Most deranged thing you’ve done in a driving lesson/test?

[Shania7788]

My test is coming up soon. Been doing really well but I made the stupidest mistake today and I’m too embarrassed to tell anyone I know in real life. But I need to tell someone before I spend the whole week thinking about this before I fall asleep.

I was following a route I’ve done before but never with the satnav. Approached a mini roundabout before dual carriageway slip road and was going straight over/2nd exit. I must’ve heard ‘turn right…’ or something and been daydreaming, because I went the wrong way around the roundabout 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️😩. It’s such a stupid mistake that I’m half convinced the satnav showed an anti-clockwise diagram that I followed blindly. So dangerous of me and ridiculous because I live on a road with three mini roundabouts! Argh!!!

My teacher says the rest of my driving is great and doesn’t want to move the test but it really shook me (and him I think!!) obviously I’ve never done it before.

Please tell me your stupid and deranged mistakes/decisions as a learner to make me feel better and push this out of my mind!

I got in a flap trying to put the fog lights on without even putting the keys into the ignition

I'm learning too. Tried the parallel parking last week, it wasn't too bad, it's the reverse into bay I'm not looking forward to.

Whipped off a load of parked cars wing mirrors, obviously I failed

A friend of mine in her test drove onto the central area of a roundabout - one of those big ones with flowers planted in it. she came to a stop in amongst the plants.

My driving instructor once asked me which manoeuvre I wanted to practice and I answered 'divorcing round corners' (was going through a tricky divorce at the time and my mind wasn't quite on the lesson !)

Driving along a busy road when we see a binbag lying in my lane just ahead of me. I proceed to drive along when my instructor slams the breaks on and asks what my intent is? I say to just drive over it? 😬 He starts ranting about how it could be bricks or metal or anything that could cause serious damage to the car and then asks what should I have done? I could not for the life of me figure out what I should do instead. The answer (which my instructor sounded absolutely deflated having to even explain to me and I knew he thought I was an absolute airhead) was to signal right, move into the right lane and then move back into my lane after the bag.

Turns out the bag was full of branches which probably wouldn't have been so smart to drive over!

They'll generally take you to the scariest places in your local area, because you'll need to deal with them alone after you've passed so they genuinely do need to know if you can handle them. We have a nasty junction or two that don't give you time to choose a lane and with nutters swinging across in front of you at 60. My instructor made me practice it every single week. But he did say if you get the wrong lane just stick with it.

I will go a long way out of my way to avoid it these days.

One of the first times I drove by myself after passing my test there was a bloody rake in the middle of my lane! I had to go into the opposite lane to go around it, luckily just in time before cars came - my heart was racing!
But according to the theory stuff I had to study, the correct thing to do is to stop and remove the obstacle from the road, if its safe to stop (I was on a fast country road with nowhere to stop so I couldn't, but I guess someone did when it was quieter)

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

LetsGoFlyAKiteee · 14/02/2024 13:38

Oooo the one in Hemel is kind of like that. Don't think that extreme though

My aunt used to live in Bovingdon and I'd been round it OK a few times, on my own, on a motorbike. The first time, I did think, "WTF?!!" and went slowly.

A couple of years ago, we were on it and my wife screeched, grabbed the wheel and went, "Wrong way!" It wasn't and I shot one of the mini roundabouts in front of a little van and went out on the wrong exit.

I’ll never forget the screams from my instructor, whilst approaching a massive busy roundabout he said at the roundabout turn right, so I did 😂😂

On my first test, I'd worked a (very demanding) early shift, had a two hour driving lesson, eaten nothing, and passed out at the wheel during my test. The examiner had to put his foot on the dual-control break to stop us rolling across a crossroads. Never fainted before, or after, that day. Failed second test because I tried to pull away but not in gear. When I passed on my third, it was the examiner from the first test. I was so nervous, I had to pull over to use a public toilet. He was most impressed and said that in 20 years, no candidate had ever had the confidence to do that!

@pitsoffashion there’s a really good formula for parallel parking, and good YouTube videos for it too. Really helped me feel confident with the parallel park during my - ahem - 6 tests. Never use it now but can bay park like a pro (not part of the test back in my day).

Can’t remember why I failed any of my tests, but I did leave a significant gap between test 5 and 6 which must have helped. Cried on the examiner when he said I’d passed!

I assumed I'd failed as I'd accidentally been speeding (its a bit where it goes from 40 to 30, and I forgot for a while - I was probably about 35ish)

I passed.

The first thing I said to him was 'you cant change your mind right...'

