Facing the new test slams the brakes on any smugness about my driving

I'VE never been a particularly speedy driver, although I did get a horrifying and shaming three points on my licence a few years ago, and felt a massive sigh of relief the day that misdemeanor (36mph in a 30mph zone on an empty road at 6.30am, your honour) was expunged.

On the positive side, I learned that lesson. I don't eat, drink, smoke, use the phone or read a map while driving. I've never known a passenger to become white-knuckled and run from the car in fright; I've been involved in one small prang that was my fault in decades at the wheel. When my daughter was learning to drive quite recently, she never criticised how I did things at the wheel in comparison with the techniques she was being taught, and seemed happy enough for me to be her secondary instructor.

If I'm totally honest, I think I might have felt a teeny-weeny bit subconsciously smug about most of the above. Well, not any more. Realising that the driving test was about to change set me wondering whether I would pass if I had a go at it, and of course I couldn't resist finding out.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

According to AA research carried out last year, half of all drivers believe they would fail their test if they did it again, but very few of them are likely to do anything to evaluate properly whether their driving could do with an MOT.

The theory test, incorporating knowledge of the Highway Code, isn't changing. Candidates have to answer 43 questions out of 50 correctly within a generous 57 minutes. I failed by two marks on two online practice tests but after mugging up with the help of the book, I improved the mark to 48 on one and 50 on the other.

The practical test will, from October 4, incorporate a 10 minute "independent driving" section, which means driving without step-by-step instructions given by the examiner. This tests your ability to think for yourself, judging road conditions and reacting accordingly. The Driving Standards Agency says one of the toughest challenges facing new drivers is thinking for themselves once they are in charge of a car without constant instruction. Under the new rules, candidates will not be able to access test routes online.

Death and injuries on the road involving young drivers are gradually decreasing, but still, in 2009 one in five of all car accidents resulting in death or serious injury did involve drivers aged 17-24, and 2,026 drivers in this age group were killed or seriously injured.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rush-hour outside Barnsley Driving Test Centre, and my "mock-up" of the test is being set by AA advanced instructor Ashley Grigg. I've had a short drive to accustom myself to his Ford Focus, and now we're embarking on the 40-minute test as if for real.

He tests my eyesight on the number plate of a car in a side street on the other side of the main road. Tick. Do I know where to find information on required tyre pressures? Tick. He then tests my awareness of the indicator lights on the car. Then we're off – with me suddenly feeling a mild nerve attack and Ashley sitting there with the ominous clipboard and the other rear view mirror helping him to spot hazards I may not even notice. Help.

We tootle around Dodworth in heavy traffic. I'm suddenly conscious of every move, and get my fingers in knots with the windscreen wipers. I slide backwards ever so slightly on the hill-start. The nerve attack isn't helped when we arrive at a T-junction and I prepare to turn left at the same time as a man in a Skoda decides to cut up a single-decker bus just a couple of yards to the left of our bumper. Keep calm and carry on.

Surprisingly, the new test only asks the candidate to perform one reversing manoeuvre out of the three-point turn, reversing around a corner and parallel parking trio. I get the one I hate most – reversing around the corner – and you could almost park a Harley Davidson between the car and the kerb. Not so smug now. I'm not sure my emergency stop would save a runaway toddler from certain death, either. What on earth is wrong with me?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ashley asks me to rejoin the main road and follow signs to Manchester, which involves a few right turns off roundabouts and driving three or four miles, into and beyond a leafy village. He falls silent, so I know this is the new "independent driving" part of the test. He lets me get on with it, while obviously keeping a watchful eye on every move.

We get out of the built-up area to a gently winding and undulating stretch of semi-rural road. I creep along at 30mph, thinking "This feels slow..." but suddenly dithering about what the maximum speed should be. A sign warning of possible emerging horses and riders makes me err towards extreme caution, as does a hay-laden tractor in the distance. Still, the car's progress feels pitiful and other drivers are nipping around me to get on with their journeys. Having committed to this speed, I feel I can't think the better of it without it appearing peculiar and indecisive.

After what feels like 50 miles in this mode, negotiating a couple of tight bends, a dog on a long lead and a stationary bus, we return to Dodworth by a roundabout route, reaching a sign alerting me to the speed limit of 30mph in the street-lit area. What a chump I feel, as I'm already chugging along at 29.

Not one to mince his words, Ashley says: "If this had been the actual test rather than a simulation, you'd have failed, Sheena. Although you're a good driver generally, you'd have been failed because you were driving too slowly, showing lack of awareness of the speed limit."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Of course, as soon as the "test" was officially over, I knew immediately that the maximum speed on those roads I'd chugged along on was 60mph, dependent on weather, traffic and road conditions. Fool.

I feel embarrassed; Ashley is sympathetic. "I'm certain that you would not normally have driven like that. Test conditions do strange things to people. Also, normally people taking the test have just had a course of lessons, with the instructor urging them to make progress appropriate to each road, so you'd have been super-aware of what speed you could safely drive at.

"The Driving Standards Agency doesn't want us to turn out drivers who hesitate and drive too slowly, holding up others on the road and possibly causing an obstacle. You committed one major error; some people commit several plus a lot of minor ones, too."

So I was "failed" on one major but important mistake. In the test I'd have been allowed up to 16 minor errors but would still have passed if a major mistake had not been made.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I had a tally of eight minors – including a penalty for not checking mirrors enough on a couple of occasions, including failing to check in all directions during the reversing, and not keeping the car close

enough to the kerb during the manoeuvre.

I'm glad I stuck my neck out and found out that all is not perfect with my driving. I know my Highway Code better than I did four days ago, I am much more aware of the need to use all mirrors more frequently – and I'll never again be smug about driving. I also found out I don't have to do the old-fashioned sequential changing of gears in either direction. Car technology has moved on.

As Ashley says: "Whatever anyone thinks, there's no such thing as a perfect driver. I'd really like to see everyone re-tested every 10 years, but doubt it will ever happen."

The AA Charitable Trust is currently offering two-hour refresher/confidence courses called Drive Confident, aimed at lapsed, rusty or nervous drivers, and these can be tailored to the needs of the individual. The sessions are free of charge. Information: 0800 009 4756 or www.theaa.com/drive-confident

Related topics: