Don't give up. This lady tried 960 times!

Learning driving is tough. Taking the practical test is stressful. Persevere. Hope this auntie will give you some motivation.

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List of blogs on Class 3 Driving Lessons and Tests in Singapore

It has been a while since I updated this blog. Would like to take this opportunity to thank all my visitors and hope this blog has helped you in you learning journey.

I understand learning to drive in Singapore can be stressful, daunting and overwhelming so any support and guidance will be helpful. And you will come to know that your are not alone. In this post, I am collating a list of blogs and sites that talks about experiences in driving tests and lessons to make it easy for visitors to search. If you come across any sites or posts that you find useful, feel free to post it in the comment below. Sharing is caring. Please also let me know if you don't feel comfortable having your blog linked in this post. All the best for all driving students.

calhj's My journey in obtaining a Class 3A Licence in Singapore (2020)

chloe's How to complete Singapore Driving Test at BBDC in 2 months

Under SG Sun's My Complete Driving Journey at BBDC

honeynuggets' SSDC: Review + tips for getting driver’s license in Singapore

errorfourteen's Comprehensive guide to learning driving in Singapore + CDC tips & experiences

Pricilla's Getting a driving license in Singapore~

Xiaofayeee's My BBDC experience

melsdrivingexperience Mel's Driving Experience

hayyyyyzel My BBDC Experience (School)

driverxuan xuan's road to a qualified driver

xanquotic MY DRIVING JOURNEY IN CDC

mybbdcexperience MY BBDC EXPERIENCE

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Enrolment At Bukit Batok Driving Centre

First post as part of a guest post series, How I Pass My Class 3A Driving Test at BBDC, by onemoredriver's other half

Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

Encouraged by my dearest hubby's (onemoredriver) learning journey in driving, I braved myself to take on the challenge to learn driving. As someone who has never thought of driving and is terrible with directions, it is an amazing feat that I could even pass my Class 3A driving test on my first attempt after spending about 3 months on the course. It would not have been possible without support from my family, especially my hubby, my mum and the instructors from BBDC.

I hope to pay it forward with my sharing in this guest post series, to help you on your learning journey and pass your driving test with ease.

In this first post, I will share with you on the enrolment procedures at BBDC and the important things to take note during and immediately after the enrolment process. 

Enrolment at BBDC

You could choose to do a pre-enrolment online at the BBDC website before going down personally to the centre. Or head straight to the centre to enrol. Pre-enrolling will make the enrolment process faster at the school because they will still ask you to fill in the same form online at the school's computer terminals designated for enrolment/registration if you have not pre-enrolled and do not need to queue if the terminals are in use by others who are enrolling. 

There will be an eyesight test. You must pass the test to get enrolled so if you need your glasses to see things clearly, remember to bring them.

Photo-taking is not optional and must be taken at the centre. This photo will be used for your driving license. So dress up nicely for the photo shoot on enrolment day.

For the enrolment, I have spent a total of S$104.54. Here is the breakdown:

• S$96.30 on Enrolment Fee
• S$6.42 on Photo Taking Fee 
• S$1.82 on Eyesight Test Fee
• S$0.00 on Theory Fee (Not sure is it because I had previously enrolled in BBDC many years back that I did not need to pay theory fee?)

Enrolment is valid for one year only. Any extension would be S$8.03 per month. Hence, try as far as possible to complete your course in 1 year.

What to do immediately after you have successfully enrolled

Book your theory lessons online. Try to clear your theory lessons and tests as quickly as possible. There is a waiting period which could be 2 weeks to about 2 months after passing the centre's evaluation tests to take the traffic police theory tests.

If you have already passed your basic theory test prior to enrolment, quickly book your practical lessons as the slots are taken up very quickly.  The earliest lesson which you see could be 1 to 2 months later. A practical lesson is S$68.48 for off-peak and S$77.04 for peak. Aim to book at least 23 slots, so remember to side aside about S$2,000 for all your initial expenses.

Remember to apply for your Provisional Driving License with the traffic police before your first practical lesson.

If you wish to clear your practical lessons as soon as possible, you could check for try-sell slots on the centre's lesson booking system often. Try-sell lessons are practical lessons cancelled by other learners within 48 hours before lesson starts.

Thank you for staying with me until now. I will continue to share more on my learning journey and how I pass my driving test at BBDC in my coming posts.

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Driving Through Flash Flood

In the last 2 weeks, we not only saw Singapore's temperature dropping to a low of 21.2 degrees but on 8th Jan many parts of eastern Singapore experienced a flash flood. Though it is very seldom in Singapore to be caught in half flooded vehicle but still it is worth to remember what you should do in case you encounter one. It will save you lots of trouble (and money). Here are some points to remember.

Avoid if possible
Best thing to do is not to let yourself be caught up in the flood. Change route if you know there is a flash flood affecting your original route. Tune in to your radio station to check before you embark on your journey during heavy downpour.

Access water level and initiate first gear
This was what Mr Terrence Oh, the chief instructor at the Bukit Batok Driving Centre said during an interview with the media.

"If the flooded roads are unavoidable, drivers should stop and assess the water level before driving through the affected stretch"

“If it is passable, (drivers should) engage (the) first gear, proceed at low speed and maintain high acceleration to prevent water from (entering) the exhaust,” he added. “This keeps the engine turning faster, which reduces (the driver’s) chance of stalling”.

"After driving through a flooded stretch, the vehicle’s brakes may become less effective, Mr Oh warned. Drivers are advised to pump the brakes several times to dry them before resuming their journey."

Tips: If possible, let others drive pass first so that you can accurately assess the water level.

What if you are stuck in a flood with your vehicle?

If water is about to flow into your vehicle (from the bottom of the door), you should abandon your vehicle. If you cannot open the door, smash the windows to escape lest you float away with your vehicle.

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Advantages and disadvantages of going for try-sell lessons

Here is a question that many of us would consider as a student in the driving school, that is, whether you should take up try-sell lessons. In the previous post, I have explained the concept of try-sell and provided some tips to enhance your chance of getting a try-sell slot. Here, I would like to provide you with a list of advantages and disadvantages of going for try-sell lessons.

Advantages

Shorter time taken to complete the course - Usually your advanced booking lessons would be 1 to 2 months away (especially for peak hour slots). If you want to start going for practical lesson immediately (provided you passed your Basic Theory Test already), you can pack your first few weeks with try-sell lessons. In that way you can shorten the time taken to obtain your driving license. In addition, advanced booking lessons are limited to 3 lessons per week. If you want to pack more lessons, you need to go for try-sell.

Different instructors - This can be a double edged sword. If you go for try-sell lessons, it is unlikely that you'll get your default group instructors. Here I will talk about its advantage. With many different instructors teaching you, you can get more pointers and can learn different techniques for each maneuver since different instructor would emphasize on different aspect of driving. Then you can choose the ones that you feel most comfortable with.

Disadvantages

Many different instructors - As mentioned above, this can be a double edged sword. With many different instructors, they will not be able to fully understand your strength and weakness since every lesson you attend would be a new instructor who has no clue of what you have done in the previous lessons. You end up having to do a fair bit of revision at the start of the lesson for the instructor to verify if you are indeed doing alright in your past lesson. In the end, you may end up going for more lessons. If you frequently stay with your default group, the instructors would be familiar with your strengths and weaknesses and would have more chance to focus on improving your weaknesses.

Different group, less committed -  As advised by some of my default group instructors, other group instructors tend to be less committed in the lesson if they know that you belong to another group (since it does not impact their KPI). I'm not sure if this is entirely true as I have met some instructors who are truly committed to make me pass. One even told me a secret technique he said he rarely mention to other students. In fact, the only instructor that cheer me before my test was an instructor from another group whom had only taught me twice.

Less time to prepare - Usually the try-sell lesson I got is on the same day. Sometimes, it could be only a few hours away. There is less time for me to prepare for the lesson (eg reading up on the practical handbook or revising the previous lesson), unless I mug while taking the bus.

A lot of time spent on monitoring for try-sell slots - You may end up starring at your monitor and refreshing your webpages for hours just to wait for a try-sell slot. But from experience, there are some timing that have a higher chance of others releasing slots.

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Tips to increase your chances of getting try-sell lessons

By definition, try-sell lessons are lessons that are cancelled by other students in the school. When a student cancels a lesson that she has previously booked, it will be released back to the pool of available slots for other students to snatch (literally). If a student cancels a slot 2 days or more before the lesson day, it will immediately be released to the pool and the fee gets refunded back to her account. If she does it in lesser than 2 days, the slot needs to be taken up by another student before the fee can be refunded. If nobody takes up the lesson, she will not get back any refund. Also, she is not allowed to sell her slot at all if her lesson is starting in 2 hours time. Otherwise, from my experience, there will always be someone willing to take up your cancelled lesson. All these actions of releasing and snatching are done in the web portal. Many times. the more popular timings such as weekend slots can be snatched up within seconds upon release. I overheard from another student that some people would just sit in front of their computer for hours to just look for try-sell slots. He called them 'campers'.

About 80% of the lessons I attended were from try-sell. This was because I didn't want to wait until my advanced booking lessons to start which were 2 months away. And for advanced booking lesson, it is limited to 3 lessons per week. With the try-sell option, I was able to start my practical lesson the next day after enrollment (I already passed my Basic Theory Test 10 years ago). One thing about try-sell lesson is that, you most likely will not be allocated to your default group instructor. There are pros and cons in this which I will describe in another post. So by the time I got to my advanced booking slots, I was already in stage 2. That's how I managed to complete my lessons in 3+ months.

Some tips to increase your chance to get a try-sell slot. 

As mentioned above, the competition is very intense. You are probably competing with hundreds of other students trying to get a try-sell slot at the same time. I am not trying to scare you but that is how it is (I am not sure about Auto lessons, but it seems Manual lessons are in high demand, probably due to limited supply of instructors). Lessons get snatched up in a matter of seconds. You may lose your slot even if you are not quick enough to confirm the slot you have chosen! It is like snatching for discount deals during an online fire sale. I hope below pointers would be able to give you an edge:

Choose to look for try-sell slots during some odd hours - I realized it is easier to get try-sell slots after midnight when most people are sleeping. Some of my slots were gotten at around 2am in the morning (I am a night person). However, they are usually 730am slots of the next day. Better than nothing right. In addition, it seems it is easier to get try-sell slots during 12-2pm. I guess many people are surfing the net during lunch time.

Choose to snatch during the time in between Practical Tests - These are the times where those who passed the Practical test may release all those extra lessons that they booked in advance.

Familiarize with your browser's hot keys - This is so that once you found a slot, you can quickly confirm on it. Using keyboard short-cuts would definitely give you an extra advantage in speed. Unfortunately, this is only for desktop.

Use a desktop connected to LAN cable instead of mobile devices - with the slower speed of 4G and wifi as compared to a desktop connected via LAN cables, you will definitely be at a disadvantage if you do this using your mobile phones unless you are on the move. In fact, the BBDC website is not optimized for mobile access.

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My tips and tricks to pass the driving theory test

Now, here is what everybody wants to find out. I believe this would be the most important post in this blog. I do hope that it would be able to help you to pass your tests.

Update: I came across this page that shows the passing rates of different schools and private lessons. Not trying to form an opinion here but the statistics should give you an idea of how others fare and perhaps spur you a bit to be more diligent.

Please understand that what I am going to share here is based solely on my own experience and ideas. It may or may not work for you. Feel free to feedback or adapt any of the pointers to suit your needs.



The theory test (Basic and Final) comprises of 50 multiple choice questions to be completed in 50min. It is done via a touch screen computer monitor similar to the practice and evaluation if you are a school candidate. You need 45/50 (or 90%) in order to pass the test. Take note that Final Theory test is only valid for 2 years. It is a prerequisite for you to book your practical test. Which means you need to pass your practical test within 2 years. Otherwise you need to retake the Final Theory test again (read my post on my account of the Final Theory test).

Preparation

• Complete the practice booklets: If you are a school candidate, try to finish all all the practice booklet before going for the evaluation (read my post on my account of the Final Theory practice and evaluation). I find the evaluation more difficult than the actual test, so if you manage to pass the evaluation, it is highly likely you'll be able pass the actual test - If you are a private candidates you can practise using the 480 Questions and Answers (for Basic Theory) and 600 Questions and Answers (for Final Theory). 
• Mobile app for practice: There are also some mobile apps available that you can use to practise using your mobile phone. The one I used was FTTLearner which is free which comes in handy when I'm on the move.
• Revision: For school candidate, take note that there will be a waiting time of at least 2 weeks until the earliest theory test slot from the time you pass your evaluation. In between, you may want to go for more practice for revision. 
• Rest: As do for other kind of examination, get ample of rest the night before

Taking the test

• Remember to bring your I/C (or other forms of approved identification). Failure to do so will result in you being barred from taking the test. There was a lady being rejected during my session for not bringing I/C. Even a photocopy one would not work.
• Safety first: In general, the questions are mostly related to safety. The correct answer normally reflects the safest action. If you are in doubt, choose the one safest one.
• Distraction: If possible, do not sit near to the entrance. It can be quite distracting (to me) as late candidates will keep walking pass you. For my case, there was an argument between a lady and the invigilators as she forgot to bring her I/C and the invigilators did not allow her to sit for the test. It is also distracting when some candidates finished the test early and start to leave the room halfway (unless you are one of them).
• Do not rush through the test to avoid careless mistakes. You have 1 min for each question. Some questions are simple which can be done in a few seconds. The time saved can be used on other more difficult questions. So pace yourself properly.

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My tips and tricks to pass the driving practical test

Here I will write about the tips and tricks I used in order to pass the practical test for class 3 manual. Most of the pointers are general pointers meaning it applies to both manual as well as automatic.



Similarly, please understand that what I am going to share here is based solely on my own experience and ideas. It may or may not work for you. Feel free to feedback or adapt any of the pointers to suit your needs.

Before the practical test, you, will go through a warm up session with your instructor and test car. This will be your last chance to practise and revise on the circuit courses and one of the test route. For the Traffic Police Practical Test, you will be driving in your test car with a tester from the Traffic Police Department sitting beside you. You will first go through the courses in the circuit (in no particular order and some may not be tested) followed by one of the 10 test routes. Points will be deducted on any mistakes you made during the test. In order to pass, you need not more than 18 points deducted (read the full account of my Traffic Police Practical Test).

Update: I came across this page that shows the passing rates of different schools and private lessons. Not trying to form an opinion here but the statistics should give you an idea of how others fare and perhaps spur you a bit to be more diligent.

Preparation

• Familiarize test route: Familiarize with all the routes before the test. It is good to know some of the riskier part of each of the route eg slopes, pedestrian crossings, the mandatory give-way to bus yellow box and the left turn only lane (around Teck Whye and Bukit Gombak MRT). Fortunately, the routes are quite repeated, divided mainly between Bukit Batok and Choa Chu Kang. Make sure you try out all the routes during your stage 4, 5 and revision.
• Google maps: Use google maps to simulate driving along these routes. It is a good and free way to familiarize - of course if you're willing to spend or have lots of time at hand, you can take a cab or cycle along the routes. It is good if you can do that on the day before the test to take note of any road works.
• Night lessons: Book a few lessons at night to familiarize with night driving - unless you plan only to drive in the day for the rest of your live! At least you learn how to turn on the head lights. Some lessons are not advisable to be put at night. I know sometimes it is not possible (trust me, as a working person, I understand) but try as far as possible not to.
• Stage 3 parking and S and crank course - the ‘feel’ is quite different when doing it at night than in the day. As positioning of the car is quite important, a slight difference could mean kerb mounting or extra maneuvers.
• Overtaking - less car at night means less chance to learn how to overtake
• Final Review and Revision - this is the last chance for you to practise before the test so try as far as possible to make it a day lesson. In fact, there is no revision slot available for 9:10pm. Nonetheless, I still think that the 7:30pm lesson is a bit too late.
• Prepare for rainy day: It is also good if you manage to have some lessons on rainy days (I know you can’t control this). You get to learn how to on the wipers and rear window defogger. Also remember to follow the 4s rules while driving in adverse condition. Who knows you many end up in a thunderstorm during your test day. At least try to visualize in your mind if you really didn’t have a chance throughout the course. At least know where are the wiper, headlight switches. Better be prepared than be taken off guard.
• Revision: For first time practical test, you don’t need to take up revision lesson before the test but it is advised to take at least one before the test. Reason being the earliest test date you can get is normally 2 weeks later (if you are not picky of the timing). By that time, you could have forgotten some of the stuff. It is good to have one revision 1-2 days before the test. Do not take revision lesson on the day of test. You will be drained by the time you reach the test (there is a warm up session just before the test so you still have a chance to practice a bit) - take note that you may not get your group instructors for revision lesson and warm up. .
• Test time slot: Most difficult test timing - 730am - people rush to work and send kids off to school which means many impatient drivers around. According to one of my instructors, statistically, there is no difference in the passing rate. Probably the tester knows it and become more lenient.
• Rest: Ample of rest the night before the test. Last minute cramping only makes you more stressful and do more harm than good

Taking the test

• Dress appropriately: Dress smartly (and sharply) and do not be sloppy. Respect your tester. 
• Be early: Arrive at least 10min earlier 
• No coffee please: That's for me. Too much caffeine makes my hands shiver slightly and may impact my driving
• Different car: You may not get your group instructors during warm up. You may not even get the same car as what you had in Final Review or revision lessons. Please be aware of this and don't get shocked
• Greetings: Greet your tester. It is a form of respect. At least a "hi".
• Drive as usual: I know it is easier said than done. But the last thing you want is to panic and forget everything you have learnt so far. 
• Be courteous = confidence: During the test, you will find that many cars (especially BBDC L-plate cars) will give way to you. Wave at them as a sign of gratitude. It may also be seen as a display of confidence by the tester
• Beware of killer mistakes: There are some mistakes that you just can't afford to make but can easily be made if you are not careful - mount/strike kerb or stop at yellow box/pedestrian crossing or over the stop line. Be extra caution when you are near these areas
• Aim for 0 demerit points in circuit: Try not to make any mistakes in circuit. For school candidates, you should be more familiar with circuit courses. As one of my instructor put it, circuit courses are very static. Just follow the steps and it should be fine. Driving on the streets is more dynamic and unpredictable.
• Exaggerated actions: Sometimes, the tester may not notice the action your are performing especially if it is quite subtle. For example, when you check blind spot, it pays to exaggerate a bit by turning your head more (instead of just shifting your eyes). The idea is to make sure the tester knows what you're doing instead of leaving it for him to guess. In fact, if possible, voice out every action. "Signal left, check rear window, check side mirror and blind spot etc"
• Time your next maneuver: This is something debatable.  The idea is to set the stage so that it is easier to perform the next maneuver. For example, you know that you're going to do a right lane change and you're now stopping at a traffic light with many vehicles beside and behind you. To set the stage, you can drive slower when the light turns green so as to let all vehicle to move pass you. Now the road is clear and easier for you to do lane change. You may get penalized for slow in moving off but that is just only 2 points. Unable to lane change would cause you even more points and unnecessary stress. Another example is at the up slop pedestrian crossing along Teck Whye Lane. Sometimes, you could adjust your speed upslope so that you do not need to stop (and perform the difficult moving off slope maneuver) on the slope. When there is nobody crossing the road or nearby, speed up and get pass the crossing quickly. If you see from far that there are people crossing, slow down to let all of them cross and once all of them have crossed, speed up - it does not always work. It very much depends on the crowd.
• Street traffic is unpredictable: This really depends on the traffic situation on that day. There could be sudden road works or cargo lorry unloading or emergency ambulance or even accident. The weather could suddenly turn worse into thunderstorms or haze (seriously?). On the streets, expect lesser drivers to give way to you even if you are on double L. I had a taste of this during my test. So keep yourself alert and look far while driving (that's why ample of rest the night before is crucial). Anticipate what kind of obstacles you may encounter along the way. During your warm up, take note of any roadworks along the way.

