Traffic Police Test

This is one of those days which you won't forget to blog.

As of today, I'm ready to drive on the road once more, without the need for a vehicle commander by my side. I'm now a SAF and civilian driver. It is about time, I must say. Somehow, it did not occur to me when I was bloody 17 to actually take up driving. Probably in those years of mine, I was busy with games, naive things and of course the pursuit of my degree course. It was pretty much my innocence but nevertheless here I am.

I took (notice that I'm using past tense), my driving lessons at Bukit Batok Driving Center. Yes I'm sure some guy will google this name. Well, school by far is of course a lot of administrative policies and step by step irritant but they sure managed to get 90% passing rate for a reason. Started of with basic theory evaluation and test, I won't forget those days when I failed my basic theory evaluation 4 times in a row in one day. I still remembered feeling darn emotional when I failed all the lessons for the day and had to come back the next day to resit for the next evaluation. It was pathetic, because the bus ride was a tremendous and painful 40 minutes ride.

I still remember those days when i sat at the hallway, awaiting time to pass me by. I remember reading the theory books and going crazy over nothing, just because of silly numbers which they make us memorize, but needless to say they do stick in your brains.

School can be a little more expensive but they really accomplish a purpose that makes the learner realize the different techniques and stages. And of course, learning through school gives u instant access to the circuit. I guess circuit really plays a big role in the entire driiving lessons because 60% of the test is within the circuit. Private learners have to book the circuit and they only get to try it out like a few times. No wonder most of my pals who took private, often have difficulty in passing.

Nevertheless, once you complete your basic theory test, you can start booking driving lessons while awaiting the next test; which is your final theory test. I urge that you finish up all your theory first because taking up these driving lessons. I guess its always better to do one thing at a time, and just take your mind of it. What was what I did. Once i finished my final theory test, which again requires you to take an evaluation which I failed 3 times. But, at the end of the day, i finished my final theory test within 10 minutes. It was a joke seeing everybody so tensed up and i passed it within 10 minutes, with the rest of them still recking their brains out at the 15th question.

Oh yes, final theory test will expire within 2 years but basic theory test lasts forever. So if you don't intend to clear your driving that soon, you shouldn't take up your final theory test that soon so that you can maximize the full 2 years. But hey, I got my driving license within 3 months.

Another reason why you should try to clear all your theory is also to maximize the expiry date of your provision driving license. As you know, you will be required to pay $25 for a 6 month provisional license. I guess you would want to give yourself ample time within that 6 months to clear your traffic police test. The extra allowance will act as a buffer, just in case you might need to retake the test again. So, within that 6 months, you can actually hope to take up 2 tests back to back, thus saving and maximizing your $25.

Well, I'm no newbie driver. I've been driving in the army for over a year with overseas driving experience in Taiwan. So, it isn't that bad and my learning curve is pretty steep and speedy. On my Stage 1.02, I was gladly allowed to move out of the circuit and loiter around the roads of Bukit Batok. Unknowingly, the instructors were actually bringing me along the test routes and just circling round and round. I know it was really boring, but hey there's a quota and timing to meet. In army, we need to clock the mileage, but in civilian, we need to clock the lessons and stages.

I guess, when they said book 25 lessons to ensure you have enough, is really too much. But, i guess for newbie drivers, 25 is all good enough. I had a great opportunity to block out an entire week to really learn driving. I'm serious, you should not do 2 x 100 minutes in a day, because it is really tiring. Within a week's worth of 9 lessons, I managed to clear Stage 3.

Never get discouraged by people who believe in the norm. Many instructors tend to tell you that when you hit Stage 3, you can only clear 1 or 2 lessons. Well, they are wrong. I managed to clear 3-4 per lesson, thus speeding up the entire process. I guess you just need to prove to them that you can really do it. And not just memorize, but actually learn the correct steps and remember.

Well, once you finished your Stage 2, you can actually go ahead and book your Traffic Police Test! Due to its really busy schedule which the school has, you would find your test really out of the way, like 1-2 months down the road. So you really have to plan it out. Stage 4 has 4 lessons and Stage 5 has 1 lesson. So that's a total of 5 lessons.

Stage 4 is basically the teaching of all the test routes. There's no point really to memorize the test routes. I've tried doing it but it turns out, it's just going round and round in circles. Sometimes the tester would even cut short the route, because of time constraint. This is especially true with you sign up for a TP timing that is at Session 9; the last session of the day. Those testers really just want to knock off and get da hell out of there. This can be an advantage and also a disadvantage because they tend to rush you in your driving, thus you may make mistakes.

The trick is to simulate your test timing. Means to say, if your TP is at 4.30pm, you should try to get used to the traffic from 3 - 5 pm. Thus you should expect yourself to book training slots such as 14.10 - 15.50 or 16.00 - 17.50. Simulation is everything so that on that day of your TP, you will find yourself in a good situation and as such won't panic.

Simulation is the best part of my learning process. We humans, after we learn something, we often try to tweak the situation, and we often remember these situations especially when it doesn't go wrong. As such, the turning point which you've been thought, may be different on that day. Therefore, there must be some room for flexibility. One of the big mistakes which many learners encounter is the lack of flexibility and they tend to follow that status quo, which often results in major faults. I, too suffered that problem, but thanks to 2 revision lessons, I passed my TP on the first attempt. I guess the revision was a way of recapping my right ways again.

I made several instructors do a simulation of what could happen on that day. They made me park and move in a funny way, and asked me to do the necessary adjustments. One of which was the parallel parking. He made me park so close to the left side that there was no room to move out. Another guy simulated the entire test from the beginning. 4-S Course, parking or 3-38 parallel.

Well, how was my TP? I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep the day before. I mean, come on exams always make people nervous. I just hate exams which have two extremes; PASS or FAIL. As such, there is not much room for major errors, and that would mean you have to be completely perfect. I got real nervous that i banged the ramp so hard, thus giving me 4 points. And there was a situation when I forgot to release my handbrake after parking, thus 2 points (I KNOW, WHAT DA HELL RIGHT). There was another situation, coming out of some room, I guess wrong judgment or what, so another 4 points. And lastly, like i said, today was so nervously screewed up that my parallel parking went out of the position, I did some stationary turning, thus 2 points. So, total 12 points. HECK! PASSED.

These are the instructors which I would like to thank! 6374 (Mr Wong), 5738, 6341, 6354, 6377, 6342, 6305, 6345, 6342, 6355, 5872, 6352, 5844, 5845, 6376, 6342.

6376 and 6342 were the best, because they gave me a great simulation of the TP day's event. 6342 lives near me, but I can't remember his name :)

And... thank you BBDC for the good memorable driving experience. It is a place to graduate from but won't be nice to go back again.

"Scenario Planning, helps one to react more promptly to situations through contingent strategies" - frostdude