To ask for stories if 4th time driving test passes?

[Ijustcantdrive]

I failed my 3rd test today. I need to drive sometimes for work and I'm quite senior so it's humiliating. I just feel like I'll never pass.

AIBU to ask for stories of 4th test passes?

I passed 4th time op and I know exactly how you feel like you will never do it but you will. A change in driving instructor helped me. I could not reverse around a corner properly and failed The first two times on that. Then decided to go to a large town a few hours away for an intensive course for a few days. The instructor was fab and he showed me once talked me through it once and I did it perfectly. Sometimes you just need someone new to help you. Unfortunately the test at the end of the course ended up being in a completely different town I’d never driven in before and I ended up failing it for being in the wrong lane. I bloody reversed round the corner perfectly though. I went back home had a few lessons with another local instructor and passes 4th time. One thing I will say is when your in your test and think you have done something wrong try and forget about it straight away or you can end up makings more mistakes I actually thought I’d failed my last test I gasped so loudly when he said I’d passed couldn’t believe it.

Also please remember it doesn’t mean your a bad driver. Sometime just the test environment And being watched can make you fall to pieces I know it made me so nervous I’d get so hot and bothered.

I passed on my 7th test. If it's any consolation, I stopped being upset after about the third time I failed as I got so used to it. In fact, when they told me I'd passed I exclaimed "fuck off!" before I could stop myself as I was just so used to being told I'd failed.

I passed on my 4th time. The first three were when I was 18 - I felt under pressure from my parents and was very anxious about driving. The 4th time I was in my twenties, funded everything myself, and asked my instructor to make sure I was a good, safe, confident driver before we started working towards the test, however many lessons it took.

I passed on my 4th attempt. I was absolutely fine during lessons but in the test situation the nerves got the better of me and I went to pieces. My first ever test I failed before I had even left the test center as I tried to pull off with the handbrake on. I had to complete the test though and ended up with 5 majors and 11 minors.

My third test I actually had my instructor sit in the back of the car so he could see what was going on. He couldn't believe the difference in me from lessons and tests and realised how bad the nerves were affecting me.

The fourth test he told me to get some rescue remedy and put some drops in a bottle of water to drink if i needed it and a couple of drops on my tongue before I started. I don't know if it actually worked to calm my nerves or if it was a placebo but I passed on that attempt.

Good luck you will get there.

Me, took me 4 times! I actually didn't think I drove particularly well, but there you go. I had the same tester for my third one and he remembered me, so maybe he felt sorry for me!

Me! But I failed 3 tests in 2000-2001 then took a huge break and passed in 2014. I had a brief period of practicing again in 2006 but never got to a test.

For most people they say it's easier when you're younger but for me I only developed the necessary concentration and judgement later on.

I passed 4th time! The first three I was just a nervous that I’d panic, by the fourth time I was fed up and just drove and passed with 1 minor 😂 for me it was all to do with nerves!

Mine was 7th time passing.
I was told I was a good driver just panicked during test.
The one I passed (18 years ago now) I'd had an awful week I'd had infertility tests and was told I probably would not conceive naturally and needed fertility treatment, then my sister rang in tears she was pregnant and was considering an abortion. I think I just thought a driving test was nothing compared to what was going on in my life else where. I went in much more relaxed and it payed off.
Don't give up its worth it - it opened my world to new job opportunities.

Can't help you with a 4th time story, but I passed on my 5th. I used to get practically paralytic with nerves, nothing has ever made me as nervous as my driving tests. My legs would shake so much that I couldn't keep my foot on the clutch. But I was fine during lessons.

When I finally passed, the examiner asked me to pull the car forward a few feet. I was a bit WTF?, and nearly told him it was too late to change his mind, but I'd parked right by a tree and he couldn't get his door open to get out.

We were on a hill and that first hill start after passing must have taken me 8 goes before I did it without stalling.

Once you've done it, you'll never have to do it again and it will make a massive difference to your life, OP.

I feel your pain OP, I passed last year on my 6th attempt. Like others I was fine with my instructor or DH, but went to pieces every time I had a test. I used to come home and bawl my eyes out every time it was so stressful and frustrating! I tried everything but there was no miracle cure, in the end it came down to a combination of a good route and a friendly examiner. When I was tempted to give up trying it helped me to remember that once I passed no one would know how many attempts it had taken me - you don’t have to get the number painted on your car (thank goodness) and there isn’t a special lane or a shiny badge for all the people who pass first or second time, so it really doesn’t matter in the long run. Will keep my fingers crossed for you

I then had a week of lessons in the run up, didn’t tell anyone I was going for a test and passed. Think that approach alleviated the stress.

