First trial assessment

On Saturday morning, had my driving lesson and finally I mounted a kerb in the "S-course" and knocked down the poles at the "Parallel Parking" checkpoints. Hahahaha, it was lots of fun because I was asking my instructor a number of "what if" questions and he just allowed me to try them out. Some of the "what if" questions were: "What if I parallel park using only rear-view and side mirrors?" and "What if I enter the S-Course at gear 2 and just rely on my steering to clear the course?" The results were hilarious.

This was my 23rd lesson and it covers module 31. The requirements were to pass a mock test without exceeding 30 points. So after a morning of testing out various stations, which was when I mounted the kerb (immediate failure) and knocked down the poles, and going round a test route, the actual mock test begun.

During the mock test, I cleared the circuit with relative ease. On the test route, there was a tricky bit because I was going 60kmh by the time I was at the 2nd last arrow nearing a traffic junction. I was shifting down from gear 4 to 3 when the light went amber. There was a moment of doubt and I wanted to stop but I was still quite fast so I just went through the junction. Dicey but not yet illegal. He could probably fault me for not anticipating and proceeding when the traffic light was amber.

At the end of the mock test, he said overall it was ok but he had to write some comments. So he marked me down for rolling backwards on a slope (< 1m) = 2 points. Not enough side clearance given to other road users (what does this mean anyway??) = 8 points. Which was totally not true. But he said this one is common excuse by examiner to deduct point because nobody actually measure the 1 or 1.5 metre clearances. And I failed to check blind spot = 4 points. Again he said this one is a common area that examiner will penalise. So total 14 points deducted.

Still Pass! Yeah!