::raises hand::
Don’t feel bad hypergirl, it happens to the best of us. 
I failed my test twice and passed on my third try. The first time I didn’t even get to try and parallel park and the guy screamed at me because I didn’t merge into traffic properly. The second time I slammed on my brakes at a yellow light almost causing the car behind me to rear end me and then hit both the cones when I tried to parallel park. Third time was the charm and I have been driving for 14 with only a few fender benders and tickets.
Good luck and I’m sure you will do better next time just relax and don’t let those mean highway patrol people get to you.
Raises hand with tiggeril
Passed it with a 92%. In the rain.
Here I am, reading this thread, and I have to take my first test TOMORROW!! Well, technically, it’ll be my second, since I had to miss the first one, cause my parents couldn’t find the insurance card.
But, look at this thread sometime tomorrow, and there may be another addition to the “first time loser” category.
eep.
Jess, honey. It could’ve been worse
If we had to know how to parallel park, I would’ve failed it too:)
Yeah, in FL WE DON’T HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO PARALLEL PARK!!!
WHOO-HOO!!!
nyah, nyah to all who do!!
hope I dont make anyone mad with my all caps. sorry in advance
I failed the parallel parking part of the test but the tester told me just to forget about it and I got my license anyway. Must have caught him on a good day. To this day, I cannot parallel park.
OTOH, my sister failed her driver’s test twice and barely squeaked in on the third try. Probably not a good thing though since about a week later, on the first day of school, my mother let her take the family car to school and she rear-ended the guy in front of her after he hit a cat. Seems my sister was more interested in watching the cat fly through the air than watching what was going on in front of her. Guess they didn’t cover that on the driver’s test.
Yep, failed the driving portion the first time. I went through uncontrolled residential intersections too fast (in California). Very few people I know pass their first time.
I was driving for about 20 years when I went to get my Idaho license - and failed the written. Grrr, my own damn fault since I didn’t study the little DMV booklet.
My brother failed the driving portion his first time too. He and the inspector left the DMV lot, not by the exit, nor by the entrance, but by going between and over the curb. He was a little nervous.
Don’t worry hypergirl, you’ll do fine now that you know what the test is like. I was far less nervous the second time because I knew what to expect.
Passed it the first time with flying colors here in Mississippi… about… 16 years ago.
of course, I got lucky. I didn’t even have to leave the parking lot. 3 left turns and a right. That’s it. Parallel parking isn’t even required today. I think I got lucky and hit the guy who was ready for coffee break. My brother and Sister did just as well with the longer course they do today.
Just relax, and pay attention to everything. Go slow.
First time I took the test I couldn’t hear the driving test instructors instructions so I guessed at them barely lip reading him. Also missed instructions for the written test but seeing its all little boxes I figured that out. Passed both of them my first time. Easiest two tests I ever took. Almost ran over a woman on the way to take the tests though 
Be calm, youll do fine on the test, after all, if a deaf person can do it, so can you.
All you people who somehow miss such minor things as stop signs, stop lights, crosswalks, etc.: Do you all live in Oakland?
I got a perfect score on my driving test (and I had to parallel park in a Grand Torino station wagon).
However, I failed the written test twice (because the gap between driver’s ed and turning sixteen was almost 6 months and I am not good about studying).
Isn’t that a big duh in the minds of florida drivers who took the test down here? Anyway, your dad should’ve known that. Just remember with the little bit of driving I’ve experienced with you, I’m not entirely surprised. Then again, I’ll probably fail it if I ever get a chance to take the damned test. Sorry sweetie.
and my second and third times too…
The first time, after my car was parked and ready to go, someone else parked next to me, at an angle, way too close. NOW I probably would have been able to worm my way out of the spot. But I had less experience then, and I was nervous as all hell, and so, backing out of the spot, I lightly tapped the car.
Instant fail.
Even the instructor said there really was no way I could have won, short of waiting for that person to move his/her car (and at the DOL, that could have taken forever.)
Second time, apparently I turned left too close to an oncoming car. Seeing neither of us had to slow down to avoid an accident, and in my opinion there was no danger, I still don’t see what she was on…but another instant fail.
Third time, I was apparently too close to a pedestrian. (Again, they didn’t look alarmed, and they definitely didn’t get hit, but…) another instant fail.
I did finally pass though (ended up taking the test out in the middle of nowhere, didn’t see another moving car the entire time I was on the test, a full 3 car lengths between the cars I had to parallel park on (still messed it up) because they were parked closest together)
Side note, I’ve never gotten a single driving ticket.
