Failed My Driving Test
I failed my driving test today. That sucks. It really sucks. I usually excel at tests and the such, so outright failure can be quite depressing and embarrassing.
I mulled around a bit in Montreal downtown after that. Thought I'd maybe watch SpongeBob SquarePants since there was nothing better, but walked out after 2 minutes. Ended up spending time at Indigo Books and dragging my feet around Future Shop, not buying anything of course, since that would turn out to be a waste of money when boxing day sale comes around.
Four qualified people have told me that I'm a safe driver and have good driving technique. Even the examiner said that I had scored high on general technique, including parallel parking, and encouraged me to take the test again post-haste. He even went to the pains of telling me the best ways to get around the system and schedule my next test as soon as possible.
The examiner was a nice guy, although he chewed off my head, lectured me, and flat out refused my request, when I asked him if he could give me the instructions in English. I take my tests very seriously, and English is my first language, why run the risk of not knowing what he's talking about in a real-time situation? (anglements? What the hell is that? Oh blindspots. Of course I know about blindspots...)
Apparently that was a no-go though... in Quebec, you sometimes have to put up with the self-appointed language police and all that. Besides, he said, I speak French very well and should take the chance to practice it.
So why did I fail? It's not the examiner's fault I failed.
Right when I left the property I burnt a red light -- an immediate failure, but we continued the test anyway. The worst part of it is that I burnt a second red light at the end of the test when about to re-enter the grounds. It boggles my mind as to how that was possible and I spent all afternoon mulling about it.
I suppose the fact that I had spent most of the previous night fretting about the test hadn't helped, I suppose I had been nervous and somewhat spaced out (although that wasn't apparent to me at the time), I suppose the sun in my face didn't really help and I suppose a wholly unfamiliar rental car where I couldn't even feel the gas pedal only made matters worse.
In the end though, I'm just not really sure how I could have screwed up like that.
Worse than failing the test itself, it is no comfort, and certainly no confidence-builder, to think that if I hadn't had someone beside me while driving, I could have easily been in an accident or dead already.
In Montreal, with the kind of public transportation that we have here, not being able to drive isn't much of a problem. But I probably wouldn't survive in California for long without a car. I'm just going to have to spend more money on additional lessons and try harder not to get myself killed for next time.
Update: I easily got my license on January 5th, the second time around. Thank you for the encouragement!
I mulled around a bit in Montreal downtown after that. Thought I'd maybe watch SpongeBob SquarePants since there was nothing better, but walked out after 2 minutes. Ended up spending time at Indigo Books and dragging my feet around Future Shop, not buying anything of course, since that would turn out to be a waste of money when boxing day sale comes around.
Four qualified people have told me that I'm a safe driver and have good driving technique. Even the examiner said that I had scored high on general technique, including parallel parking, and encouraged me to take the test again post-haste. He even went to the pains of telling me the best ways to get around the system and schedule my next test as soon as possible.
The examiner was a nice guy, although he chewed off my head, lectured me, and flat out refused my request, when I asked him if he could give me the instructions in English. I take my tests very seriously, and English is my first language, why run the risk of not knowing what he's talking about in a real-time situation? (anglements? What the hell is that? Oh blindspots. Of course I know about blindspots...)
Apparently that was a no-go though... in Quebec, you sometimes have to put up with the self-appointed language police and all that. Besides, he said, I speak French very well and should take the chance to practice it.
So why did I fail? It's not the examiner's fault I failed.
Right when I left the property I burnt a red light -- an immediate failure, but we continued the test anyway. The worst part of it is that I burnt a second red light at the end of the test when about to re-enter the grounds. It boggles my mind as to how that was possible and I spent all afternoon mulling about it.
I suppose the fact that I had spent most of the previous night fretting about the test hadn't helped, I suppose I had been nervous and somewhat spaced out (although that wasn't apparent to me at the time), I suppose the sun in my face didn't really help and I suppose a wholly unfamiliar rental car where I couldn't even feel the gas pedal only made matters worse.
In the end though, I'm just not really sure how I could have screwed up like that.
Worse than failing the test itself, it is no comfort, and certainly no confidence-builder, to think that if I hadn't had someone beside me while driving, I could have easily been in an accident or dead already.
In Montreal, with the kind of public transportation that we have here, not being able to drive isn't much of a problem. But I probably wouldn't survive in California for long without a car. I'm just going to have to spend more money on additional lessons and try harder not to get myself killed for next time.
Update: I easily got my license on January 5th, the second time around. Thank you for the encouragement!
posted by Navindra Umanee at 23:30
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