My God!!!! There's a car coming from the right!!!

Date: October 2012
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Control - Steering.

Cassie failed because she steered into the kerb as she approached a roundabout near a place called Thurstaston. Really though, the issue isn't what she was doing with her hands, it was what she was doing with her eyes.

When you arrive at a junction (a roundabout is a junction!), ideally, you'll have done everything you need to do before you get there. If you arrive at the right speed, in the right road position, in the correct gear, then when you look right and decide whether it's safe to go or not, it will be easy for you. To sort all that stuff out, you need to look where you're going.

The reason Cassie looked right instead of where she was going? Well because she was nervous. That's just what nervous drivers tend to do. And then, if there's a car coming from the right, they tend to just keep looking at the oncoming car, and panicking. And that's just what Cassie did. So she bumped into the kerb because she'd drifted out to the right as she approached.

The roundabout of doom!

Date: August 2011
Test Centre: Upton
Reason for fail: Serious fault, Use of mirrors - change direction

Poor Steve.

He managed to pick up two serious faults on his driving test. One of them at the same roundabout where he failed last time, although for a different reason.

He did, however, manage to fail at a different roundabout for more or less the same reason that he failed on the other roundabout last time, if you see what I mean?

Steve has been nervous throughout his training, and although he's now relaxed as a driver, he's still nervous when under test conditions.

This time, he was asked to turn right at the Sainsbury's roundabout. A car came from the right and turned left rather late. Steve was spooked, and stopped with the nose of the car stuck out into the roundabout, causing other vehicles to have to move around him.

To compound this, he then stalled, which moved him even further on to the roundabout, before finally moving away.

As he was heading back to the test centre, during the "Independent driving" part of the test, Steve was asked to go straight ahead at the roundabout he stalled at on his previous attempt.

Steve joined the roundabout correctly, but somehow got mixed up about which way he was going. He moved right without checking his mirror, then moved back to the left, and then turned right (from an incorrect road position)

Uh oh! But how could Steve have done it better?

Both of these faults were down to nerves.

Nervous people rush. They approach things too quickly to be able to judge properly. If Steve had approached the first roundabout more slowly, he'd have had more time to assess what other road users were doing, and would not have panicked. If, after stopping, he'd moved away smoothly, instead of trying to do what I call "fleeing the scene of the crime", he might have got away with a minor fault.

As ever, if you're in the wrong position, just go the wrong way. You're not trying to get the examiner to his wedding or anything. He just marks your driving, not your ability to remember instructions. Even if Steve had been asked to turn right, once he had positioned himself to the left as he joined, the safest thing to do would be just to go a different way to what he'd been asked.

You're not allowed to go that way!

Date: May 2006
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for Fail: Serious fault, Response to signs/signals - Traffic signs

Normally, it doesn't matter too much if you go the wrong way. As long as you do it correctly and safely, it doesn't really matter if you don't go the way you've been asked to go.

But there are exceptions. Attempting to drive onto a motorway is one of those exceptions. Attempting to enter a one way street from the wrong end will be looked upon in a poor light too.

In this case, Lindsey had come over from Liverpool for lessons because she was nervous about the heavy city traffic, and thought Wirral might be less intimidating. She was nervous on her test and got flustered as she approached a busy motorway intersection roundabout.

The examiner gave her a serious fault because she should have known that as a learner she wasn't allowed to drive on a motorway.

Is this a clue?

Date: June 2011
Test Centre: Wallasey
Reason for fail: Reverse Park (road) - Control.

John was asked to pull up on the left, and the examiner asked him to pull up alongside the parked car, and to reverse into the space behind it, parallel to and reasonably close to the kerb. John did the reverse, but because a part of the kerb was missing due to a driveway, he couldn't see quite where he was up to, and finished up a couple of feet away from the kerb.

At this point, the examiner ostentatiously looked out of his window at the kerb, and asked john if he had finished. John said that he had. Then the examiner made an obvious show of looking in his door mirror, and looked at John, asking, "Are you happy with that?" John agreed, and the examiner asked him to drive on.

But don't you have to get it right first time?

If you want to become a driving instructor, you have to do the parallel park on your advanced driving test, and you are expected to complete the manouevre without adjustment, but on the learner test, they're not as strict. If you find that you've ended up in the wrong place, you can drive forwards and correct things. But make sure you check around before you do. If you knock someone of his bike while doing it, you'll fail.

The examiner tried to give John a big clue that he wasn't happy with his position. Unfortunately, John, mainly because of nerves, failed to pick up on it.

When people are nervous, they rush.they want to get whatever it is that is making them nervous, over and done with.

Nerves!

Date of Test: Every time
Test Centre: All test centres
Reason for fail: Anything and everything

The vast majority of drivers take lessons from a professional instructor. These instructors are (or should be) teaching them to do the right things, and generally trying to present their pupils for test at the right time.

But the overall pass mark is only about 45%. More than half the candidates that turn up for a test go home disappointed.

So why doesn't it happen on the day?

Not everyone is nervous when they come to sit their driving test, but the vast majority of people are, to some extent.You're not alone!

Nervous people tend to rush things, which causes them to make mistakes, which then makes them more nervous. I try to keep a close eye on my pupils on their pre-test lesson, and if they are nervous, I try to get them doing things a bit slower than they want to. Sometimes, because this puts them back in control, it can help them to feel less nervous.

This is something that occurs right through the process of learning to drive, not just on your test. It's a huge part of my job, and I spend as much time trying to give my pupils the confidence to do what they need to do as I spend teaching them how to actually drive.