Here, I wish you all the best in your driving test. I hope the above tips and tricks would be of help to you. Most importantly...

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DAY 114: Singapore Traffic Police Practical Driving Test

Finally it is here
Today is the day of reckoning. It is the day that will decide whether my hard work and determination for the past 3 months would paid off or whether I would be $400 poorer (due to retake). With so much effort, time and money already spent in order to reach this stage, it is hard not to be nervous. I didn't slept a lot the night before as I spent quite a bit of time trying to run through google maps to familiarize with the test routes (which I don't advice to do the night before).

The wait...
To cut the story short, I arrived at BBDC 10min earlier. I was told to wait outside the video screening room beside counter 5. After 5 minutes, an instructor came over to register me. Then I waited in the video screening room for my vehicle to be ready. The room was meant for those who passed the test and they were required to watch a video in the room. I was chased out of the room after a while as they needed to run the video for a group of students (ok I don't belong there yet).

The warm up
A few minutes later, an instructor came to bring me to my test car for warm up. So we drove out from the parking lot and immediately he tab on the dashboard. Haha, I knew he would do that as he displayed all the signs. So immediately I stepped on the brake to perform an e-brake. Then we proceed to do all the circuit courses (S course, crank course, directional change, moving off slope, vertical parking and parallel parking). I think I did quite well - no mount/strike kerb except that I rolled back quite a bit during moving off the circuit slope as I didn't release the clutch enough. My low speed control was also smooth and I know my way around the circuits. Then we drove out to the streets. So far so good except that I was slowed down by a bus that kept stopping at the bus stops. I wanted to overtake but there were many vehicles at the right-lane. Then we returned to BBDC and I was told to go to the waiting area at the second floor.

Another wait... 
The wait was not very long but it was stressful. There were already several candidates waiting when I arrived. One by one, they were called out by their tester. It was like waiting for your turn to go for a job interview. On the other side of the room was a barricaded area for those who completed their test to get their test results or to dispute with the tester in case of disagreement.  I could hear things like "Stop line means you must stop even if there's no incoming vehicle" and "Your instructor didn't teach you?" etc etc etc. All in all, the room is not a place you want to spend too much time in.

The test - route 7
Finally I could hear a soft voice near to the entrance calling my name. I quickly got out of my seat and proceeded to the entrance to meet my instructor. He told me I would be doing route 7. I didn't manage to say hi to him. We quickly proceeded to the test car. Along the way, I managed to get a last peek at my practical handbook for the route 7 map.

I didn’t see any of my group instructors today. I don’t expect them to cheer me on anyway in fact most of my lessons were try-sell so i didn’t manage to build a rapport with any of them. In fact, the only instructor who cheered me on was my first lesson instructor.from another group and he still remembered me although he had only taken me for 2 lessons.

So the test began. Actually I was a bit worn out already after the warm up and felt sleepy (I used to take coffee in the morning but not today because I don't want my hands to tremble during driving). We first proceeded to the circuit courses. His instruction was very clear on which route to take and where to turn etc in the circuit. Also I find everyone was super nice to me. Other cars would give way to me to do the courses. Some instructors even stopped incoming cars so that I can do the right turn. Every time, I would wave at them as a gesture of gratitude.

I managed to clear all the courses smoothly. Smoothly meaning no mount/strike kerb and other silly mistakes (like driving in opposite direction or beat red light). But along the way, I saw the tester tick on the test paper several times. I did't know what mistakes I made. I thought I did fine. Anyway, no point thinking about it now. No e-brake by the way.