I must sheepishly admit to having passed my first time. Texas in 1986. Strictly residential streets (save one freeway access road that the DPS building was on), and no traffic signals. We did have to parallel park, although I hardly ever needed that particular skill until I moved to California.
In my Driver’s Ed class, we were coached pretty heavily. They did an excellent job of warning us about the various tricks that might get pulled to try to “catch” you at something. Example: on a side street, the examiner will tell you to back up if it’s safe, until he tells you to stop. He’ll be looking over his shoulder, just as you should be. He’ll then turn around and say “OK, stop.” If you turn around before the car completely stops moving, it’s a penalty. My examiner did try this, but I was ready.
Basic advice: don’t even pretend to drive like you normally would. I don’t think anybody doing that would pass. Stay well under the speed limit, stop well shy of limit lines (or the stop sign, in its absence), all that. Pay more attention to scrupulous obedience of rules than you ever will again. (Basically, I think they want you to demonstrate that you at least know them, even if it’s commonly accepted that nobody obeys them strictly. I think that makes some sense…)
Interestingly, one other thing my Driver’s Ed class taught was not to try too hard on the parallel parking segment. The reasoning: PP was only worth something like 10 points (losing >30 fails), but hitting one of the markers was automatic failure. Get yourself half-assedly in the space, and declare yourself done. So what if you lose 9 points? If you do everything else well, you’ll still pass.
But I don’t know what the test is like, since I never even got out of the parking lot. Grr…my boyfriend is going to make so much fun of me, since I have been berating him for nearly a year for not getting his license. Now it’s my turn to get it back. I’m just a little bit annoyed with myself for being so stupid.
Side note, I really love these boards. I started this thread about 5 hours ago and it already has more than 30 replies. You people gave me just what I was looking for. Thanks a lot.
Yikes! I’m about to begin taking driving lessons again, at age 38, and you all are scaring me :eek: I hate driving, but family circumstances have made it imperative that I get my license once again.
The last time I got behind the wheel of a car was in 1989. To be on-topic, I got my license on the first try, but I was a terrible, terrible driver. I was in more accidents than I can easily recall, and I totaled, if I remember correctly, four cars in five years.
I hope to do better this time around, of course
I passed my Florida driver’s test exactly 1 year ago tomorrow. Took it at the DMV in Fort Myers, but I now hear that the one in Cape Coral has a nicer staff and a much easier test, but ah well. I was worried that I wouldn’t pass if I had a highway patrol person with me, but it was just a disgruntled government employee. The only points I lost were failure to signal into the parking space (which I still don’t do, most times, and rarely if ever see) and not parking straight in. Everything else, though, I passed, and I’ve yet to get a ticket, though I’ve come close.
Oops, sorry hypergirl - for some reason I got it in my mind that you got out into the street. :o
Well, um, at least you know some of the questions they ask you when you first get in the car? Like, where’s this and that thing? My mom was asked “How do you know when your high beams are on” and instead of pointing out the high beam indicator, she said, “Vell, I can see really, really far in da dark.”
I didn’t have to learn to parallel park either – this was in 1994 in LOS ANGELES. For crying out loud, that’s the only kind of parking that’s available! I managed to pull into them going forward because if I had pulled up and tried to back into a spot, even if I had been ABLE to, somebody else would have come up behind me and stolen the spot.
The first time I flunked royally – Moldy Man didn’t seem to like me, and when I mistook a green light for a left-turn arrow and nearly turned out into traffic, that was that. (I should have know that the left-turn arrow, that marvelous invention which is desperately needed in LA, does not exist in LA.) Second time, had Moldy Man again, flunked for no apparent reason. The third time I went to a different DMV office, got a woman who was civil, if not friendly, and passed. Barely. With a 70. Guess what the pass line was?
I was a HORRIBLE driver. Only this week I managed, FINALLY, to parallel park properly. I had to retake the driving test here in Georgia last year (got some extra equipment, had to retest) and the only part of the test I didn’t pass with flying colors was parallel parking. The very nice cop (they look like cops, anyway) had to talk me through that, but otherwise, I was fine. He was really nice. He told me stories about really BAD tests, like the teenage girl who ran out of gas in the middle of it, and then got mad when he flunked her. He said I was one of the least-stressful testees he’d had, which was nice considering my first three driving tests.
I am a much better driver now than I was when I got my license.
Well, FTR, I passed my first time with a perfect score. But then again I had been driving regularly- both cars and motorcycles, since I was 12 or so.