I failed the road test 3 times. Am I the worst? Should I even bother to continue?

Very angry and embarrassed. Filled to the brim with it.

My instructor told me that I'm the only student who has failed 3 times this year out of hundreds and that most pass on their 1st or 2nd try. Great. Feel a lot better. Thanks. I seem to be a special snow flake of a person. The usual deal for me, but I'm reaching my limit.

Explanation for the three failures: 1st one I failed because I was "late into the right shoulder" multiple times. I used google maps. There were no right shoulders on our route. The fuck? For the 2nd it was "wrong lane choice." I didn't change lanes to the right unless the instructor told me. FAIL. 3rd, The most awkward one; was about to cross the line at a traffic light intersection for a left turn, but the green arrow turned yellow just then, so I stopped suddenly. I later learned, that in itself wouldn't have been a big mistake, buuut at the moment, she said "Can we not *pause*" In an angry tone. The pause was long enough for me to make the dumb assumption that I need to complete the turn. She stopped me. Failure. She told me not to put words in her mouth.

Gobbling up the embarrassment. I am the prime vessel for it.

So, am I the worst driver ever? An idiot? Incompetent to the nth degree? Did I just happen to fall from the sky and catch a particularly angry gust of wind? Can anyone relate to this in the slightest?

I cannot wait for automated cars. I feel like I was born too early on the awesome technology side and too late on the economic side.

BTW fucking lady GaGa passed and she can barely go three seconds without nearly causing a collision.

Update: Passed.

Dude there are people who fail a lot more than 3 times. Just keep trying next one will probably be it.

Three times is not that crazy you seem not so confident about your driving and you do not seem to enjoy it much. This might reflect on the examinator. Be aware that you have a big responsibilty as a driver of a potential death machine and I hope you can find enjoyment in driving, pay good attention, and want to improve. If so you'll make it definitely! Otherwise there is no shame in preferring shared transit, it's better for the environment.

There is great shame. In society in general and in my family for sure. If I make the choice not to drive, I have no doubt I'll become even more of a pariah than I am now.

Some of those sound really bogus (mostly the first 2). You could ask friends and family if there is another testing centre anywhere within a reasonable distance? I think there was one town near me that some people would drive over to take the test because it had a reputation for just having really easy streets that the test examiner can't ding you on.

Those first 2 fails are BS. One of my friends failed his road test 4 or 5 times before passing it. I would look for an easier place to take the road test, or, if that's not an option, just keep trying and don't give up. Also the instructor putting you down is terrible.

@afabs515: @bisonhero: I was thinking about the "easier test center" option, but I've already done this 3 times and I feel like being in an unfamiliar place might be another disadvantage. Really tough choice.

Do you live in the US?

Nope. What do you have in mind?

What is the road test? Is that just the final exam you take where you earn your driver's license by driving on the road for half an hour?

If so or if not, don't be discouraged. People fail and how many times you fail has no implication for the driver you're going to be later. As long as you improve and get to the point where you can safely drive, it's fine, even if you failed 50 times before. Succeeding on your first attempt also doesn't mean you're a great driver at all.

By the way, the average licensed driver of 5 years, makes 3-4 'unacceptable' errors in a two hour drive. Everybody makes mistakes.

I failed 4 times. You just need to be confident. Assure yourself of what you're going to be doing at all times.

Don't worry about it, pal. People make mistakes. The important thing is that you learn from them, and it sounds like you are.

Don't get frustrated, and take it again. You'll be fine. I'm sure you're doing your best.

Hello!

don't usually post, but this topic warrants an answer, because I totally feel you. Everything you wrote is exactly what I was fighting through, right down to the weird disbelief you get from the family.

I was never that interested in cars or driving so I honestly only did it for my CV at the age of 21-22 and had the road test at least 3 times, probably 4. And with every time I tried I made dumber and dumber mistakes. I aced almost every theory test I had to do, except for the last one which I just barely got right.

Needles to say all these failures and judgemental stares I got from everyone did not help. I was so insanely nervous the last time I did the road test the first thing I did is almost run into a bus. So how did I still make it ? The cop testing me was bribed, because that was possible in my country at the time. When I found that out I did not want to drive at all anymore. I've asked my dad 1-2 times if he'd let me drive the car in some backwoods town on Sundays at 7 AM. We never got to that.

