I take it he knew the guy from prior experience and knew him to be an idiot driver.
I can’t remember about my original license (which was Michigan, already linked) but subsequent licenses in Illinois and Wisconsin were automatic. IL has an agreement with MI to issue IL licenses to replace MI licenses no questions asked and WI has the same agreement with IL. My IL license was even expired and I no longer physically had it when I went for my WI license. The WI DMV verified that I’d held a valid license in IL within the last five years and issued me a WI license. I think I had to take an eye test but that was it.
The guy with the ridiculous mustache was the examiner from my first test.
Beacon, NY.
Maneuver one-way streets that randomly and magically turned into two-ways, parallel park, 3-point turn.
It wasn’t easy, and I failed the first time because of the street that turned two-way - I was so nervous I didn’t see the sign.
Second time I took it in Poughkeepsie, which was actually easier. I had to do all the same things, but we weren’t near any one-way streets.
Thank Og I don’t live in the Hudson Valley anymore, anyway.
My first test was in Watertown, MA, in September of 2002 and I’m still pissed about it. It was in a car with bad brakes that I had never driven before with an instructure I had never met. I failed for crossing a double yellow line. I could have accepted this, if not for the fact that there wasn’t a signle yellow line on the course, let alone a double yellow line. The two people before me and the person after me all failed, as well. No one else that went before us did. But I don’t think there is any sort of scam involved at all. BTW, if you are from around here, don’t go to Cam’s Auto School, it’s a rip off and poorly manages and the people are mean.
Fastforward a month to Octoboer, 2002 in Reading, MA. I had to drive through stopsignville to get out of the parking lot, make an left turn into traffic, go down a street, do a three point turn, back up for a while, and then pretend I was parking on a hill (which btw, I haven’t ever done). So I was about to drive back to the RMV, as the statie told me I passed, and I couldn’t get the ebrake off. I was very worried, he’d fail me for it, but he just got out of the car and walked back to RMV, before I said anything about it. Nice guy. He was also confused about how I failed the first time. Oh well
It was basically the same for me in Louisiana & Virginia.
In Louisiana ('86), I mis-heard the examiner and ended up on the wrong way down a one-way street when I should have turned right. I ended up passing anyway; I think the examiner was scared of having to ride with me again.
Where I tested in Virginia (2001), you just have to drive around the block but it’s a very large block with varying intersection types. I failed my first time right out of the DMV entrance for turning right on red without coming to a complete stop.
Correction: Louisiana was in '84.
I’ve taken tests in Georgia, Florida, Virginia, California, Ohio and Mississippi. None of them were very hard, but I read the book before taking all of them.
I learned to drive in suburban Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas in the mid 1980’s.
I turned 15 in October of 1985, and within two months was enrolled in a Driver’s Education course (Sears Driving School). At this point I could go down to the Department of Public Safety with proof of said enrollment, take a written test, and if I passed be issued a learner’s permit. (A learner’s permit was required to participate in the driving portion of Driver’s Ed.) The test was quite easy - it was the sort of stuff you’d know if you’d been paying any attention at all while riding around as a passenger for years. I’m sure there was a vision test, although I don’t remember it.
I finished Driver’s Ed pretty quickly, and got lots of practice - my parents wanted it this way - driving with Dad in the right seat before I became eligible to obtain a full license upon turning 16 the following October.
This involved another vision test, another pretty easy written test, and the famous road test: I took the test in the family station wagon, which had an automatic transmission. The car was properly registered, inspected, and equipped - deficiencies in any of these areas would have resulted in failure.
The instructor guided me in what turned out to be a circular route of about a mile(?) near the DPS station, comprising a freeway access road, a minor arterial road, and a few residential streets. He had me stop on one of the residential streets and back up on his orders - we’d been warned in Driver’s Ed about this, and to keep looking backwards until completely stopped.
I also had to parallel park, in a pylon-marked area on the access road. The space was pretty big, and I didn’t think it was that difficult. This exercise was worth 10 points (out of 100, 70 needed to pass), but hitting a pylon was automatic failure.
I passed without much trouble, and was thus unleashed on the public roads as an unrestricted, fully-licensed driver.
Ireland. I’d say harder than most of the US tests mentioned.
First you have to pass a multiple choice test to a provisional (learner) license. That’s very easy. In fact, many people leave it at that. You’re allowed to drive but only if someone with a full license sits next to you to “supervise”. This rule is broken en masse and many people drive solo on learner licenses, some without ever having taken any lessons at all. I was instructed to drive on my own by my driving instructor no less. Every year the government say they will get tough on it, but thus far they don’t seem to be doing it. The situation is not helped by long waiting lists for tests. It was three months where I am, but can be as long as half a year or more.
The practical test then is trickier. It takes about three centuries. Well, 45 minutes maybe…and involves driving round the centre and outskirts of town. That is, if your town has a centre to speak of. Some towns don’t and they are popular test venues. We have to do three point turn, reverse around a corner and a hillstart. No parallel parking for us though. It took me three times to pass. That’s on the slow side but by no means unheard of.
