Im pretty confident in driving abilities for taking the test this week with nearly two months of driving with someone else. My only real issue with taking my drivers test is that its my understanding sometimes DMVs have a secret everyone fails once policy, or some instructors do. I’m mainly wondering on average in the US low long did people have to wait.
Don’t plan to fail. It’s definitely not true that everyone fails once.
As a personal tip, book one lesson with a driving instructor before your test. They’ll be able to call out all your mistakes, and it will be fresh in your mind during the real test.
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From what I’ve heard, US tests are super easy.
They will give nearly anyone a drivers license here. It doesn’t help that it is the de facto form of identification which is another ridiculous matter.
Not necessarily. You can get an ID from the DMV that doesn’t grant you a drivers license, but the drivers license servers exactly the same purpose and allows you to drive, something 90% of the population want. So drivers license obviously is extremely more popular but you can get a plastic ID card similar to it from the DMV.
In my state you actually need to get a plastic card before taking the test. Since you need multiple forms of ID
Everyone fails once would be illegal, and sounds more like something from a movie than reality. They are not there to be against you, nor for you, but just to make sure you meet the basic standards. In general I doubt the want you coming back for another that is more work for them.
its my understanding sometimes DMVs have a secret everyone fails once policy, or some instructors do.
Literally never heard this. I passed on my first attempt. Only missed one point for not merging all the way into the bike lane when turning right.
Though if possible, I would talk to people who have taken the test at the exact DMV and ask if there are any gotchas. The DMV I took mine at had a nasty curb on the driveway while turning in that many people would hit on the way in and autofail at the very end. I had more than one person give me a heads up about it before my test, so I practiced it on my own first.
Its not official, but some instructors and some DMVs kinda do this on the downlow. Ive heard cases of it on Reddit
Nope, I heard the same rumor in highschool and it’s just bullshit spread by people that can’t accept that they missed stuff while driving. If you failed, it’s because you missed things, they don’t get anything out of failing you.
There are some things that are automatic fails in some states (not checking blind spots, disobeying a traffic sign, 10mph over/under speed limit, and hitting something are all automatic fails in California at least) so that could be it, or you just messed up enough things while doing the initial check or while driving.
At least in California, I think it’s 2 weeks between retaking written or road tests. If you fail a second time, try asking the evaluator what you messed up on so you can improve. Everything is marked in points, so it’s not just an arbitrary “yeah they drove alright and I like them, passed”, they can tell you specifics of what points you missed
Ive heard cases of it on Reddit
I’ve also heard on reddit that giving cats scratches is like torture to them and they hate it. People on reddit (and most of the internet as well) are morons. Including me. Don’t listen to anything they say, but definitely, definitely don’t listen to anything I say.
I failed my first time. The instructor never told me why I failed, so I have no idea what I needed to improve on. I remember thinking it MUST be the parallel parking section, so I asked my dad to take me out to the DMV so I could spend an hour or two perfecting my parallel parking.
I scheduled a second test for the next Sunday. Little did I realize this was Super Bowl Sunday. The instructor I got that time around was very chill and just told me to drive through a nearby neighborhood a few times so we could wrap things up quickly. I was never even asked to parallel park.
All of this to say that I don’t think the DMV has a secret failing policy, but I can guarantee you that some instructors take it more seriously than others.
That’s not a thing. I only know one person who ever failed.
Only took it once, I don’t know anyone personally that took it more than once. If there’s a minimum wait time it would be posted in your state’s policies, but I’d guess they’ll take your money for the second test as soon as you want the too
That was not a thing in my experience. The only thing I got a point taken off for was not checking my mirrors when turning. I did, but I guess I should have exaggerated turning my head to make it more obvious.
I’d believe it if I was told that some instructors will never give a perfect score and will always find something to ding you for, but it would be absurd to have a standard policy of failing everyone.
It was over 20 years ago, but I passed mine the first time. And if you’re taking the test for the BMV they legally have to be fair, they can be super picky, but if you don’t do anything wrong they can’t falsely penalize you.
If you’re worried the person giving you the test is going to be super picky then just be super careful.Which time?
Passed mine first try. It helps to take it somewhere suburban-almost-rural–the roads will be way easier and the instructors are more inclined to pass people because it’s much more important for people in those places to have licenses.
Said I could come back the next day, as it turned out I was busy that day so I passed the following day instead. I failed because I got over confident backing out of a parking spot an nudged a cone. Or, as he put it, I murdered a toddler. Fair enough. We did the backing up thing first so I could get that out of the way, the rest of the test was easy.
I’ve never heard of a weird secret code to force you to fail, just relax and don’t run over any toddlers, I mean cones, and I’m sure you’ll be just fine!
It depends on the state and how busy the DMV is.
I technically failed my first time, as the backup lights in my car didn’t work, so I didn’t even get to the driving part. They let me use a different vehicle the same day, so I passed with a vehicle that I didn’t drive too often. I’ve never heard of a secret policy where everyone automatically fails, and most of the people I’ve known pass the first time, so I’m guessing it’s some urban legend.
If anything I’ve heard of people always getting marked down for something but arbitrarily failing everyone completely on their first try would just lead to a huge backlog of test takers.
I could see why someone would think it, though. My girlfriend got her license very late, we went to the same DMV 3 times to take the test. First time, bapped the pole during the parallel park, instant fail, do not pass go, do not collect a driver’s license. Second time, didn’t pass the parallel park but didn’t bap the pole, so continued. Got marked “Fail” on things. More practice, third time, again, tons of fails over minor errors. Note that there is a middle point between good and fail, but they literally never used it.
Fourth time, I said screw that DMV, we’re going to a different one. We went to a town with a tiny DMV with one little older lady running it, she literally had to lock up the office portion for every road test because she was alone. Girlfriend miraculously did the parallel park perfect, not a single fail on anything, and 2/3 of the middle scores. Passed easily.
First DMV had a lot of young workers, so my thinking is they like to mark everything they can to show their bosses how good they are at nitpicking other people’s driving.
I didn’t fail, and I never heard the “everyone fails once” thing. But also I learned from a private driving school, where the test was given by my regular instructor and had exactly the same vibe as all our regular practice sessions did.
