Hello all. Long time lurker, first time poster.
Just sat my cat C test last Monday and kicking myself, didn’t make the pass sadly, and for a couple of silly mistakes. I wasn’t sure if I’d do well since my mock test resulted in two serious and eleven minors.
Went to the test center on a sorta sunny afternoon but as soon as I got parked up the sky just completely opened, and it didn’t end as the examiner came out and ran me through it. At least I can say he was a pleasant bloke, we made a few jokes about the rain and he ran me through a couple of quick vehicle safety questions before we started off but I was already nervous at this point so when he asked me to hit the horn I completely forgot where it was, and then when I did remember it wouldn’t work, something about the ignition not being turned. (What sense is a horn that doesn’t work without the key in?) So after a brief panic I managed that one and then it was on to the reversing! Before the test I’d done it no problem at all, five or six times that morning even, but being so eager with it I nearly clipped the first cone on the left just driving in! I was sweating buckets when it came into view in the rear mirror, about a hair’s breadth from going under the back wheel. Then down with the window, and out over the side to get my head soaked during the reverse, ended up being no problem at all, even though the far smoother tarmac had me going a lot faster than in practise, got it in no bother. The examiner only looked at the back end for five seconds before he jogged back around, it was lashing down at this point and since he didn’t bother to ask me if I wanted to check, just got into the cab and said I was fine and there was no point us both getting soaked before the drive, and to drive on until told otherwise.
Most of the drive went well, aside from the motorway section where the spray made it impossible to see more than maybe a hundred feet ahead, I’d forgotten to put on the lights but somehow didn’t earn a minor for that, and when I DID turn them on, I used the wrong stalk and ended up with the front fogs right up until we came off at the next junction! I suppose that was fine considering the weather though, so it didn’t get marked down. I had an issue with not going quick enough once on roundabouts during training, ended up with cars and the odd white van overtaking as I was trying to come off but thankfully for the test that didn’t happen. It was when we got into the city that things started to go to crap. Going down a residential street with cars on both sides we got to a point where only one vehicle could pass, so following my instructor’s advice I pulled out a bit to let oncoming traffic see I was going to need the full width. One little red car wasn’t having that and shot out coming the other way, so I had to stop for him, which was all fine… except that he got halfway down the street, saw the gap I had to my right (which imho was enough for him) and then started backing up the road… so that was a fail right there, though I didn’t know it at the time, too busy concentrating on the drive.
The second serious came when I was approaching a full 90 degree bend right on the other side of a narrow bridge, I crossed the bridge only to find another car coming round the bend and panicked, instead of stopping in place and letting him pass I turned a bit too sharply and mounted the kerb with the back wheel, which I didn’t even notice until the back end dropped down. Got one serious for that, and a minor for lack of forward planning. After that the drive went okay, if a touch busy considering we were going right through Carlisle city center. We got back to the test center with me clocking up two more minors along the way, another for forward planning and one for mirrors. In the end I clocked up three serious faults. One for left mirror checks, one for forcing traffic to change direction, and one for mounting the kerb, and only four minors in mirrors, signaling and forward planning. Was completely gutted since I’d done so well getting down from 11 minors the day before. I didn’t pass the car on the first go either though, so I was prepared not to pass just from the stress alone. The annoying part now is that I’m waiting until mid October before I can get in for another test. Bloody annoying when you’re eager to take another shot at it. Oh well!
As my examiner said, I just need to learn how to take it slow… without being too slow… and without going too fast, without delaying traffic, and without causing disruption to traffic coming the other way. On narrow inner city streets. Easy, right?
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