Drivers Ed
 

What was your drivers ed. experience like? How old were you when you got your license? Did you pass on the first try? Any funny mistakes while behind the wheel? Did you ever freak your parents out? :)

I took driver's ed as soon as I was able. I passed the class just fine, but I was terrified of driving. When it came time to do the driving portion, I was scared, lacked confidence, and was just generally awful. My instructor teased me and made me cry. I even ran a stop sign. He told me to come back when I'd had more driving hours.

It took me until I was 17 to get up the nerves to go back to that guy. He was just as awful and insensitive as before, but I had enough driving experience that his nastiness didn't cause me to make stupid mistakes and he passed me.

What is it with driving instructors? I had two who were both awful. Even the man who gave me my test was ridiculous with the teasing. Granted, I almost turned too soon and got us run over by a Pepsi truck :o but I was very careful otherwise. But I passed both the written and driving portions on the first tries...only to get a ticket my first time driving alone. I will never forget the officer walking up to this big gray Volvo like a cowboy with his hand on his gun only to find it being driven by this tiny teen girl in pigtails and overalls. :p

Maybe they think nervous young women are cute?

These stories are low-key freaking me out. I'm 23. I got my permit a few months ago. AAAAAAND I have my driving test THIS Friday. Please pray for me lol

I've practiced and took some classes, but I just get super nervous. I don't drive badly, but my turns are a little jerky aaaaand I need to watch my speed. A lot. (For the record, it's not that I speed recklessly, I'm just trying to go with the traffic!)

Thanks =]

Good luck on your test! I'm sure you'll rock it.

When I was 15, I passed the written on the first try. But, when I turned 16 and I took the actual test to get my license, I couldn't pass it. I actually failed it 3-times.

At the time, my best friend from high school told me to go right before they close. I went like, about 10-minutes before closing. I could tell the guy was ready to go home, because when I went to parallel park, I got half way in, and then he goes "Okay, we're good. Let's move on to the next part of the test." I honestly don't even think I finished, because the first three times the test seemed much longer. It was like less than 10-minutes this time.

Then he goes "Okay, pull over here." He starts writing stuff down, and in like a few minutes he goes "Congrats, you passed." As I can remember, he gave me a 70, and a 70 was needed to pass. I barely made it.

Going right before closing worked lol. :p

Oh, and good luck to you, lulutnl. :)

...interesting thread.
 

I'm teaching my 18 year old daughter to drive now. I just try to speak in calm, reassuring tones so as to not add to her stress level.

Thanks for the "go test near closing time" tip, CG. I'll definitely make sure she does that. :) Along with taking her test using her grandfather's sports car, the smallest car in the family.

Haha my daddy taught me to drive too. I almost sent us through a brick wall when I hit the gas instead of the brake. A big uh oh but I got it right in time! I passed my tests just fine so he was a good teacher but I think he has a lot more gray hair after teaching his girls to drive!

My husband learned how to drive when he was in his 30's. My brother let him drive his car while he had the permit but not the license yet. My husband, not used to power steering, made a sharp turn and almost hit a car in the next lane. My brother pretty much freaked out. Anytime we talk about my husband driving this incident comes up and we all laugh. I feel sorry for my husband because he is always the target of "bad driver jokes" from everyone in my family. In reality, he has a "good driver discount" from our insurance company because he has never had an accident that was his fault.

LOL! props to your dad!

Right now, we're doing parking lots...wide, empty, expansive parking lots. Next we'll move to deserted city streets (like 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning deserted streets.)

My drivers' ed classes were actually just across the border in a different state from the one I live in, so I had to take a painfully simple test to pass the classes themselves. One of the questions was a yield sign with the options a) stop sign b) yield sign or c) no right turn on red for what it meant. Then I took some AAA driving lessons to lower my insurance rates, then the driver's test, which was only difficult to me because it was a city and I live in the boonie countryside where stoplights are few and far between.

Honestly, the classes themselves weren't that painful, but only because there was a Dunkin' Donuts across the street and I got Christmas-sprinkle Munchkins and white hot chocolate in between night classes :D

My dad taught me to drive. He was great, because he virtually never said anything unless a) I asked a question, or b) I did something wrong. For example, I'd run over a small curb when making a right turn, and he'd say, "I knew that would happen," or I'd slow down too much before merging into traffic on the highway and he'd say, "See, you need to move faster." Of course, he'd never let anything terrible happen, but he just kept quiet and let me do my thing. My mom on the other hand.. I was so stressed when driving with her because SHE was stressed, and she definitely let me know it.

