One of the issues that we see in driving tests is that people keep coming back
having failed their driving test for the same old reasons time and time again. what we're going
to attempt to do in this video is just cover off those main reasons just to give you a heads up and
help you and your parents to cover these issues so that they don't crop up in your driving test.
the number one reason for failing your driving test in our experience
is the way that you deal with intersections. the most common failure item is the stop sign or the
stop line and people's failure to stop completely at that line. now there seems to be this
misconception that stop means you only have to stop if there's no one coming but that's not true.
if there's a stop sign and an accompanying stop line you need to stop the car completely.
the best way to make sure that you do stop is to focus on that stop line
as you come up and don't look around too much until you've actually stopped at the line.
when you stop completely you should feel the car rock back just a little tiny bit
and then you can have a look around and then decide whether it's clear to go.
when you're having a look around to decide whether it's clear to go you need to be able
to interpret the right-of-way rules so that you know if you're turning left or you're turning
right or you're going straight ahead depending on what the cars on the opposite side of their
stop sign are doing, you need to determine who has priority to go first. of course you need to
give way to cars that are on the other street already - the street that you're stopping and
giving way to - and you also need to take into account pedestrians and their rights as well.
the other thing you need to bear in mind at intersections is that sometimes there may not
be a stop line or a give way line. this can occur in car parks and can also occur on some suburban
streets but they're fairly rare around joondalup. the main place you'll find them is in car parks.
if that's the case then the give way to the right rule applies
another common reason for failing your driving test is the way that you handle traffic lights
and the most common reason for failing is
the inability to deal with turning right at traffic lights when there's no green arrow.
in that situation if you're the first car in line you move out towards the middle
and then you complete the turn when it's safe to do so. that might be
on an amber light or a red light depending on the situation with oncoming traffic
but you need to get good at those situations and the only way you get good at them is by practice.
another issue with dealing with traffic lights is making sure that you look right and left when
you're passing through the lights. even though you're on a green light there is nothing to stop
vehicles from the other road coming through a red light and this situation is becoming more
and more prevalent on the roads out there these days so when you're doing your driving test
you will be assessed on whether you look right and left when you pass through traffic lights.
the other issue with traffic lights is entering a blocked intersection so
in the situation where people are turning right without a green arrow the first car
in line goes out to the middle and waits until it's safe to turn but all other vehicles need to
wait behind the white line until the first car is clearing the intersection successfully.
the next one is t-junctions and being able to navigate those t-junctions safely.
you must give way to all traffic on the continuing road if you're on the terminating road.
you must also make sure that you look left again just before you commit to
moving out into the intersection so even if you've been looking left several times
if you've been there for a while concentrating on traffic coming from your right
you need to make sure that before you put the nose of the car out into the intersection
you have another look left. if you fail to do so you will fail your test. there's
also the issue of the the central refuge area in the middle of a dual carriageway.
if another vehicle is already out there waiting to complete their turn you are not allowed to
move out into that area because the first car being there constitutes a blocked intersection.
you can also fail your driving test by making the same error multiple times
across your test on the same category. there are categories of looking, signaling, flow,
movement, path and vehicle management and if you're consistently bad at one of those
particular items then you may not accrue enough ticks on the test to meet the minimum requirement
for that item. so you need to pass four out of the five sections of the test but you must also
meet the minimum requirement for each of those categories that have been listed there. if you
fail to meet the minimum requirement for just one of those categories you will fail your test.
another issue in the driving test is problems with reverse parking. to avoid this you need
to practice as much as you possibly can using a consistent, reliable and repeatable method.
always remember if you're using the three-line method to look ahead while you're counting the
lines, don't just focus on the lines next to you because you won't be watching where you're going
and the assessors are looking out for that. and if you get into the bay and you receive
a subtle prompt from your assessor just asking you whether you're happy with what you've done,
listen to that and with a clear head just decide whether you're
happy with your parking effort or whether you need to make some sort of adjustment.
speeding is another reason for failing your test and that's a pretty obvious one.