After I'd failed twice my mum told me if I failed again, I should stop bothering. Thanks mum, now I don't feel pressurised at all.
Anyway, I passed third time but the only people who knew I was taking the test were me, my instructor and the DVLA. As pp have said, I think it can make you a better driver. More lessons, you're more careful and if you're failing due to nerves, you'll have to be well above test standard to pass the test.

I passed 4th time! I got progressively worse from my 1st to my 3rd test, to the degree that on my 3rd test I failed due to not stopping for pedestrians at a crossing - twice!

My fourth time I was incredibly cautious but managed not to get any majors and only a couple of minors. I've been driving without incident ever since.

So...

18. Failed. Observation. Apparently.
19. Failed. Observation. Again
20. Failed. In Dad's car. Reluctant to go past a row of parked cars as there was another car coming the other way. So that was hesitation.
21. Passed. Had to do a fast stop as some pedestrians decided to cross the road. But I did it - and I passed.

Yep. 1st I wasn't ready for. 2nd I failed for going 30 in a 40 zone, 3rd, my instructor crashed her car and I'd been entered at a different centre as they has availability. Unfamiliar car and road so failed for various minors. 4th was fine. Worst thing was after my first I'd arranged to go straight to my boyfriends. It was the first time I met his parents and I walked in and burst into tears 😭

Me too. Failed two tests as a teenager then gave up for 10 years. Failed the third test then pushed on through because then DH worked abroad, had a nice car standing in the drive which I had to walk past every day in all weathers with toddler in pushchair.

Finally passed having had nearly 70 lessons and have now been driving happily for more than 30 years.

Me! I wouldn't have even tried again if I didn't have a few months left on my theory certificate and thought I might as well give it one more shot. I had no lessons for weeks leading up to it (I was at university away from my instructor) other than one on the Friday afternoon and then an hour in the car the Monday morning. My instructor dropped me off to have coffee with my mum an hour before the test, I walked down and met him at the test centre and passed with four minors!

I passed on my 8th attempt. I thought I was never going to get there and people told me to give up, but persevere and it will happen!!

My anxiety became so bad in tests because I was terrified of failing again. I would do fine in lessons but crumble under the pressure.

I switched instructors after 5 tests because he wasn’t very good to be honest. My new instructor was amazing, but I was still a nervous wreck.

My new instructor suggested trying an automatic, as he taught both. Honestly it was the most life changing decision! It’s so much easier and it felt like a fresh start. Once I moved over to the automatic, I passed in it first time. I know it means you can’t drive a manual, but there are lots of automatics around. It’s something I really recommend looking into.

4th time here too. Just fell apart during tests. 3 months after passing I was driving lorries. I used rescue remedy on last test.

I passed 4th time too, with my 3rd different instructor. I was so much more confident and comfortable with the last one, it made all the difference!

I didn’t pass on my fourth time sorry ... it
Was five times lucky for me 😂😂😂 I have been driving 6 years no points no accidents

I failed my first 5 tests and then passed my 6th. That was 25 years ago and it's just a tiny, insignificant part of ancient history now.

Einstein would have puked up over lots his mum, given her poonamis and wet bed sheets to deal with, but who ever mentions that when they talk about his achievements now?

(apart from me, just then, to make a point )

Another fourth timer here! I thought I’d never do it after I failed the third time, but persevered. I was one of the worst amongst my school friends but not the worst - one passed fifth time. And a friend I met more recently passed seventh time!

You will get there, keep going. I was a very cautious and nervous driver for my first few years of driving, but now, 15 years later, think I’m quite a good driver!

Have you had them all at the same test centre? I had my first 5 in my (then) home city and went with my instructor for weeks to practise endlessly in the streets within the vicinity of the centre.

For the 6th, I booked for the test centre in the neighbouring city, which was completely unfamiliar to me. We went an hour before the test, had a little drive around the surrounding streets and then I subsequently passed.

It's different for different people, of course, but for me, I think it helped to be thrown in at the deep end. When you know all of the roads well, you can have a weird mixture of complacency and over-familiarity with the parts you know in advance you're going to find tricky. When you haven't had that experience, you just have to be on high alert, deal with things as you meet them and sink or swim.

Plus, there are lots of rumours of some test centres having much stricter/nastier examiners than others

5th time for me.
I had so many issues with nerves and anxiety and what I thought people were expecting.

I passed when the examiner said that they had just opened up tests on Saturdays and I was all 'Now I don't have to take time off work and explain that I failed again.'
Sailed through as the pressure fell off.

Friend of mine passed on attempt lucky 13!

You will get there.