A common comment I hear from pupils nearing their test is "I've heard that the lady examiner/the examiner with glasses/the tall examiner (etc) is horrible and really strict". My reply is 'did you hear that from someone who failed their test?' If you pass your test you're not going to be telling friends how unfair the examiner was.
In October 2010 it will, apparently, become compulsory for instructors to sit in the back of the car during the test. Many instructors are against this because it 'infringes on their rights'. What twaddle. The instructor is paid for that time regardless of whether they accompany the test or whether they spend the hour at the test centre doing whatever is 'their right'! At present, if a pupil wants me to sit in the back I'll sit in the back, if they think it will put them off I stay at the TC. If they are not fussy either way I'll sit in the back if I'm not completely confident in them.
Last Tuesday Kimberley asked me to sit in on her test - she said I would be 'a calming influence'(!). She had a lot of lessons earlier in the year but, as the money dried up so did the lessons. However, she passed a mock test quite comfortably and I was happy that she was good enough to pass her test.
Off we went, out of the TC, down to the notorious Inshes (spiral) roundabout, turning right to access the A9. So far, so good. Good awareness, good control.... keep it up Kimberley. There is a long stretch of A9 down to the Kessock Bridge roundabout (another spiral). In plenty of time, the examiner asks Kimberley to turn right (3rd exit) at the roundabout. I can see that there is a long queue (maybe 800m) in the right lane. Kimberley needs to start checking her rear and right mirrors, indicating, and moving out to the right lane to join the queue...... but she doesn't. By the time she has realised her mistake she is still in the left lane with a queue of barely-moving traffic on her right. Although she slows down, she is still not indicating right and we are running out of road before the roundabout. Kimberley is starting to look rather anxious, the examiner is spinning his head and I am squirming as discreetly as possible. Finally, she indicates right and manages to nip in to a gap someone had kindly left for her. Too late though; this will be marked as a Serious Fault - Awareness/Planning.
Sometimes pupils are so nervous that they hear the examiner say 'turn left' and the pupil indicates right. It doesn't matter. As long as their car does exactly what they have indicated they are going to do then they are fine. When Cameron took his first test the examiner asked him to 'follow the road ahead (at a roundabout), taking the 2nd exit'. Something in Cameron's head translated this as 'turn right'! So indicated right and turned right - no fault. The examiner simply adjusted the route to get Cameron back on track (geographically at least).
So.... Kimberley is now approaching the roundabout, where the examiner has asked her to turn right. She has checked her mirrors, she is indicating right, she has slowed to a nice speed, in the correct gear, she has seen a gap into which she lightly accelerates, then she turns right...... round the roundabout, passing the 3rd exit, and back up the A9 heading in the opposite direction!
My bafflement at Kimberley doing this is over-ridden by my curiosity as to what the examiner will do now. Kimberley indicated right and turned right, so no fault, but the examiner now knows that there is quite a long drive ahead before he can even think about getting Kimberley back on course. Worse still, the examiner is from a different area, covering holiday leave, so I'm not even sure he knows where to go if the pupil does go off route.
Therefore I had great admiration for the examiner when he managed to direct Kimberley off the A9 - by now we are almost back at the TC - and, rather than put her through a repeat of the whole A9/roundabout experience again, he simply directed her off on a completely different test route.
As Kimberley knows, it wasn't her finest hour; I have already said that she picked up a serious fault for Awareness/Planning, thereby resulting in a fail. She went on to make further mistakes, but I was impressed with how patient and friendly the examiner was. Even at the end of the test, when he briefed her on her faults, he did not belittle her and, instead, suggested a couple of things she could do to improve.
So the next time you hear about some ogre of an examiner, don't believe a word. As one of the examiners in Elgin is fond of saying, 'he won't fail you, you can only fail yourself'. Sounds a bit corny and cliched, but it's true.
In October 2010 it will, apparently, become compulsory for instructors to sit in the back of the car during the test. Many instructors are against this because it 'infringes on their rights'. What twaddle. The instructor is paid for that time regardless of whether they accompany the test or whether they spend the hour at the test centre doing whatever is 'their right'! At present, if a pupil wants me to sit in the back I'll sit in the back, if they think it will put them off I stay at the TC. If they are not fussy either way I'll sit in the back if I'm not completely confident in them.
Last Tuesday Kimberley asked me to sit in on her test - she said I would be 'a calming influence'(!). She had a lot of lessons earlier in the year but, as the money dried up so did the lessons. However, she passed a mock test quite comfortably and I was happy that she was good enough to pass her test.
Off we went, out of the TC, down to the notorious Inshes (spiral) roundabout, turning right to access the A9. So far, so good. Good awareness, good control.... keep it up Kimberley. There is a long stretch of A9 down to the Kessock Bridge roundabout (another spiral). In plenty of time, the examiner asks Kimberley to turn right (3rd exit) at the roundabout. I can see that there is a long queue (maybe 800m) in the right lane. Kimberley needs to start checking her rear and right mirrors, indicating, and moving out to the right lane to join the queue...... but she doesn't. By the time she has realised her mistake she is still in the left lane with a queue of barely-moving traffic on her right. Although she slows down, she is still not indicating right and we are running out of road before the roundabout. Kimberley is starting to look rather anxious, the examiner is spinning his head and I am squirming as discreetly as possible. Finally, she indicates right and manages to nip in to a gap someone had kindly left for her. Too late though; this will be marked as a Serious Fault - Awareness/Planning.
Sometimes pupils are so nervous that they hear the examiner say 'turn left' and the pupil indicates right. It doesn't matter. As long as their car does exactly what they have indicated they are going to do then they are fine. When Cameron took his first test the examiner asked him to 'follow the road ahead (at a roundabout), taking the 2nd exit'. Something in Cameron's head translated this as 'turn right'! So indicated right and turned right - no fault. The examiner simply adjusted the route to get Cameron back on track (geographically at least).
So.... Kimberley is now approaching the roundabout, where the examiner has asked her to turn right. She has checked her mirrors, she is indicating right, she has slowed to a nice speed, in the correct gear, she has seen a gap into which she lightly accelerates, then she turns right...... round the roundabout, passing the 3rd exit, and back up the A9 heading in the opposite direction!
My bafflement at Kimberley doing this is over-ridden by my curiosity as to what the examiner will do now. Kimberley indicated right and turned right, so no fault, but the examiner now knows that there is quite a long drive ahead before he can even think about getting Kimberley back on course. Worse still, the examiner is from a different area, covering holiday leave, so I'm not even sure he knows where to go if the pupil does go off route.
Therefore I had great admiration for the examiner when he managed to direct Kimberley off the A9 - by now we are almost back at the TC - and, rather than put her through a repeat of the whole A9/roundabout experience again, he simply directed her off on a completely different test route.
As Kimberley knows, it wasn't her finest hour; I have already said that she picked up a serious fault for Awareness/Planning, thereby resulting in a fail. She went on to make further mistakes, but I was impressed with how patient and friendly the examiner was. Even at the end of the test, when he briefed her on her faults, he did not belittle her and, instead, suggested a couple of things she could do to improve.
So the next time you hear about some ogre of an examiner, don't believe a word. As one of the examiners in Elgin is fond of saying, 'he won't fail you, you can only fail yourself'. Sounds a bit corny and cliched, but it's true.
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