I'm not proud of what happened and am certainly not telling you to try and bribe anyone, but at some point in my life I just needed to start driving. My girlfriend at the time had a son and we wanted to be able to go places without relying on trains. So I got some more driving lessons (2 to be exact) when I moved to Germany and the instructor said I'm doing ok, but that I am way too nervous. After that I rented a few cars, drove around places, bought myself a cheap one at some point too. I scraped the thing on all sorts of places and have - to this day - problems parking sideways. That said, it's fine and I am getting better and better. Got 2 long 5-8 hour trips under my belt and more than 20.000 km driven. Never had an accident.

What I'm trying to say is that some people have serious problems when trying to pay attention to the road, to other cars, pedestrians, traffic signs, shifting, braking etc. It's a lot. Just try not to give up and keep at it.

Some actual practical advice I can give you:

- try riding a bike on roads whenever you can. Then upgrade to a scooter or something that is motorized but does not need a license (depends on what country you live in). when doing so try to behave as you would in a car. check your corners, look behind, look at signs, etc.

- get a different instructor. even if you just go for 1-2 drives with him/her. for one, yours is not a good one judging by what he told you. mine was bad, but at least he always said "you can do this". I have tried a different one when I failed multiple times as well. For one, he may be able to see some flaws you may have that your current instructor just can't seem to recognize. At the very least he can definitely tell you how you are doing overall. Also a different instructor may have a different car. I had the problem that I could not clutch properly, because the car was an old rust bucket. The other instructor had a new car and that went WAY better for me.

- if all else fails try to switch from a manual transmission car to an automatic. that would take a load of thinking off your brain immediately. Depending in what country you are in you may not be allowed to do the test with automatics or even switch cars without redoing a bunch of hours in the new car, but at least you will gain some experience.

- this one is worth gold: find a friend or family member you trust, who can explain calmly and has access to a car. drive out to some boondocks with this person's car and try driving around a bit. Now this is illegal and possibly even dangerous so make sure to pick the right spot. But with this you can gain a bunch of experience without needing to cough up a bunch of cash for more driving lessons

- in the end it all comes down to being confident in what you are doing and you can only achieve that by driving more and more

Good luck!

I failed it a bunch of times too... In retrospect, I had way, way, waaaaayyy too much anxiety about the whole thing and was psyching myself out. At the time I found it extremely embarrassing... I'm sorry, I'm not sure what to say except that you will get it eventually. Don't be too hard on yourself.

I took a class where I had 3 driving lessons with an instructor and a test with the same instructor on the last one. I just had to take the form he gave me the dmv and pick up my license. Maybe thats an option for you?

Just keep trying. At the worst, it'll make you a better driver.

And in a few years, when you are driving around everywhere, it'll just be a funny story.

Feels bad, man, sorry to hear about this. Those first 2 do sound like BS, at least to someone living in the US. Not sure the rules of the road of your homeland so maybe they are actually much stricter.

My driving test was literally "Put on seat belt, start ignition. Put car into Drive. Pull out of parking lot into the right lane. Make right turn up hill at the traffic light, take left turn into side-road. Pull over and make a 3-point turn without hitting the curb/parked cars, exit to same road you pulled in from and make a left, then a right at the intersection, another right at the next intersection, continue to next intersection, pull into RMV (Registry of Motor Vehicles) and park."

It was...shockingly easy and leaves me with no surprise as to why we have a lot of shit drivers on our roads over here.

Just keep at it. Do they do the same route for each test? If so, bring someone along with your learners permit (If that is a thing? It's usually a thing?) to practice the route before re-taking the test. Good Luck.

If you can try another place, just sounds like you are dealing with some a holes

Out of interest where are you?

Driving tests do vary depending on what part of the world you are in. I know in the UK we have one of the more difficault ones to pass.

at least that's the excuse I use for failing the first time.

Ontario, Canada.

That sucks, and it sucks that your family isn't being cool about it, but its not the end of the world. Just try it again and you'll get it.

How much practice have you had driving? I failed twice and it was because I didn't have enough experience. I tried taking my tests with maybe 4 hours of driving experience under my belt. I hated the idea of "going out to practice driving." I can think of few things I would want to do less than just driving around trying to get better at such a boring task.