After the circuit, we moved on to street driving. The traffic condition was smooth except for some heavy vehicles unloading at Bukit Batok Street 32. Then the unfortunate started to happen. While trying to overtake an unloading lorry, a fast food delivery bike appeared suddenly on my left while I was trying to lane change back to left lane. He was riding at such high speed that I didn't even notice him at my blind spot but lucky I was quick to swerve my car to the right. However to the tester, it was considered dangerous driving on my part. Then another unfortunate incident happened when I was about to enter into Bukit Batok Road from the slip road. My car engine stalled! It was because I took too long to check for incoming vehicles until I didn't notice the car had slowed down to almost a halt. Then I try to move off in gear 2 causing the car to jerk and stalled. I was quick to restart engine and proceeded on. As the traffic was quite smooth, I had no issue doing lane change. Similar to inside the circuit, I saw the tester made several ticks on the paper along the way.

After the test, we went back to the same waiting room. This time I was told to sit in the barricaded area while waiting for the tester to come. After the 2 major mistakes I made, I felt my chances of passing drifted further.. I saw 2 other candidates at the other tables discussing with their testers. Both of them failed. (You see the kind of stress I need to go through...)

Five minutes later, the tester came in holding my test paper. He sat in front of me and with a soft and stern voice, he said to me this...

"You made one major mistake. When the motorcyclist rode past you, you should have seen him at your blind spot and stop lane changing back to left lane. This is considered dangerous driving. Apart from this, your low speed control was not very good. You stepped on the accelerator too much causing the engine to roar loudly. Also you kept turning your steering wheel while stationary. Engine stalled twice when trying to enter the major road..."

Then he said something which every candidates wanted (sometimes desperately) to hear.

"Nonetheless... Congratulations, you passed"

He handed me my test paper and I saw my results. 18 points. I did it! I managed to pass (barely) on the first attempt. I don't need to spend any more time and money in this place anymore. I was very happy and excited. Now I am a fully qualified driver. I thanked the tester, shook his hand and went down to the video room to watch 2 gruesome videos on the results of dangerous and drunk driving (plus fill up a survey form).

I didn't go directly to apply for my license as I need to rush off to somewhere else (sometimes the waiting time could be 1 hour) so I went back to apply a few days later.


Appreciation
I want to thank my wife for supporting me all these while and be there to cheer for me during my practical test. I also want to thank all the instructors who had taught me (and those instructors who gave ways and helped to give way during the test). Most of you were not from my default group, but most of my driving knowledge and skills came from you guys.

Expenditure

Practical Test (incl warm up and car rental)    $242.72
Driving License Registration                           $50.00
Final cost:                                                        $2929.60

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DAY 112: Revision Practical Lesson

My one and only revision lesson. In the end, I decided to only take up 1 revision lesson. I think I spent a bit too much on the lessons already. And I think (somehow able to tell myself) that I am not that bad. Luckily, after 3 weeks without practice, my skills didn't deteriorate much. My moving-off was still smooth. I could still remember all the circuit courses and indicators (though during one of the vertical parking, I forgot to adjust back my side mirrors before moving off). I revised on test route 8 and 9 because I was still not very familiar with the part on right lane change if instructor told me to go straight at Choa Chu Kang Road (before Teck Whye LRT station) for route 8 and the Bukit Gombak Station for route 9. Also in test route 8, there is an up slope with a pedestrian crossing at the top. I didn't manage to do my moving off slope maneuver because I had no chance to stop my car as there was no pedestrian crossing the road at that time.


Things to take note:

• Beware of bus stopping at the bus stop in front of pedestrian crossing (at Bukit Batok West Ave 7). You may end up on the pedestrian crossing which would be -10pts.
• Right turn back to BBDC was too slow when there was no car.
• Make sure to check that no pedestrian is crossing along the gate of the road leading into BBDC. Sometimes it is hard to see
• Be careful during lane change. If the traffic is heavy and it is dangerous to perform lane change, do not do so even though you will veer off the route. Explain to tester about the situation instead - I'm not sure about this as it could be quite subjective. Better pray hard that you'll not end up in such a situation

Expenditure

Practical                 $77.04
Total cost so far:     $2636.88

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