Drivers reveal the reasons they failed their driving test
Learning to drive
6 min read
I’m sure we have all that one annoying friend who passed their driving test first time; yeah cool story bro. But the rest of us probably had a few shockers.
I practiced and practiced parallel parking beforehand, and totally choked when I had to do it for the test. Instant fail!
Took the test in a city that is filled with one way streets. I had been driving terribly the entire test, when suddenly I found myself driving down the wrong way of the street straight into oncoming traffic. Luckily it was a residential area so we were doing no more than 25 and I had time to avert. She then asked me to pull over and told me I had already failed, but what I had just pulled was an auto fail.
So, I failed the drivers test four times. I was an extremely nervous driver as a teenager and had a tendency to overthink how I was supposed to do something.
The first time, I didn't signal for a lane change because the street I was on didn't have any lanes indicated with painted lines or anything, it was just a wide-ish street that people used as two lanes. I thought I might have been supposed to signal, but I was also afraid the lady would think I was dumb if I didn't need to signal.
Second time, I almost made it through, but I turned right too slowly at the end and there was a truck behind me so she thought I was being dangerous by not turning fast enough.
I don't actually remember what happened the third time.
The fourth time I accidentally went 18 mph in a 15mph school zone, insta-fail.
I didn't get my driver's license until I was 20. I've had it for three years now, I've never gotten into an accident and never been written a ticket, not even a parking ticket :)
My sister failed 4 months ago because she hit a pedestrian crossing the street ... Still unsure how she passed her second try.
A man stepped out in front of the car and I did an emergency brake. Failed me because when I stopped I shouted.
Honestly it was tiny things but they always fall you the first time you take it down here. [Peeved] me off at the time but now I get why. Most people who pass shouldn't cause they can't drive. Making them do it again probably makes them a better driver. And I say the extra money is nice too.
I got my "left" and "right" confused. Twice. She mocked me and failed me right away. Yes, I know them, I was just extremely nervous.
Not me, but a friend of mine took his driving test and the first thing they had him do was parking (not even parallel, just regular parking). There was a water bottle in the parking lot and he ended up hitting the car next to him while trying to avoid the bottle. Instantly failed. We still give him a hard time about it.
Failed 2-3 times. Parallel parking, curse you.
Was doing great on the 3 point turn part. Until I thought I had put it in drive, and hit the accelerator, backing over the curb and hitting a tree. Nerves and teenage stupidity.
2nd time I was doing perfectly, got cocky, then slowed through a red light turn rather than coming to a complete stupid. That was teenage arrogance and stupidity.
Passed the third time. Very safe driver now, no significant incidents in over a decade now.
From the UK, and the test centre I took mine at had(s?) a 34% success rate.
I failed twice. First I wasn't prepared enough and was entirely too nervous (unusual for me) and subsequently messed up the reverse park. Second time was complete [nonsense], i stopped at a traffic light on a hill and upon restart i rolled back slightly (talking a few cm's) and drove away.
Guy failed me, said it would've been a minor mistake (allowed a number of those) but the guy behind stopped entirely too close to me so it became a major.
I stopped at a green light.
I'm still not sure how this happened, but the instructor got into the car and started calling me "Rachel," which is not my name. Before starting the test, my dad had said to agree with whatever the instructor told me, so I figured, hey, this is part of the test. Weird, but whatever. So I just nodded my head and started driving, but every time she'd say "Rachel, left," or "turn here, Rachel," my brain had a momentary lapse. So I missed a turn and took a different turn pretty tightly. The weirdest part was at a three-way intersection. I stopped at the stop sign, then went forward, and the woman starts shouting, "You almost got us t-boned, Rachel!" I double-check and, sure enough, there are no cars there, so I'm thinking maybe this is also part of the test. Anyway, we get back to the lot and she looks super-pissed, and she hands me a paper with a 74, then explains that I need a 75 to pass. I'm still thinking that this is part of the test, so I nod my head and take my paper, get out of the car and walk to my dad. I tell him what happened, all excited that I passed her Rachel-test, and he tells me, "...No, Read it you failed it." To this day, I'm still not sure if she really thought that Rachel was my name. But I'm about 90 percent positive she hallucinated that car... and it seems possible that she was just some random woman and not an actual driving instructor.
I live in the UK, and the test here is harder than in the US, so I don't know if you Americans would fail for the same things I did but yeah, here we go.
1st time I failed:Was going down a narrow two-way road, some guy came speeding up the other way leaving me no room to pull over. I had to get really close to a parked car in order him to pass me, I failed for that. 2nd time: Failed for being 'too safe'. Basically I refused to pass a bus on a 40mph blind bend. 3rd time: Went up the wrong way up a one way street. Then proceeded to get annoyed and angry at myself and just drove back to the test center ignoring the commands from my examiner to continue on the test route. 4th time: I PASSSED YEAHHH
My instructor's name was Enough... She was big, burly, intimidating, and her name was Enough...
As I drove down the hill into the centre of Henley-on-Thames, I waved at a friend who happened to be passing. It was at that exact moment that I lost control of the car, mounted the pavement and forced a bus queue to scatter, some jumping for their lives into a bush.
We drove back to the test centre in silence.
There was a fairly recently deceased racoon in the road. I was told never to swerve for animals in the road, so I didn't. Hit that thing dead on. Splattered half of it all over the windshield, the other half hit the windshield but got stuck on the wipers. I couldn't see and started screaming. Drifted into the other lane because I was blinded by coon guts/carcass. Almost caused several accidents.
I wasn't even allowed to drive back to the DMV.
So if you were like some of those above and failed your test, maybe first time or more, you aren't alone.
Learning to drive