I started driving at night to practice. Driving during the day is really hectic, beginner or otherwise. At night, there are fewer people on the road that you have to worry about. If you're unsure about whether you can make a turn or something, you usually have no one behind you waiting or honking forcing you to make a quick decision. Also, and this might seem counterintuitive, but I find it easier to see other cars at night. When you're making a turn or changing lanes, everyone has their lights on, so you have a better idea of where they are.(also good if your car has bad blind spots like mine does, you can see the other car's lights on the road next to you if you're trying to change lanes)

I either failed three times or passed on the third time - I can't remember as I passed 25 years ago.

Keep trying. You'll learn more with each go, and be a safer driver in the end.

Not being able to drive will put you at a serious disadvantage in life. You'll get there in the end.

I have known people to fail many times and then pass when they switched to a different testing centre in a more rural location.

Took my sister well over a year of trying. I think she took the legal maximum tries one year. She drives now so it's just banging your head against the car, I guess. You can do it \o/

Yeah this is sort of what I was getting at. It can also vary state by state in the US. I've known people I would not feel comfortable getting in the car with pass a driving test in my high school town. I think part of it was the area I spent my teenage years had a lot of farmland around so people tended to look the other way on underage driving so children could help out on the farm.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to get at is that some places are way harsher than others, so it's probably not worth trying to compare yourself to others. It might help to practice more too.

First of all, I want to say that if anyone makes you feel bad or inferior for failing multiple times, the onus is on them, not you. Driving is hard and driving tests are very particular.

I remember that I got incredibly upset when I failed my driving test. I failed spectacularly (within the first 2 mins). It took me a while to get back into it; I did a bunch more practice and finally got it. It's really fucking shitty when you fail, but take your time to let the anger pass, and have another go.

If video games have taught me anything, sometimes you just have to be persistent. The more you fail, the better the feeling when you finally get it :)

Don't feel bad. I failed my driver test twice. I did not get my learners permit until I was nineteen and did not drive on my own until I was twenty one. Try practicing in an empty parking lot or drive around the block in your neighborhood. A few things to remember.

• Lock your doors when you are entering your vehicle.
• Have your seat beat on.
• Always check your mirrors.
• Pay attention to the road and other drivers.
• Use your turn signals.
• Obey road signs.
• Slow down if you need to stop by easing off the gas or accelerator.
• Avoid slamming the brakes hard if you are going to fast or the road is slippery.
• If you driving near an 18 wheeler or large vehicle and can't see their door mirrors. You are in their blind spot and they can't see you.

You need more practice to build confidence. The ultimate goal should be to not run over another person or damage other vehicles or property. Always pay attention to what your are doing. I know that is a lot information to take in but know that I believe in you and you can do it.

Im in my mid 30's now, but I also grew up in Ontario. It can be tough to get and really varies wildly on weather, and where you get tested. Im guessing this must be your g1 to g2 exit test? Sounds like maybe you're a bit nervous driving (no worries I was the same way, its nerve wracking driving with a stranger you know is there judging you) and the tester is picking up on that an penalizing you for it. If its your g2 to g exit Id recommend just spending more time driving and getting more confident. These are the obvious answers and you may already be doing it, so dont be hard on yourself people fail multiple times and its not the end of the world.

Here are some actual tips:

1. Its winter there will soon be snow on the ground, this can sometimes make it harder to drive. If you dont feel comfortable driving in this weather then rebook for spring or summer. Now their is always a pretty good chance that because snow is on the ground and lines are harder to see the instructors will be a little easier on you.

2. If you are in a city Ive heard it is much harder to get the G2 exit, you are more likely to deal with odd parking situations 1 way streets, more pedestrians, and much more hectic and impatient drivers. Rebook in a small town if possible. Youll be more likely to be tested on merging on to a highway but the roads tend to be empty.

3. Your tester is a person as well, make eye contact be confident, try to act as if they arent testing you. If you are younger and nervous often times testers will go harder on you, its not fair but they will lump you into a less responsible category. Maybe hint that you really hope to pass since it will help with work or something.

4. Drive before the test, if you can drive around the area where you are being tested. Get there a couple of hours early even, get comfortable with the surroundings and in the car youre being tested in. Hopefully by the time you are being tested you will be pretty confident in your surrounding areas that way you know where lights/merge lanes/exits are. The less you are thinking about navigating a new area the more comfortable you will feel behind the wheel.