most of the streets in the test area are 50 kilometers per hour.
if you turn onto a street and you're not sure what the speed limit is because you don't see a sign
assume 50. if it's a built-up area then yes the default is going to be 50.
but if it looks like it's a main road but you haven't seen a sign yet you can't risk just making
your own decision or what the speed limit should be so you do 50 until you know. you can always
mention to your assessor that you haven't seen a sign and they'll understand what you're thinking.
and the other thing to remember is to glance at your speedo regularly.
pick your times to check your speedo - don't do it when you're going around a
bend - but only have a quick glance and then get your eyes back onto the road
driving on the wrong side of the road is another one that crops up a bit more than it should. it
can be caused by a number of factors. one is cornering too fast and getting onto the wrong
side of the road. another one is poor steering technique where your technique
just doesn't allow you to turn the wheel quickly enough to keep yourself on track.
another one is poor road positioning when you're preparing to park - so just
not watching where you're going and not sticking to your side of the road.
there can also be confusion with the test area so you've got to make sure you do
plenty of practice in the test area itself so that you get comfortable with the general surroundings.
you won't necessarily cover off every street but you may just make life a bit easier for
yourself if you know your way around the area. and the other one is parking illegally facing
oncoming traffic. so this is something that is legal in some countries but it's not legal
in western australia and if you do park on the wrong side of the road you'll fail your driving
test but if you do it just in general driving once you've got your licence you will be fined.
roundabouts and how to navigate them is another reason for failing your driving test.
the main one is when it's a two-lane roundabout and people cut across the lanes what's known as
'straightlining'. when you enter a roundabout in a particular lane you must stay in that lane if
it's two lane roundabout all the way through the roundabout and exit in that same lane. if you then
need to do a lane change you do that as a separate exercise after you've exited the roundabout.
people also turn from the wrong lane in a two-lane roundabout.
there will be arrows on the road showing you the legal
turns in a two-lane roundabout. you must make sure that you follow those lines.
and approaching two fast at roundabouts can also be an issue. sometimes you can't see what's coming
so you've got to do a speed which will allow you to stop safely if you need to.
another one is not indicating or not indicating correctly in a roundabout. if you
get it wrong and you go through several roundabouts in your driving test you may well
find that you don't get enough marks for signaling and you'll fail the test because of that. and the
other issue is failing to give way in roundabouts - so giving way to vehicles that are coming
into the roundabout from your right or that are already in the roundabout passing in front of you.
blocking traffic is another reason for failing your test.
entering a blocked intersection if the vehicle
in front of you is stopped and hasn't cleared the intersection you're not allowed to enter.
if you're performing a u-turn or hook turn on a side street and another vehicle is already
approaching that intersection you can't then come up and wait at the intersection to start
your u-turn or your hook turn because you'll be blocking the traffic behind you and you may also
be obscuring the vision of the vehicle that's coming up to that intersection. if they can't
see past you they can't move and if they can't move you can't move so it's a stalemate - but
you are the one who's causing the blockage in traffic. the other one is moving into a traffic
light intersection as the second vehicle, when the first vehicle is turning right without a
green arrow. we mentioned it earlier on but tt's a really big one for failing your test.
rounding out the top 10 is the issue of getting too close to parked cars.
now in the test area you'll find a lot of parked cars on both sides of the road and some of those
cars are not parked particularly well and drivers of those cars also have the habit of opening doors
without looking - so you need to try and maintain that 1.5 meters of clearance. and if you find
that another vehicle is coming towards you and constraining your space a bit then just slow
down a bit - maybe stop and let them through - but try to maintain 1.5 meters if you can.
so that's the top 10 reasons for failing in our experience. there are lots and lots
of reasons why you can fail your test. if you want to find out more, go to our blog
at www.ilukadrivingschool.com.au where we cover off many of the issues that can bring you unstuck
in your driving test. it's not an exhaustive list of reasons because those reasons are growing
all the time as people find inventive ways to fail their driving tests. thanks for watching.