In the Words of Gandalf

[lydamorehouse]

 ... Mason did NOT PASS his first attempt at getting a driver's license.

On the flipside, he seemed in decent spirits about it. It seems that he did the the exact same thing that Jas (his partner) did wrong on their first test--he turned left from the far lane. Apparently, the tester did not seem to feel like a lot of other notes were necessary and told him to practice a bit more and come back in a week. All and all, for a fail, not bad at all.

Our of curiosity, for those of you who drive, did you pass the first time? Do you have any funny stories about spectacular fails?

I feel like I might know a few people who did, but most of my immediate friends did not. I failed three times, I think? I'm not exactly sure, but I know it took me slightly longer than a lot of my peers. My memories are pretty fuzzy about my tests. The thing I remember the best is that I wore a black beret (don't judge. It was the 80s) to my final test and I took my hands off the wheel while driving to adjust it and somehow I still passed. Apparently, the tester felt that showed confidence rather than foolheartiness.

I'm still not great at keeping both hands on the wheel.

Comments

[mrissa]

I passed mine, but I was not even asked to parallel park for it. Younger Godchild, who is one of the smartest and most responsible people I know, failed in I think exactly the way Mason did on their first try as well. So did their boyfriend at the time.

[lydamorehouse]

Interestingly, Mason was not expected to parallel park. Apparently, at this testing center the only thing you have to be able to do is back into a parking space. Which, for whatever weird reason, Mason is extremely good at.

As I say to Scott below, I did actually wonder if you two, of all my friends, may have actually passed the first time.

[sartorias]

I failed by one, but I was driving the biggest stationwagon ever made, and the top was loaded with camping gear. We were leaving straight from the DMV to hit the road for Minneapolis (to us Californias, "back east") the summer of /69, when I turned 18. My mom didn't want to drive the entire way, and though my brother, and I year younger, was an expert driver, (he'd learned by stealing rental cars from the local hotel, using them to go surfing, then he'd drive them back, until he got caught) she wanted a legal driver. Esppecially as Brother was going to have to fly back for his probation appointment after we got to MPLs.

The guy showed me the test, and said something like, "You know the rules. All your mistakes were because you are uncertain or scared. So I'm going to pass you, for the sake of your mom. I figure, by the time you get back from this trip, you'll be an expert."

And I was!

[mrissa]

Oh, the overloaded station wagon thing reminds me of a story! My dad was driving a similar-era station wagon, maybe even the same model as yours, for his driver's test. The instructors were supposed to set cones for people to parallel park between, but they did not reset them between the tiny Fiat before him and his station wagon. He managed to parallel park the thing but bumped one of the cones. Had to come back and take the test again even though the instructor noticed their error on the way out.

[sartorias]

ARGH! Back then, our DMV was walk-in, and the guy was pretty mellow. (Now, of course, you have to make an appt weeks in advance and you still wait)

[lydamorehouse]

Your story, btw, is CRAZY. But I bet the examiner was right. You were probably an expert by the time you got back to California.

[sartorias]

I was. Proof: We got back to LA the day of the first step on the moon. I was in fact booking down the 405 when Armstrong was stepping down, and accidentally took Haskel instead of the turnoff from 101 to 405--a sudden 15 mph tight turn when I'd been going seventy. But I brodied successfully and came to a sedate stop so we could listen to the rest of the radio broadcast, then I drove us safely home. (I'd done pretty much all the driving from MPLS west, after learning and practicing on the corrugated streets of Eau Claire)

[sraun]

IIRC, I passed on the first try. This was on the edge of Duluth in the mid-70's, so the bar wasn't terribly high.

Through mis-adventure, I had to re-take my driver's test in the Twin Cities ... sometime in the 1990s? I passed on the first time that time also. The only thing I got marked down on was stopping at the stop sign - I felt the car stop, and then proceeded without looking at the speedometer, but it - which the tester was using - never got down to zero. I was much more interested in being able to keep my eyes on the world around me than paying attention to my speedometer at that point.

[lydamorehouse]

That's weird. I also just let my car rock back and assume I have hit zero. Odd that they gave you hassle for that.

Of my friends, Scott, you would be one of the ones I would guess would pass on the first try. (Marissa, too, for that matter.)

