
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Past: '96 Thundercat, '02 ZX636R (A1P), '58 KTM 690 SM LC4 Current: '06 ZX636R (C6F)
Mudskipper wrote: Someone just has to sig that...

[MattHirst]

I got used to doing the 'BSM shuffle' as i believe they call it, or the 'push me, pull me' technique as my instructor liked to call it. Once i passed and got my own car i found myself slowly moving away from it and just steering 'normally' if you want to call it. Found it much easier, especially changing it 2nd from a junction or whatnot.

With the 10-2 thing, i found myself gripping the wheel to hard. In the end i just lightly gripped the wheel at the quart to 3 position (so where the 2 spokes generally are on most steering wheels). Instructor and examiner didn't have a problem with it and found it must more comfortable and relaxed position to have my hands when steering, also easier to use the wheel mounted radio controls (my instructor was great, even let me have radio on )
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It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, then it's bloody hilarious!!!

[Ariel Badger]

I still do the driving test type steering, my mates find it funny but the thing is that I learned to drive in big trucks out in Africa and you needed two hands on the wheel to control them. Old habits and all that.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Charlie]

I was in the same place as you Trev, I found it quite hard to get used to the push-pull and 10-2, but after a few lessons it comes fine now. Just keep at it

Edit:
corrected 10-4 to 10-2
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[The999Kid]

[Moonie]

Cheers guys, that's exactly what I was looking for

Well mostly, I already perfected maps vodka blowjobs and shooting whilst driving


____________________
Don't practice it until you get it right, practice it until you don't get it wrong.
Presenting the one and only Chinkmobile

[Poseidon]

[Fawbish]

Drivings easy as fuck.

Being perfect to their shittily required, un-policed and changeable judging for 45 minutes is not.
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"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[MattHirst]

My examiner was fairly leniant, probably because he was a biker and we just talked about bikes for the whole test

I even caught the curb when he asked me to pull up at the side of the road (tyre scrubbed the curb, didn't bump up it) and i didn't even get a minor for it.

I guess you can get really strict examiners but then you can get fairly leniant and friendly ones, i suppose it all boils down to who got laid the night before

Saying that, apparently only 3 out of 10 people pass at the test centre i went to although i can't see why that has any reflection on anything. If you are competent enough then you will pass, must be a case of loads of shit drivers around my area
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It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, then it's bloody hilarious!!!

[Skudd]

Let me know what you are struggling on and i can talk you through it.
Most things are simple to do. having some professional lessons then going out to practice is a good idea. I always advise my pupils to do it that way if they can.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Ste]

[MattHirst]

33.55% for the test centre where i passed my car test, 60.06% for the bike (different test centre though).

So yes, there are loads of shit drivers in my town
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It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, then it's bloody hilarious!!!

[Ste]

The pass rate statistics can be interpreted in lots of different ways and a high pass rate doesn't necessarily mean that there is a high standard of driving in that town.

A high pass rate could mean that there are loads of shit drivers in that town because it is very easy to pass the driving test in that town.
A high pass rate could mean that there is a high standard of driving in that town because the instructors are so good that everyone passes easily.
A high pass rate could mean that there is a low standard of driving in that town because instructors know to send their pupils there as the examiners don't pay much attention.
A low pass rate could mean that there is a high standard of driving in that town because it is hard to impress the instructors enough to pass your test.
A low pass rate could mean that there is a low standard of driving in that town which is why the majority of people fail their test.
A low pass rate could mean that the examiners fancy themselves as the next hitler so fail as many candidates as they can.
A low pass rate could mean that the examiners are under pressure from their managers to only pass a low percentage of candidates so the pass rate doesn't have much of a reflection on the standard of new drivers in that town.

The statistics don't mean very much because they're just numbers, without some type of context it's impossible to understand what they really mean.