New Hampshire doesn't require that you have a learner's permit; you just have to have proof of your age (15 1/2) on you when driving with an adult over 25. Basically, that means driving with your birth certificate. The state requires that you complete a driver's education course before taking your driving test (unless you're over 18).

I took my driver's education course with the state and it consisted of weekly (maybe bi-weekly.. I can't remember) hour-long classes, and then you had to sign up for driving hours - 10 hours of actual driving, and 6 "observation hours," where you had to ride along with another student that was completing a driving hour. Each driving hour had a different focus. I remember that hour 1 covered right and left turns, hour 2 was parallel parking, hour 3 was "country driving" ... hm.. I can't remember the ones in between, but hour 9 was highway driving, and hour 10 covered everything.

I passed my test on the first try :)

I passed the tests on the first try when I was 17, but I waited until I was 18 to get my license since I didn't have a car and I was in college out of state.

I was told by my driving instructor that I almost passed the record for highest score, but I didn't check my mirrors after I changed lanes one time. Meh.

What was your drivers ed. experience like? Boring. Watched videos, had lectures and then some time in a simulator. It was in the summer and formatted like a class. One day the video was so boring the teacher fell asleep. I didn't learn much other than to not drink with a straw while driving. The stories the ER nurse told us were pretty gruesome.

How old were you when you got your license? 16. I believe it was the week of my birthday. My wallet is across the room and I don't feel like getting up.

Did you pass on the first try? Yes.

Any funny mistakes while behind the wheel? Near my 16th birthday, I was practicing my driving in a community college near my parents' house. They have little areas with bushes for decoration in between rows of parking. A bird almost flew into my windshield so I swerved into/onto a bush. We were picking twigs out for about a week after.

Did you ever freak your parents out? They wanted me to drive really gradually at first. As in below 5 miles. In a flat, empty parking lot. I wasn't too happy and accelerated to about 15. Momma WC freaked.


About the going in at closing time thing: In my county, you have to get there before 4 to test when the DMV actually closes at 5. Not to mention you actually have to wait in line to get a ticket. So around here you have to get there at about 3 to test.

What was your drivers ed. experience like? I went to an extremely small high school in a small town, so my track coach taught my driver's ed class. It was really fun.

How old were you when you got your license? Sixteen.

Did you pass on the first try? Yes. In Illinois, you don't have to parallel park (at least where I took it.) If I would have had to parallel park, I probably would have failed!

Any funny mistakes while behind the wheel? I got a speeding ticket exactly a week after I got my license. I was going 63 in a 55. I hate getting in trouble, so I started crying immediately once I was pulled over. However, once the cop saw what a new driver I was, he had very little sympathy. :P

Did you ever freak your parents out? My daddy taught me how to drive, and I think I gave him a few gray hairs. However, besides that one speeding ticket, I've yet to get a ticket and I haven't gotten in a wreck, so I think my parents trust me now! :P

No problem, Tony. I had friends who were a class behind me who couldn't pass. I told them to go close to closing, they did, and they passed. It works. :)

Hmm, I wonder why. :rolleyes:

I think any passenger who has experienced your driving should give you an "automatic fail".... :)
http://youtu.be/ghOmqfL9M60

At my high school one of the driver's ed instructors literally wrote the book many of you might have used. So needless to say, our program was rigorous. But the good part is only random kids had to take the driving test withthe cop.

A funny for me is no one ever taught me how to put gas in the car. The first time I did it I was alone. The guy asked me what kind of gas (1982, they still sold leaded). I said, ummm the regular kind. So he turned on the leaded. Note to those who never dealt with this: the leaded nozzle was bigger than the unleaded hole. I was so embarrassed when I realized my mistake! Having to go back and say "I meant the other one" was horrifying to this smarter than thou 16 year old.

One of my friends got her license at 17, but she didn't pump her own gas until she was 19. She always drove her parents' cars, and she'd always just hand them money for gas, so she never filled it up on her own.

One day, me, her, and another friend were all driving around, and we needed gas. She turned to us and said, "Can one of you pump it?" We both said no way, and she said, "So, uh.. I don't know how.." We laughed, taught her how to pump it, and took pictures of her pumping gas for the first time. Best time I've ever had at a gas station.

My high school offered driver's ed classes, but enrollment was by age, and, since I was the youngest in my class, it would have been the spring semester of my senior year before I would have been allowed to take driving lessons. So my parents enrolled me at a driver's ed program at a yeshiva in Queens, NY (I kid you not) during the spring semester of my junior year.

