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Tips for the P's test!

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:14 pm
by AidanO
What are your tips for those of us going for our license in the near future?

Buy your assessor a coffee? :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:18 pm
by Metalstrix
AidanO wrote:What are your tips for those of us going for our license in the near future? Buy your assessor a coffee? :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:


Concentrate, don't be nervous and be confident.

Don't go through yellow lights. I highly recommend that you go about 40km/hr metres before the lights so that'll give you an excuse to stop and other drives will forgive you because they think you're a new learner ;).

Look out for stop signs, and look on the road to see if it's a Full lane/line.

Don't floor it, no burn outs and jumping up ramps ;).

Good luck!

oh and you should drink the coffee before hand, not the assessor. xD

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:24 pm
by taz
Dont put yourself in a situation where others can fail the test for you.
I made the mistake of doing this the first time i went for my Ps, failed within 50m of getting out the gate. I was turning right at a T (from the bottom of the T) and he was coming from the right turning left, had is indicator on etc slowed down then so i pulled out to go and he decided to cancel and speed ujp to go straight ahead, immediate fail - dont put yourself in those kinds of situations etc. Make sure to count to 3 at a stop sign etc. Just dont rush and you will be fine. (unfortunately though a lot of error can reside in the instructor/others)

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:31 pm
by Kyrus
good advice so far, you should also exaggerate your motion of checking mirror and blind spots.

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:49 pm
by AidanO
Awesome tips guys thanks so much! Keep em coming!

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:50 pm
by Metalstrix
Oh btw, forgot to mention, if you are going about 50km/hr and there's no way of stopping at a yellow light, they won't penalise you for that. But if you have enough metres to stop, then stop :)

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 9:22 pm
by shadow-vex
My advice (reasons I failed)
Don't speed, make sure you know it's a school zone time (but the signs flash now so you should be good), stop at the stop sign for 3 seconds and not roll through it like all the cars in front of you, when the instructor says something do the opposite ( coz u listened to them it's instructor intormenting which is an automatic fail, and don't go in a "hoon" looking car coz they go harder on you and test everything. Ohhhh and watch out for cyclists coz if they come near ur car it's a fail.
Now I did this once (but u need to do it three times to fsil) indicate left when exiting a round about ( even tho I did it once the instructor failed me, and said I did not indicate three times but could only mention the one time I did it.
Can't remember if it's a fail item but if your at giveway sign and want to go left (merging with traffic) and only look right ( coz tht is where cars are coming from, and your car is already on a slight left angle), look left otherwise this is failing to check ur surroundings or some bullshit. Best of luck man

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:04 pm
by mmjjee
Got my P's about 2 month ago.
In all honesty, you are going to be sh*ting yourself within 1-2 hours before the exam. However, once your'e about 5 minutes in you tend to relax and just concentrate on your driving. (at least I did)
Stop at yellow lights if it is not a risk to drivers behind you. Every time you turn (left or right) ALWAYS check over that shoulder and exaggerate it - any time when you move over a metre or more a shoulder check is required.
Drive 5Km/h under the speed limit to ensure you don't get a silly fail for speeding.
When reversing always look through back window and only slight glances in mirrors (must always look in direction of motion of vehicle)
If you hit the curb, don't stress it isn't a fail - only if you MOUNT the curb you fail.
Drive as if your car is made out of glass and you will do fine! Good Luck!


EDIT: Probably repeated most of what others said, but anyway!

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:08 am
by rokpapaziz
Pretty much all is summed up in this video

http://youtu.be/JQYHhltkDm4

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:19 am
by shadow-vex
rokpapaziz wrote:Pretty much all is summed up in this video http://youtu.be/JQYHhltkDm4

so no matter what he does he will fail?

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:24 am
by rokpapaziz
shadow-vex wrote:[quote:a9e2523fb7=rokpapaziz]Pretty much all is summed up in this video http://youtu.be/JQYHhltkDm4[/quote:a9e2523fb7] so no matter what he does he will fail?


I suppose it's a video about "What not to do"

In all honesty though if you're under 20 and male don't be surprised if you fail the first time. Really comes down to how the tester perceives you.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:43 am
by shadow-vex
it not only comes down to how they perceive you but how they perceive the car

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 12:03 pm
by Seffy
I failed a test because of a stupid bus driver that don't indicate until it's too late. I was turning right into a main road and this bus suddenly comes in to the lane to turn into the street I was turning out of as I went for it, and only indicated once they were actually almost going to take the turn.

Tbh it's my fault for not being super alert regarding other drivers' unexpected actions, but it was a Saturday morning so I thought it'd be easier for me to deal with traffic. - Don't think like this; if you do the test during low-traffic hours/times it does not mean it is easier. However, don't feel pressured for it, be confident with your driving because showing confidence is a really good thing and tells the assessor you know what you're doing.

So my advice on top of everyone else's:

Look out for vehicles that might do something stupid and not indicate while turning/merginig/whatever. You'll have to be really alert for these, cos you'll get screwed over and fail if you "fail to give way" so to speak. Take your time when doing turns into other streets/roads.

Be light on the pedal. Now this can actually take quite a lot of self-control (so is driver patience), but if you're not in a higher powered car it'd be easier since it's almost pointless to punt it in something that's not meant to go fast in a short amount of time. (I drove a WRX for my test, it was really difficult to do this lol).

I probably repeated what some of the others have said haha. Also Marcus makes a really good point, don't be surprised if you don't get it the first time, assessors tend to be really strict and whatnot. The second time around they're somewhat a lot better.

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2014 1:40 pm
by Loki
There have been no updates to this thread ....

Did you get your P's?