[hrj]

I had the same thing (California, mid-1970s). Just barely passed (the first time) because the inspector claimed I hadn't come to a full stop at the stop sign. I was quite certain that I had, because I was an extremely rules-driven person. But I kept my mouth shut and took the pass then groused to my parents afterwards.

[hrj]

I should also note that I (and my brothers) got a LOT of driving practice before testing, because once each of us got a learner's permit, our parents basically assigned us to do all the driving (under supervision, of course) until we were old enough to take the test. As we lived in the suburbs (and took family road trips) that added up.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, I think a lot of practice helps, but I was just reading that Ardon Hills (where Mason tested) is very strict.

Oh noes!

[lsanderson]

Not a nice day for a driving test.

I passed my test the first time. I think I was 13 at the time, but 14 by the time I got my license.

Re: Oh noes!

[lydamorehouse]

It was actually not bad out on the closed course--at least from what I could see. It's possible that they have heated streets? I don't know.

How did you pass at 13? We couldn't even get our drivers' permits in Wisconsin until we turned 15. Were you a farm boy or something? (I feel like there were special tractor rules in Wisconsin, too.) Or did they change the age limit at some point.

Re: Oh noes!

[lsanderson]

I was a farm boy, and it was a couple of years ago.

[naraht]

I did pass on my first try, but I was 30 and the guy who gave me the test clearly felt immense pity for me at my advanced age. I had been living in the UK and hadn't needed to drive, but he didn't know that. Anyway he didn't even ask me to parallel park.

Now living in the UK again, I don't really dare to take the test here. I was fine on New England backroads, driving through Franconia Notch in the dead of night in winter etc, but urban UK roads and UK testing standards? No thanks.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, Mason is 22. I do think the slightly older than expected folks get a lot of sad looks.

I wish we lived somewhere where Mason could continue, as he has, to get along via public transportation, but the US is just a vast country... and these days jobs are requiring a valid driver's license even for desk positions.

[spiderplanet]

I failed spectacularly my first try. I turned left from a one way to a two way, but got into the left lane - the one that would be oncoming traffic. I didn't try again for a few years.

[lydamorehouse]

Oh how scary! Was it a road test? Not a closed course?

I have a memory of actually turning the opposite direction than the tester suggested (being dyslexic as I am) and thus going onto a one way street during a road test! But, like I said, my memories are kind of fuzzy about it all, but I feel like the guy just said, "Okay. We're done."

[spiderplanet]

Entirely closed course, no one was at risk. I was not ready to be a driver, so it was for the best. :)

[pameladean]

I passed the first time in Nebraska. In Minnesota, some years later, I failed three times in a row and was forbidden to come back for six months. The first time, it was a very sunny early morning and I was a passenger in the car I was to drive for the test. I put the sun visor down on the passenger side, didn't flip it up again, and during the test made a right turn on red with a sign saying not to do that because the sun visor blocked my view of the sign.

The second time I failed to realize that there were two lanes on each side of the street (they weren't marked on the driving range but generally had been where I was practicing) and, like Mason though possibly for a different reason, turned out of the wrong lane.

I can't actually recall the third time now. It was also some mistake I would not have made on city streets because the driving range is an artificial construct and was very unnerving to me, as if I were in some science-fictional mind trap.

P.

Don't tell Mason, but I never did get to the point of even trying to get a license again and to this day I do not drive. I don't think most people are like me, however.

[lydamorehouse]

I won't tell him. He also failed again today, but I'm not going to write a second post about it because the whole household is very bummed on his behalf. Mason is very much feeling like giving up and, you know, it is up to him. It sounds like he's determined to keep trying, but oof.

P.S. A quilt is on its way for your cats.

[the_siobhan]

I failed my first one. Parallel parking I think?

My teacher wasn't very good. I got a different teacher to prep for my second and passed it just fine.

[lydamorehouse]

This one doesn't even require parallel parking! But, for weird reasons, you do have to back into a parking space. And if you can't they consider it an automatic fail. Backing into a parking space is so option that I can't even. Parallel parking? In the city? A must.

Ah well. As I noted to some others above, he failed again today. I'd really hoped he'd get his drivers' license for Christmas, but I guess that's what you get for being a pagan. :-P

[ursula]

I failed the first test, but not in an exciting way. There was a lot of received wisdom about which DMV to take the test at--I picked one in an area with a lot of stop-and-go traffic but no nearby freeways, since I was terrified of merging. I knew of people who drove way out into the country to find a DMV with no traffic.