5. Take driving lessons, usually classes are 400-500$ which may seem like alot at the time...its not. You are going to get a pretty decent break on your insurance once you start driving and it will pay for itself in the first few months. The instructor will usually let you use their car for the test and probably take you out and give you tips before the test. This is really the one thing you should make sure you do. Often times a teachers and testers know each other and this can help you alot.

Chances are you are your own worst enemy here, nervousness is making you question your abilites and the tester is picking up on it. The more you fail the more pressure you are putting on yourself, dont compare your performance to friends and family that got it the first time and say its easy. It could simply be confidence and not that they were any better.

Pff, never bothered to get a license. Many of my friends and family drive, and every time I am with them they either rage at someone on the road or complain about gas prices. I like to walk everywhere anyway, it's very good for my health due to my otherwise sedentary lifestyle.

You really shouldn't let this bother you. None of those errors sound even slightly severe. I bet you would've aced the road test I had to take.

The difficulty of the road test can change drastically depending on the examiner and the location. I never had to change lanes and there were no traffic lights for my road test because I did the test in a really small town. You should look around on google maps and see if there's any small towns nearby with easier roads where you could take the test.

Even with the easy roads I still failed my first attempt. I completely botched the parking portion because I was too used to using the back up camera and the examiner covered it up with a clip board to prevent me from using it. It does make sense to learn how to back up without a camera since a lot of cars don't have it and it can be rendered useless if a little mud gets on it. The frustrating bit was I did a driving lesson with an instructor who thought it was completely fine to use the back up camera during the test. The examiner was nice though, he didn't make me do the road test again; just the parking test.

Some people have a really rough time with their driving test. Anxiety about driving is pretty common and really in a lot of ways, justified. I didn't get my License till I was 30 largely because I was scared. When I did that driving lesson the car had a second brake pedal installed for the instructor to use. I remember watching him hit that over and over and thinking "How many times would I have killed us if he didn't have that pedal?"

@gunflame88: Getting a driving licence doesn't stop you from walking... Also as other people pointed out depending on how good your local public transport is, not having licence can severely hamper your employment prospects.

I did it on my fourth try. Just hang in there. I think I passed on my fourth try because I got the same instructor I got the first three times and I just kind of assumed she would fail me again. I wasn't even nervous. Turns out, not being nervous is great for driving with confidence.

i passed california test on 1st try. granted i was 25 but i effed up and drove by the DMV at the end. i think they took pity on me for being so fucking old.

also drove a lot prior to that w/o a license so theres that ;)

"South Korean Woman Passes Driving Test After 950 Tries"

Keep at it.

An ex-girlfriend of mine failed 5 times before finally passing, it's no big deal. I feel more safe in a car with someone who was forced to master driving due to fail attempts, rather than someone like me who kinda cheated and lucked his way through the process.

I just want to chime in with one more thing, a lot of people are saying you don't need your license. They are right you don't. It's so easy to just quit though, this sounds like a mental thing more then anything. I really think it would be unfortunate for you to quit and say you don't need to drive. This is a character building experience, I promise you life will have far harder challenges then this. Be honest with yourself and don't just quit because it's easier.

Especially since you are in Ontario it's a long journey to go from a G1 to a G. We are talking years, you don't want to quit now when you don't need it and find out in the future you do need it and now it will take you 3 years. You've started the process finish it. Even if you barely drive afterwards you will feel so much better and more confident. Dont forget you have till your card expires (5 years I believe from getting your G1) to go from g1 to g. If you dont finish before it expires you have to do each test again, so make sure you follow through once you pass this test or you will be redoing it again.

I failed my driving test 4 times, I'm an anxious person in general and the driving test ratcheted that up a lot. That was five years ago and now I drive for a living. I've never had an accident or a ticket and my passengers seem very comfortable with my driving. Just keep at it, and try a different testing center. Those guys you mentioned seem borderline hostile which is a strange trait for driving instructors.

That sucks. But never give up, never surrender. Things go well for those who persist!

I've had my license for 25 years and think I'm a pretty good driver but I have no idea what "late into the right shoulder" even means?

I'd try going to another testing centre.

So, I live in Sweden.

The legal age for getting your license over here is 18, so when I turned 18 I went to a driving school to practice and ended up taking two tests, failing them both. I soon discovered, though, that I didn't like driving, like at all. It only stressed me out and almost made me physically ill, so I just gave up on getting my license altogether.

