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[sevenlayermuddle]

Reassurance for some of us, even if still some way to catch up on this lady’s years...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-derbyshire-47418235/older-drivers-woman-86-aces-advanced-driving-test

 

I actually took the IAM course and test myself last year.   I really enjoyed the course, identifying quite a few areas of improvement, some of which surprised me more than others.   I did pass the test, but did not do nearly as well as the lady in the story.    One mark short of perfect is an amazing achievement, for anybody, of any age.

[Bowdon]

I remember doing my driving test just before the paperwork part came in.

I passed second time, though I think I did better on the first test. Some idiot pulled in around me when I was letting a car come through. It wasn't my fault. But the driving instructor seemed one of those sticklers for the rules, zero conversation, dark shades on etc.

The second test I thought I'd messed it up as when I did the reversing around a corner pavement (I don't think they do that these days) I went wide. But it was around the time the national lottery had started so I got talking to him about that, and he passed me 

[sevenlayermuddle]

The IAM test is much less formal.   After all, you already know how to drive at “legal minimum” standards, the IAM can’t take that away, so that’s not what’s being tested.

It’s more of a technique, corresponding to the Police’s own time-honoured Roadcraft ‘system’ for advanced driving.   Many examiners are, as mine was, a serving Police driver trainer, so any feedback they have to offer (mine had plenty, not all positive!) is pretty invaluable.

That said, on my own  advanced test, I also struck up a friendly basis with the guy.  We got one another chuckling couple of times, which definitely did no harm to his asessment of certain “border line” incidents that cropped up!

I’d really, strongly, recommend IAM test if you enjoy your driving.

[d2d4j]

Hi

I always remember my driving test, back when seat belts were not mandatory and no one ever worn them.

The reason I remember is part way through the test, just approaching a roundabout, told the exit to take and the examiner was taking notes/tick boxes etc... so as I started to come of the roundabout, I noticed a refuge wagon on the left just ahead, and a small child on the pavement, with no adult.

So I kept a close watch and sure enough, I saw her foot appear top side of the wagon. I did an emergency stop, throwing the examiner against the windshield and first time I had heard an examiner swear (will not repeat here).

When the examiner peeled himself of the windshield, really not happy and glaring at me, he took a look out of the windshield to see a 4 - 5 year girl stood in front of car crying

At that moment I knew I had passed

Sorry if this is not part of the thread and please feel free to delete

Many thanks

John

[Ronski]

Seems perfectly applicable to the thread John, and very well spotted, you possibly saved that young girls life.

I have the opposite story, on my test in 1986 I didn't do an emergency stop. The examiner had got me to pull over, he said in a minute I'll ask you to drive off and I will then bang my notebook on the dash and shout stop. So off we drove, he shouted stop and I carried on driving as he hadn't banged his notebook on the dash. IIRC he shouted stop a second time, at which point I said I thought you were going to bang the dash with your book. He still passed me, so the rest of my driving must have been OK

I passed my HGV test three years later, although that was on the third attempt, first time I ran the cones over reversing, I still think they were setup wrong as I was really good at reversing as I used to reverse into the workshop and onto bays long before I passed my test (private land not public). Second time it was lack of progress, the truck would only do 40 flat out and I was on a dual carriage way that was 50mph limit, needless to say the workshop foreman made some adjustments when we got back.

[4candles]

Passed first time in '68. Thought I'd blown it when after a perfect hill start I went from first to fourth and stalled. As the examiner said at the end - it's not the fact you did it, it's remaining calm and doing the right things to recover.

[renluop]

Firs test was with a fierce Bonnington-Jagworth type in an unfamiliar London suburb. That was in 1953 and in a 1934 Morris Minor, obviously beneath him.

Second, which I passed, was nearer home, with a far more pleasant examiner, whose departing words were that I had passed but that was but the first step on becoming a driver, and good luck.

Now a grandson is learning to drive,initially in my old car with my daughter and husband, their vehicles being unsuitable. He will use a driving school but at £30/hr in 2 hr sessions it's not cheap, and afterwards insurance will be crippling and numbers of young learning is falling.

In large towns with frequent and late finishing services the need to drive is not there, but for elsewhere I wonder what will become of those youngsters needing to find employment.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I certainly don’t envy youngsters learning today.   My BSM driving lessons were my 17th birthday present and, by my 18th, I’d purchased an old banger Ford Consul.

So many more challenges these days, for new driver any age, compared to those of us who did decades ago.  In financial outlay, there’s cost of insurance, stricter MoTs (my Consul would not stand a chance).   And so many more rules and regulations, bus lanes, complicated parking rules, 20mph “zones” (which differ from 20mph limits), yellow box junctions so big you can hardly see where they end, motorway junctions that demand a photographic memory to absorb the lane layouts, the list goes on.   And all ruthlessly enforced by merciless camera operators, ready to punish innocent mistakes.

Please don’t misunderstand above, I am all in favour of rigid enforcement of speed limits and other rules.   But anybody can make a mistake, especially new drivers and, for my generation, an honest mistake would probably result at worts in the embarassment of a telling off from a stern faced policeman.  Nowadays, just an automated progression of points leading to even higher insurance and loss of licence.