Him: 'no...'

Me: 'didnt you notice that I was speeding at one point

Him: 'erm yes, though when you noticed you slowed down appropriately'

Me: 'and I'm still going to pass'

Him 'yes' (seeming confused)

😂

I’m glad it’s not just me, screaming wasn’t very professional of him/her though 😂😂

It’s a major one with about six exits coming off a dual carriageway 🫣

The lesson before my test I went up a roundabout on my way round/ took awhile for my lovely instructor to calm me down reassuring me that actually it's good to fuck up now lol, test was fine and I passed 1st time. So it can be absolutely fine after a terrible moment

When I was 15, we had “student driving.” Our school in California had a car with a regular steering wheel and gas and brake pedals and then the teacher had a brake pedal - but no rear view mirror, no gas pedal & no steering wheel.
Every 15yrold had the opportunity to participate if they wanted.
So when it was my turn to go onto the freeway, the teacher exclaimed “That’s too fast!!” and slammed on his brakes - and the car behind us slammed into us.
I never heard how much trouble he got into, but we did get a new drivers ed teacher. And we got a nice new drivers ed car. But damn if they didn’t put that stupid brake back.

How did you do OP if you've done it?

I failed my first test for not stopping for a passing car whilst doing parallel parking.
It was my best maneuver and my instructor couldn't believe when I got back.

2nd test, went too fast, so failed for speeding.

3rd test, for going on the wrong side of the road, even though it was momentarily to avoid an obstacle and road was clear with dotted line.

4th test, parallel parking again, didn't look over my right shoulder when moving off.

5th test, passed!! Was starting to think I'd never pass.

All tests I had the one major and no more than 4 minors. Just nerves and rushing to get it over with.

Still reading on page 2.

Good Lord. That's definitely one roundabout I shall never be driving on!

In 1999, DD was taking her test in our very temperamental 1965 Mustang...you never knew which bit wasn't going to be working on a daily basis. At the beginning of her test, the examiner asked her to turn on the headlights...fine, they worked. Next he asked her to turn on her windscreen wipers..., fine, they turned on...unfortunately, though, they would not turn off. After several minutes of 'swish, swish, swish, squeak!', my DH, trying to be helpful, piped up, 'Can't you just pretend that it's raining?' Examiner gave an exasperated, 'Absolutely not!' DH looked under the bonnet and pulled the fuse...fortunately this did the trick. DD passed her test in spite of our dodgy Mustang, thank goodness.

Drove on the pavement during a test

Didn't pass

I'll just quote our exchange and it'll speak for itself.

Instructor: You should have slowed down and given way at the roundabout. I didn't stop you as the other car was already stopping for you but really it was his priority.

Me: What roundabout?

Instructor: ...

A similar thing happened to me whilst doing a turn in the road. I'm convinced that as I took my foot of the brake to let the car roll back just that little bit more. I hit the kerb, but I still passed my driving test. When I mentioned it to my driving instructor on the way home she said it was possible that the back tires had dropped in the camber of the road and that's why it felt like I'd hit the kerb instead. Well it was either that or the examiner got bored of me constantly waffling on about a load of shite and just gave up at that moment and thought ah sod this I'll just pass her 😅 I did make a total pillock of myself when driving back to the test centre by driving by it completely and having to drive all the way back round again. The examiner was like erm you do know where you're going don't you?

Talking to my mum on handsfree and driving straight over a pedestrian crossing with someone on it. 10 mph in Tesco car park. He was staff and came and told me off.

Running two sets of red lights, one I narrowly missed a car turning in front of me...I was hungry. Second one I made a cyclist very very irate. It was coming up to a roundabout and slowing and thinking about the roundabout, not the lights. He was already starting to cross on the other half.

Messing up my reverse park first time into my space and scratching my car, £80 paint job.

Sometimes when I am parking I will have an executive malfunction and put my foot on the accelerator and not the brake. Shhh.

My DD's driving instructor took advantage of the perks of his job...he had her drive him to the market, park up...then he ran into the shop to grab a few items whilst she waited in the car...once he returned, he gave her directions to his house where he dropped off the groceries! Sounds kind of pervy but, he was a well-known respected instructor, so I hope it was just a matter of him enjoying the perk of being chauffeured around. He believed in having students learn how to tackle real-life situations...her first lesson, he instructed her to get on the 6 lane motorway on a Friday afternoon and drive 15 miles to the international airport...now that I think about it, I'm surprised he didnt have a friend coming into town who needed a lift to his house! 🤨 sounds to me like he was a risk taker x 1000!