Today I failed my part 1 driving instructor exam AGAIN. That's 3 times I've failed. And at £90 to take the test, its not cheap.
Its like a normal theory test. Except harder, you have to do 100 questions in 90 minutes. They arn't easy, one I got today was "Checking blind spots on the move can be dangerous. While travelling at 70mph if you take your eyes off the road for approximately one second, how far will you travel in meters without looking at the road" (its 30 meters BTW), or "colour blind drivers can tell the difference between amber and red warning lights because red lights always flash - A: Diaganolly B: Quickly C: Vertically or D: Horizontally" (its D, horizontally). ALL the questions are like that. And you have under one minute to answer each one. All 100 of them. You need 85 to pass, and I got 96, in under half an hour, which I'm chuffed with.
Its the hazard perception I struggle with. I've spoken and blogged about it so many times I can't be bothered, but basically its a stealth tax, wasn't tested, and statistically does not make learners safer drivers. What it does do is make it fucking hard to get a driving licence now. I did one for a car, and then one for a motorbike, and now I'm doing ANOTHER fucking one for my driving instructing course. The thing is, in car and bike tests you've got to score 46. On the same test I have to score 57. Todays fail was my highest scoring one, 55.
Currently, I know I can't do ANY better. I think its just down to luck, really. Personally I would rather anticipate hazards in advance of the 5 second scoring window, but unfortuantely the DSA didn't really put much thought into the test.
Alright, now a lot of you are thinking 'yeah this guy is just dissing the test because he can't do it'. Ahem. Read the DSA publications 'Driving, the essential skills', 'learning to drive', and then sit a catagory A and then a catagory B licence test, and you'll see why its such utter crap, every ADI I've met agrees with me.
Just working out the cost of my course, £3600 tuition fees, £700 for my laptop (Which I bought for work, my old one wasn't good enough), £300 for online training, £50 for additional studying materials, £1000 for a car to practice in (with £300 insurance on top of that), and £270 on the tests I've failed, then ANOTHER £90 for my retake. Nearly £6,000 so far.
What really takes the piss is I don't get government help, but if I wanted to study media studies or something that will NOT lead to employment, I would get a loan/grants to study (so excuse me for being a fucking nhilist sometimes). But seeing as I don't, I have to work full time to pay rent and keep the car on the road and then I'm dirt poor on top of that and so tired I get ill - you try doing 100 hour weeks of cheffing and studying and see how long you last.
Argh, sorry guys, just pretty damm depressed about the whole thing really.