[lydamorehouse]

We are considering that, actually!

(He just failed a second time.)

[sabotabby]

I passed the first time even though I almost got into an accident, but the instructor said he hoped I never actually drove.

[lydamorehouse]

Wow.

I mean, the person who failed Mason this second time (I am writing post-second failure) gave him an automatic fail for not being able to back into a parking space, which is fully optional in Real Life (tm). So, *raspberry sounds*

[carbonel]

I passed on my first try, though on my second visit to a testing facility.

My mother had me driving in the boondocks of Chicago suburbs and ended up with me driving into the testing facility at Libertyville -- which was quite far away, but was considered desirable because testing was done on the street rather than in a special area. Only problem was, I'd left without my learner's permit, so I'd been driving illegally (technically) and wasn't allowed to take the test. I also wasn't allowed to drive home.

A week later, permit in pocket, my mother and I went to a much closer one in Chicago and I passed. The driving instructor at my high school had warned us that the parallel parking portion was the biggest pitfall, and to avoid it we should make a very minimal attempt, then say we'll pass on this, because if we did everything else right, we'd still have plenty of points -- and it was easy to get an automatic fail on parallel parking. I did that.

I think both my brothers passed on their first try, too. Maybe the driving program at Niles West was particularly good? I dunno. I did have a minor accident in my first year of driving -- scraped the door of the car against a bollard going through the drive-through lane of a bank.

[lydamorehouse]

Mason has only every had me as a driving instructor, despite the fact that I've begged him to consider getting others to help him learn. We just failed a second time ... which is just heartbreaking, but the Internet seems to believe that Ardon Hills (where he tested) is extremely hardcore and doesn't pass a lot of people.

[coffeetime]

I did pass my first time, but a) I was 22 and b) the tester turned to me at the end and said, "You don't get to practice much, do you?"

But - good enough to pass, and I got my real education driving on the Garden State Parkway less than a month later.

[lydamorehouse]

Mason is also 22 and he just failed his second time. The examinors out at Ardon Hils are not sympathetic.

[offcntr]

I definitely failed my first attempt, also my second. Test anxiety, always my nemesis; finally got my license on the third try, then was immediately relegated from the family car--automatic transmission--to the pickup, three-speed manual. Had to learn to drive all over...

Oddly, when I took up pottery, I became a much better driver. Coordinating movement smoothly is important in both activities, I guess.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, Mason just failed again for a second time. He is also very anxious. Maybe I suggest he learn pottery??? *tease*

[murumatsu]

so if you want actual recent-in-Minnesota experiences: it took my younger kid 3 tries (passed on the 3rd try) and my older kid has taken it and failed 3 times. I know both of them did the turn out of wrong lane or into wrong lane thing, and I think the closed courses have weird unmarked roads that make this way more likely than if you are driving in real life. (It also took both me and spouse 3 tries when we were teenagers, but that was in NC/Wisconsin respectively)

[lydamorehouse]

I swear it has gotten harder to pass.

This is really helpful to hear. Mason just failed a second time and he's really beating himself up about it. I will pass this on!

[affreca]

While I have my license, I don't think I ever took the driving part of the test. The year I took it (summer after graduating high school) passing driver's ed exempted you the test. I think I've had to do the written part once when changing states.

I didn't use my license for years afterward. I didn't have a car in college, and caged a lot of rides the six months until I moved to Japan. I didn't get comfortable driving until work forced me too - first driving around Kansas, then driving on the east coast.

[lcohen]

i did pass on my first try, but i almost didn't. when we got to parallel parking, i turned the wheel all the way in the wrong direction as i went to back into the space, but realized it before i moved at all, turned it the other way, and parked successfully. my dad, who taught me to drive, could see what was going on (the place where they tested parking was right by where they had him wait) and i guess almost had a heart attack as he watched the tires go in the wrong direction.

good luck to mason on try #2!

[lydamorehouse]

Alas, Mason also failed his second attempt. But, Shawn and I just researched this testing facility and they are known to be hard asses.

[minnehaha]

Passed on my first try on my 16th b-day. Basically the earliest possible moment to do it.

K.

[lydamorehouse]

Well done, you!

I sometimes think that I should have pushed Mason more when he was younger. There is something about being youthful and full of confidence, you know, that might have helped.