Just before the start of my driver's ed course, my parents took me to the DMV to get my learner's permit. I passed my written test on the first try. And off I went to driver's ed. My class included both road time and classroom time. My parents also paid for additional road time with a local driving school, so, by the time it came to my road test, I had had plenty of time behind the wheel, much of it in Queens (where the drivers are bad, but not quite as bad as they are in Boston ... but I digress).

I went for my road test with 3 months' driving experience. 2 of my classmates and I were picked up by an instructor and driven over to Queens. The girl ahead of me failed her road test because she made a "rolling stop" at a stop sign, and the adjudicator barked, "YOU FAIL! AEPHI ALUM, YOU'RE NEXT!" I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, but I passed, first try.

As for freaking my parents out - my father is the WORST back-seat driver EVAR. He taught my mother how to drive, and he put the polish on my driving skills once I had my license - but I got a lot of "You didn't stop long enough at that stop sign!" and "The speed limit is 55. You're going 56. SLOW DOWN." And then there was the infamous gasp. If my father thought that my mother or I was tailgating, going through a yellow light where he would have stopped, etc., he gave THE GASP. It got to the point where my mother wouldn't drive if my father was in the car.

http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/24.gif I hollered!

Same in Texas! I learned how to parallel park the week after I passed my test.

I did fine then, I guess. Now? I wouldn't even bet a dollar on my parallel parking "skills."

Thank you guys for the positive vibes =]

It's so weird reading how young you guys started lol I feel so late. I was a senior when I was 16 and the college I was going to go to didn't allow driving/cars for freshmen or sophomores so I never was in a rush to learn how to drive. Now I feel I'm playing major catch up

I hate you both. :mad: :p

In New York, parallel parking is part of the road test. You are required to park behind a parked car, but you don't have to parallel park between two parked cars. So the adjudicator points out a car, you pull up alongside, you parallel park behind the indicated car, pull up, make sure you're close enough to the curb by checking your mirrors - and that's that part of the test done.

A few years back, I had to parallel park on the left side of a one-way street in Brooklyn. (This is not part of the test, even though there are a zillion one-way streets in NYC.) Zip, zip, zip, car parked. The guy sitting on his stoop across the street was amazed that a Connecticut driver could actually parallel park on the left.

I had to parallel park during my driving test, but passed.

We had a driving school across from my HS that almost everyone went to. I started when I was 15, passed all the written tests (which, IIRC, counted as our "official" written tests) and passed the driving tests with no problem (we did about 3 of them -- one on side streets, one was on the highway and on a large hill, and the last was on the highway at night).

Life skill living in a sorority taught me: parallel parking.
Our driveway only fit 8 cars with 50 women living in the house. The street parking was only two hours. I became a pro my first week living in.

I didn't have to parallel park during my test but I'm pretty good at it. Ironically, the smaller the space, the better I am. I find it much harder to parallel park (without repeatedly having to adjust because I'm hitting the curb) in a large space than a super tight one.

Were these road tests part of your state's requirement for licensing? If so, wow.

I had to do basic traffic maneuvers - left turn, right turn, three-point turn, parallel park, and drive around a bit while obeying signs and signals (e.g. stop signs - as I mentioned upthread, one of my classmates failed her road test because she didn't come to a complete stop at a stop sign). Road tests can be taken only during daylight hours, and cannot be taken during inclement weather.

Road tests are not offered in Manhattan, because you must take your road test in "typical driving conditions" and Manhattan is anything but typical. (To this day, I avoid driving in Manhattan.) Road tests are offered in the other four boroughs, though.

I didn't have to parallel park during my test, and I was actually kind of mad about that. Between the driving hour I had that JUST covered parallel parking, and practicing A LOT, I was hoping to impress the guy giving me the test. Oh well!

I did have to back into a parking space, though. I had never done it before, but because of the driving hour that covered 3-point turns, I rocked it :D

The rest of the test was right and left turns, stopping at red lights and stop signs, and banging a u-ey.

I had to parallel park on my driving test... haven't used it since.

I got my permit when I was seventeen and drove with my dad four times before I got so frustrated I drove us home in tears. The summer before college, my much older cousin took me out daily. The fourth time I ever drove on real streets, he had me drive on the highway... I'm glad I did so early on, because highway driving never fazed me after that!

I didn't do formal driver's ed or anything like that. I got my license when I was eighteen.