Radar19:
This! The current setup doesn’t prepare you for the real world is any way shape or form. The yard at my old work place would test even a veteran driver at busy times.
To be fair it’s a good instructional test for new drivers which teaches the essential bit that it’s the drive axle which steers the trailer and it’s more about when and where to take the different locks off than putting them on and that the trailer will continue to turn and fold with the steering straight and central. 
robroy:
I learned to reverse AFTER I passed my test.
You’ll let us know then? 
Evil8Beezle:
robroy:
I learned to reverse AFTER I passed my test.You’ll let us know then?
I’m reversing like a newbie myself at the moment, got a dodgy muscle problem in my upper left arm.
■■■■ embarrassing when anybody is looking 
, I can normally put it anywhere 
…baby! 
robroy:
Evil8Beezle:
robroy:
I learned to reverse AFTER I passed my test.You’ll let us know then?
I’m reversing like a newbie myself at the moment, got a dodgy muscle problem in my upper left arm.
[zb] embarrassing when anybody is looking
As a newbie I find it more difficult to reverse into a row or empty bays find myself taking shunts haha But stick two trailers either side and I’ll get an artic or wag and drag in it within minutes.
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this guy failed as well if it’s any consolation…
Radar19:
This! The current setup doesn’t prepare you for the real world is any way shape or form. The yard at my old work place would test even a veteran driver at busy times.
And don`t even get me started on Riverside when a Ferry is late/has missed 
Back to OP, honestly, its a fluid thing. Yes you have markers to go by, but every trailer/unit/surface will act a bit differently, so you have to make small adjustments as you go. I was the same as you wanting a hard and fast way to do it, but there isnt one, you just have to do it. Absolute best bit of advice I got by a country mile was slow it down, slow everything right down, this way gives you chance to correct if you are a bit out, dont let it run away with you. Best of luck for your next one, Im sure you`ll be fine 
Don’t feel bad or beat yourself up about about it. Like you I failed first time on reverse and then went out and got no minors… Like everyone has said stay calm and don’t let the nerves get the better of you. I was shaking like a good one second time around after I had got it in box. Keep calm and use your shunts! Good luck
SHUNT1986:
Don’t feel bad or beat yourself up about about it. Like you I failed first time on reverse and then went out and got no minors… Like everyone has said stay calm and don’t let the nerves get the better of you. I was shaking like a good one second time around after I had got it in box. Keep calm and use your shunts! Good luck
If your username is after the number of shunts that you took, you might not be the right one to give him advice on reversing.
robroy:
SHUNT1986:
Don’t feel bad or beat yourself up about about it. Like you I failed first time on reverse and then went out and got no minors… Like everyone has said stay calm and don’t let the nerves get the better of you. I was shaking like a good one second time around after I had got it in box. Keep calm and use your shunts! Good luckIf your username is after the number of shunts that you took, you might not be the right one to give him advice on reversing.
robroy:
SHUNT1986:
Don’t feel bad or beat yourself up about about it. Like you I failed first time on reverse and then went out and got no minors… Like everyone has said stay calm and don’t let the nerves get the better of you. I was shaking like a good one second time around after I had got it in box. Keep calm and use your shunts! Good luckIf your username is after the number of shunts that you took, you might not be the right one to give him advice on reversing.
Pmsl… Not that many shunts nearly that much in paying fo retests’!!!
SHUNT1986:
robroy:
SHUNT1986:
Don’t feel bad or beat yourself up about about it. Like you I failed first time on reverse and then went out and got no minors… Like everyone has said stay calm and don’t let the nerves get the better of you. I was shaking like a good one second time around after I had got it in box. Keep calm and use your shunts! Good luckIf your username is after the number of shunts that you took, you might not be the right one to give him advice on reversing.
Pmsl… Not that many shunts nearly that much in paying fo retests’!!!
Yeh bloody expensive now from what I hear.
Questionable whether the end justifies the means with a lot of new lads also with some of the jobs on offer.
robroy:
SHUNT1986:
robroy:
SHUNT1986:
Don’t feel bad or beat yourself up about about it. Like you I failed first time on reverse and then went out and got no minors… Like everyone has said stay calm and don’t let the nerves get the better of you. I was shaking like a good one second time around after I had got it in box. Keep calm and use your shunts! Good luckIf your username is after the number of shunts that you took, you might not be the right one to give him advice on reversing.
Pmsl… Not that many shunts nearly that much in paying fo retests’!!!
Yeh bloody expensive now from what I hear.
Questionable whether the end justifies the means with a lot of new lads also with some of the jobs on offer.
I know what you mean, nigh on £400 for a retest is a lot when you don’t have it and like you say some of the crappy jobs and agency rubbish on offer does make me wonder why I started in the first place…
The test and instruction re reversing is such a load of of bo locks. One set manovere with painted makers to help leaves just passed drivers so hopelessly equipped for real world reversing it’d be funny if not so serious. There, that’s my tuppence worth
The test reverse manoevre is relatively easy but bears absolutely no relation to what is found in real life particularly if performed with a flatbed,says an old hand.
My instructor always said."Slow with the vehicle,quick with the steering."That was in the days of muscle steering and no “third hand” knobs.
Main part of my practice for class 1 was being left alone on the area set up by the instructor, much tighter than the actual test area, spotted quickly on the day that the ‘do this when you see that mark, do that when you see that one’ wasn’t going to work and just used my eyes to make sure the trailer went where I wanted it, got out once to look at the distance to the rear when I was in the bay.
In real working life, sometimes I get the line right first time, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes one shunt corrects it at other times after another line failure or two I’ll drive well forward and start again, might not help for passing a test but it certainly helps in keeping a job!
I am a year into my class 1 and I found the reversing manoeuvre a complete pain. Look for this marker in your mirror, turn the wheel this way at this point etc. It was a complete head ■■■■ to someone with no trailer experience. I was getting better at it as the week went on but then at the test centre I completely ■■■■ the bed all because of the different surroundings. I managed to scrape through it somehow but like others have said it bears no resemblance to the reversing you do on the job in the real world.
All I can tell you is that with experience, reversing becomes MUCH easier so try not to worry about things too much. If I was to take that test reverse again I would do it all from a completely different perspective to the way they teach it to you. As it stands the test set up prepares you in no way for the job and it is staggering that they have not addressed this fact. At the very least there should be a 3 bay scenario where you have to pull up on your good side and back it onto the bay between two other wagons. At least that would give you a bit of a clue to begin with.
Reversing on the test in ireland the ■■■■■■ testing you on artic decides which side you should reverse on. The reverese is around a corner and your expected to keep it off the kerbs and gravel. Who the ■■■■ revreses around a corner in the real world.
Irish_neris:
Reversing on the test in ireland the [zb] testing you on artic decides which side you should reverse on. The reverese is around a corner and your expected to keep it off the kerbs and gravel. Who the [zb] revreses around a corner in the real world.
Quite a lot of people I imagine. I know I have to on an almost daily basis for various reasons.
Irish_neris:
Reversing on the test in ireland the [zb] testing you on artic decides which side you should reverse on. The reverese is around a corner and your expected to keep it off the kerbs and gravel. Who the [zb] revreses around a corner in the real world.
Err, me. Have to do it a lot.
And me.
