taking my driving test in a couple hours. Live in america, texas specifically. For anyone who has taken one recently, what exactly do they test you on when it comes to the road test? I have decent driving experience. All I know about is seatbelt, mirrors, turn signals, parallel and regular parking, general road awareness.
>>15357658
Top speed, fastest acceleration, and fastest braking. Extra points if you drift.
It's basically just making sure you remember what you were taught in driver's ed and that you can handle the car. Expecting normal driving around, stopping/turning at red lights, parallel parking, backing up in a straight line, choosing the right lane, etc. Try to drive "by the book" rather than what makes sense in reality. I got penalized for "stopping in a crosswalk" when if I hadn't I wouldn't have been able to safely see around traffic.
What actually happens is up to the tester. One guy takes his road test and the DMV dude just has him drive to the street to get him donuts. Another guy takes his test and has to parallel park a 5-speed on a steep hill in traffic.
>>15357697
Also, all the stuff you mentioned. Always use turn signals and make a big show out of checking your blindspots and mirrors while you're driving.
>>15357697
>>15357705
didn't take drivers ed but all the stuff you said seems like common sense. I haven't really driven in daytime traffic but I've driven for a couple hours to other towns in a friends car at night a couple times before. I should be fine for the most part.
>>15357735
>I haven't really driven in daytime traffic
That's not "decent driving experience." Around here you need to have had a learner's permit for six months before taking a road test.
>>15357735
You need like 50 hours of day driving and 20 at night to have enough experience.
I did a left turn, parking, reversing in a straight line, mirror checking, and speed limit
That's it
>>15357658
Keep both hands on the steering wheel
>>15357751
Around me, it's 9 months before a road test, then 15 months in an 'intermediate stage' where you can't have passengers after 12 AM
>>15357751
There are no such stipulations for such a thing as far as I know
>>15357897
I hear.most people who drive start driving without a permit and just kinda wing it. My mom drove at 13. My cousin drove to a major city at 18 without a licence.
Im not really worried about being nervous. I just want to havr.my bases covered for the technical stuff
>>15357658
Shoot the tester, obviously
Pre-flight checks (horn, lights, pulse), circle the block, you MIGHT have to parallel park,( in a space large enough for a Ford Excursion.)
>>15357658
>what exactly do they test you
The exact things they use vary as there are multiple ways to test someone on something specific such as "do not park within XX feet of a fire hydrant". My instructor made me parallel park near a street corner with a bush hiding the fire hydrant behind me. Just because the bush is there hiding the hydrant doesn't mean the required distance doesn't apply. He probably chose that because people got distracted by the need to parallel park ON A HILL. I also used the parking brake properly which was to set the brake before putting the transmission in park. That one activity tested so many different things including that all tires were within 12 inches of the curb.
The instructor had me parallel park a 2nd time in the parking lot with cones. Touching a cone was failure because that meant you bumped another car. You're not supposed to hit other cars during the test and that includes "lovetaps". Hitting other cars is points off.
Never speed. If you try to put the needle exactly at 35, you will occasionally hit 36 and that is speeding. I drove at 33 to 34 MPH to avoid the needle going over 35 because 35 was the speed limit over most of the test. Similar method was used for other speed limits too. Unmarked city streets are 25 MPH unless otherwise indicated by law.
Don't take the test too close to closing. My office stops work promptly at closing time, so if they haven't finished processing your paperwork and doing the background checks, you'll have to come back tomorrow to pick up the temporary driver's license they give you while waiting for the permanent one to be sent to your home address. They don't send to PO Boxes or "mail drop centers" here; it must be a house address.
>>15357658
>I have decent driving experience.
If your state has a law against cellphone use while driving, that means you technically cannot take one hand off the steering wheel and hold the cellphone to look at it while turning off the ringer. Sure, you can take a hand off to hold the shifter stick. But not for a cellphone. I don't know if the examiner will penalize you for holding a cellphone, but he surely will if you talk or text. Since that is illegal, he might even simply fail you the entire test right there due to moving violation just like if you ran a red light with him in the car.
Make things simple. Turn the cellphone off for the test.
>>15357658
>For anyone who has taken one recently, what exactly do they test you on when it comes to the road test?
All types of reckless driving cause 100% failure of the Practical. It's clearly stated in bold print on my application. It's important, because the length of time you have to wait before you can try another Practical is partially dependent on how you failed. If you were failed for reckless driving, you have to wait six months before you can try taking the test again. I bet the next time, the examiner will be really thorough strict too since he knows you are a reckless driver.
>>15357696
>Top speed, fastest acceleration, and fastest braking. Extra points if you drift.
Make sure you have the tires squeal when you start moving with a jackrabbit start from any stop sign or traffic light.
welp failed the test. Fucked up on the parallel park because I used a car I wasn't familiar with and I didn't use turn signals in the parking lot. I didn't even realize you had to do that. I've never seen anyone do it. That's kind of why I made the thread but you can't really cover everything in one post so whatever. thanks for all the help. gonna try again at a later date.
>>15357697
True
In all the driving tests I've done but one, I got fairly slack testers.
One woman from the same registry though was recently suspended because she'd intentionally fail people for bullshit (ie. One guy was failed for almost hitting a pedestrian who did not exist, but had secretly filmed it)
Some relatives of mine formerly lived in some small town where there was only one person to do tests. And they would go to neighbouring towns for it, because it was an old bitch who loved to fail people as much as possible
