Yes, today I’ve failed the road test. It’s a grey day, the 15th of May. I thought I could go through it easily. But I hit the gas pedal so hard and all of a sudden, just that single moment of hitting the gas pedal I failed the test. “Going over the speed limit is an automatic fail”, the examiner said, “You’re doing good the rest, good luck next time”.
My Pakistanian driving instructor was so disappointed in me. He didn’t even want to look into my face, and the whole way driving me back home he was sighing. “I cannot believe the reality that you failed”, the instructor said, “you were performing so well”. He was trying to blame the examiner too, “he’s so bad”. But I was trying to admit the fault on me. I was listening to everything he instructed me, except for that speed limit, because when I was turning left earlier he yelled at me to speed up, I was talking with him then I forgot to speed up during my lane change. Here are all the key points that the examiner was checking, I’m listing the points in order of being tested
| Activities | Actions/ important notes | Status |
| Speed bump | Slow down almost completely | OK |
| Stop sign | Completely stop the car before the stop sign, if it is a way stop sign, then make sure you look around before moving forward. If it’s an all-way stop sign, then first come first go. | OK |
| Left / Right turn (without traffic light) | Turn on the signal, check the mirror and blind spots | OK |
| Turn left/right (with a traffic light) | Turn on the signal, and check the mirror, and blind spots, if you’re turning left, make sure to yield the way to the incoming cars, moving into the left most of the lane. Then accelerate, turn on the right signal, check the blind spot, then change the lane to the right one by one when safe to do so. If turning left with the green light on, only one car is in the intersection. If there is a green light arrow left, then you can go. | Failed, when accelerating and with over-speed limits |
| Speed limits | Check the speed sign for the limit, if there is no speed sign you will go 50 km/h. If in the school zone, go below 40, if you are on the main road, go up to whatever speed limit tells, if it’s 60, go closer to 60, if it’s 70, go closer to 70. Keep the speed stable. | Failed, both on the main road and when going into the school zone. I was 86km/h on the main road and 50 in the school zone. |
| Uphill / Downhill parking | Uphill parking, turn the wheel left. Downhill parking, turn the wheel right. | OK |
| Parallel parking | Right signal, 1 meter away from the front car, all the way left for the wheel, and go in reverse until your car 45-degree angle with the sidewalk | OK |
| Three-point turn | Left signal, check mirrors, blind spot, etc. Make sure when you go into reverse not too far, else you might hit the pavement | OK |
| Reversed parking / Forward parking | There are tricks to do both kinds of parking. For example, the forward parking, keep driving close to the left. As long as you follow the tricks you can do easily for both. For this exam of mine, the examiner only asked for parking, he didn’t care what kind of parking I chose | OK |
After the failed exam. I went to Westdale Mall to grab a Subway sandwich. Grab some stuff there also. Then went home, and finished my job. I don’t take the whole day off, there is plenty of stuff that I have to work my ass off until 9 PM. Finally, I can breathe easier now. For my next road test booking it will be at least another month or so. I probably will schedule it around 19 June or something. We will see about that.
