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Test not passed
All winter long it had been dry. No snow in town, not a single flake. Until the day of my driving test. As I took the train from school to the meeting point, the flakes were coming down without a pause, an impenetrable blizzard. Hallelujah. I was not the most confident driver to begin with, nor the best. The chance of me passing was vanishingly small. Fine, I told myself. At least that way you will not be nervous. If only. By the time it became clear that the snow really was not going to stop, I was a shaking, unfocused wreck. Before the test I smoked a cigarette. It helped, but not against the shaking – it was freezing out there. The examiner got in. Young guy, he surely will not be that strict, especially not in the snow. Another massive misjudgement. I changed gear far too much, what felt like every few metres. Out of insecurity. While parking, the whole car shook in time with my left leg, which was supposed to be operating the clutch. Then came a faux pas on the motorway – I refused to let a driver who was indicating pull in ahead of me. By then I was already certain I had failed. And I was right. The examiner handed me a sheet of paper covered in crosses. It was supposed to show everything I could not do. I thanked him. My instructor was annoyed and called the examiner a nitpicker. I had simply been unlucky, he said. If only he knew how badly I had driven. He probably just wanted to cheer me up. For me the whole thing was not that bad at all. Disappointing, of course. But just as understandable.
You will find more about the practical test in the blog articles «Practical driving test», «The most common mistakes in the practical test», «5 tips for the car test» and «How to pass the practical car test».
Watch the video by driving instructor Nathalie from Frick and the video by driving instructor Ralph from Winterthur. They explain what matters on the road to your driving licence, what to look out for when choosing an instructor and at the driving test. If you are looking for an instructor yourself, have a look around the driving instructor comparison at todrive.ch.
Here is another entertaining video by SRF about failing the driving test and the road to your licence.