Fast forward to april of this year. Now going on 25 I finally decided that I should get the damn license, since all my family and friends kept asking me why I didn't have my license yet. I looked around and found a intensive course (you sleep at the school for a week, and have a few driving lessons per day, and study for the written test when you don't have a lesson) in a smaller town a few miles away from where I live.

So I went there, and after the week was over I went home with my brand new license. The big difference, I guess, is that I grew a lot as a person in those seven years, between 18 and 25 years old, and that this time around I really found driving fun. Plus, on the third attempt, the one where I succeeded, I really lucked out with my inspector. She was a really nice lady, and we spent the whole test just driving around talking about her horses. That makes all the difference, I think, just being able to relax and have small talk with the one doing the inspection. Really takes the stress out of the whole thing.

I'm not sure how it works in Ontario, but here in BC, your first road test just gets rid of your "learner" status and you have to put a magnetic "N" in the back of your car until you pass your second test. I've had that "N" for years and finally tried to get rid of it a few months ago, failed twice.

On the first attempt I made a couple errors in speed, by missing a school zone and going with the flow in an era where I misjudged the limit. The second one I failed HARD, made a rolling stop instead of a full stop exiting the parking lot and the examiner had me circle around the lot and park. I get the feeling of embarrassment, paying $50 to fail in 5 minutes doesn't feel great.

Get yourself a green card and come down to the states. Most driving tests here could be passed by a drunk spider monkey.

I was the most nervous i have ever been on my driving test, keep trying! and practice!

@gunflame88: I mean I don't know the OP's circumstances, but in the suburbs of the fairly normal city I live near, if you don't drive you don't go anywhere. Got to buy clothes and food, and also need to get to one's job.

Failing three times sucks man. But hey, I failed six times before passing.

Yup. I failed 6 times before passing. So nope, you're not worse than me yet! It really was the 'real Dark Souls' but I did eventually get that Lucky 7 earlier this year. I would just get anxious and fudge things up. Stuff that I was perfectly fine at when with my driving instructor and have been perfectly fine at since then.

Also some driving examiners seem to have perfected the worst kind of passive aggression. I had something similar to you on my first test where I approach a roundabout that had traffic backed up onto it which I thought was blocking my route but apparently it wasn't. The instructor sighed and said 'we could be going'. My hesitation there was apparently enough to fail me.

I never got too annoyed not being passed, because I don't want to be free on the road if I'm making errors. But I would get annoyed at myself for making silly mistakes. I think in the end I just had to make a real effort to stay calm and not try to rush anything. I gaze of the examiner did eventually lose some of its terror as well.

I know it really sucks to not pass, but you will get there. The main part is just sticking with it! At times during my 7 attempts I did feel like 'maybe I will just never get this' but again, just sticking with it will get you there man.

I passed on my second test, but had something like 15-20 hours of driving lessons before i did my first test. Part of that is because the UK has some stupid 8+ weeks waiting time for doing your test but mostly it was because I was not confident.

Take your time with it but I know half of my friends are terrible drivers and a few of them have tried 5 times already and failed. Also even though I have passed recently and obtained a car, I am still going out every couple nights to do more practice, I would suggest you just keep practicing at it.

I think 2 things helped me pass my test. I started learning when I was 25 and I feel a hell of a lot more mature and observant of the road in my current age than say 7 or so years ago. Most importantly I like to cycle around as much as possible so cycling on the road has made me both crucially observant of the behaviour of cars (and their drivers) and how to predict traffic will flow and the right procedure (so as not to get killed).

I still take the bus to work each day. It takes about the same time, is slightly cheaper when I take gas money into consideration AND i get to spend that time playing video games/watching trash on my phone. I find public transport wholly better than driving my lonesome self somewhere.

Be glad you didn't fail those tests in the U.S. at least because those ones are stupid easy, like go around an obstacle course don't worry about actual roads kinds of stupid easy.

I stalled around 3 times during my test and almost turned down the wrong road after I misheard the instructor so had to correct by quickly moving back through multiple lanes, but I still passed first try. He said because I stayed calm through everything checked my surroundings appropriately before doing anything. I think that's really the key, just be confident in your driving - even if you make a small mistake correct it as if it's no big deal.