I never took the test in The Netherlands. I think it’s about the same with the exceptions that there are no learner permits. All your learning is done with an instructor in a car with a separate set of breaks until you have your full license. Quite expensive to do it there, therefore.
I got my license 3 days ago, so I guess I’m qualified to post here.
For my learners, just a simple 2-part 20-questions each multiple choice test which I passed last year.
For the license (3 days ago), I was plenty prepared. I had to get in the car, start it, and then while the tester was looking from hte outside, turn the signals on, hte lights, the whipers, the horn, and a window. After that, she got in, and we made our way to the testing area (cones). Basically, there were a couple parts:
- Back up slowly in a straight line
- Quick stop - Quickly pick up speed to 20mph and stop.
- Back into a space - reverse into a space on the left of my car.
- Go forward out of that space - to the right
- Go forward a bit, and then parallel park.
- Get out of there and head onto the roads for some lane changes, traffic laws, etc. just do whatever she says.
- Get your picture taken!
The exam area looked like this.
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Something like that.
Arkansas, early '70s.
Back out.
Drive around the block.
Spend next half-hour trying to convince moron cop that right turns on a red ARE legal.
Other (non-moron) cops convince moron to pass me.
Demonstrate necessary skillset to receive a Commercial license (by having 5 extra dollars).
Start new job driving truck.
Hopefully there’s a little more to it now.
Texas - 1989…I failed my first test & I’m still not sure why.
The reason given was that I failed to take the right of way, which isn’t true. I pulled up to a 4 way stop sign during the road test at the exact same time as an elderly woman to my right. To me, this means that SHE had the right of way since we arrived at the same time. She failed to move. So I waited hesitantly, not wanting to screw up and fail to yield. And she still didn’t move. So after about 15 seconds of this, I finally drove through the intersection and did a good job on the rest of the test, including the parallel parking. At the end, my instructor failed me for failing to take the right of way. I still find that pretty mind-boggling…
Overall, I didn’t think the driving & written tests were too difficult though maybe they should be, seeing the crazy people that are out there driving these days…
I never yeild anything if its just me and someone to my right at a four-way stop. I mean anywhere they choose to go won’t be in my way of travel, so I just go. Am I the only one?
Oh yeah, I forgot. Mississippi here too… Very easy, like the OP. Just had to back out of the spot, go around the block and then park nomrally. Written test was a cinch. I wish I could take a paralell parking test now, because I’ve gotten kind of good!
I started with one guy and after a while it seemed like I was getting no-where and he was just milking me for money. I changed to someone who was reccomended to me, had about 10 more lessons. Took the test. Passed first time.
My step-dad’s dad told me the story of how he got his licence - “I just drove down a track and turned left”
? I’m confused. If you’re sitting at a four-way stop, and someone is to the right of you, if they go straight, or turn left, they would cross your travel path, assuming you’re going in any direction other than right.
Heh. Not much. Got mine in about… oh, 2001? Written test, must get 20/25 questions, and driving test… Well, I think I made my instructor nervous when I backed out. See, I’d never had any training on how to do it, so I got in, and turned the wheel, and almost hit the car next to me. So the whole time, he didn’t talk to me or fuck with my radio or anything, like he had done with the friend that was there and had taken his test before me. But my test was 4 right turns (Hey, I had to take a right out onto a busy street in Springdale!) and then back in the lot. Passed, somehow, even after all of the backing-out trouble.
About a year and a half ago I got a Class “A” CDL. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. There was a multipart written test depending on what type of endosements you wanted on the license (air-brakes, hazmat, tanker, etc.) Prior to the driving test there was the “pre-trip inspection”, you were required to walk around the tractor trailer, touch and identify 108 safety oriented parts, and describe the optimum condition they should be in. You had to get 88 correct, I got 102. After the pre-trip, you were required to do some general maneuvers. Among them: an s-turn within a given space, stop on a line that you cannot see, back-up, and the ever popular alley-dock (pull up and back to a platform). If you got that far, there was a road test, mine was in the rain. I was required to drive in town and then on the interstate. I was required to say out load things that I was paying attention to as I drove (bridge clearances, cars approaching intersections, and general observations like checking your mirrors). I’m studying civil engineering now but Class “A” CDL will be at the top of my resume. An engineer that can drive trucks might be useful to some contractor.
1971 in Baltimore. I’d taken Driver’s Ed at my high school, and my folks had given me lots of chances to practice driving, including in heavy traffid, so I was ready. The written test was a piece of cake. The “road test” was done on a closed course behind the DMV. We had been given a copy of the layout, so we knew exactly where everything was ahead of time. I vaguely recall a stop sign or two, a traffic light, a 3-point turn and parallel parking.
I took my test in a station wagon because that was the only car we had. Fortunately, the only way to park in our neighborhood was parallel, so that was a piece of cake. I passed both the written and skills test first time, for all the good it did me. Being the 3rd driver in a one-car family, I didn’t get a lot of steering wheel time till I joined the Navy and bought my first car nearly 4 years later.