Our Cars: Charlotte Cobbs
30 May 2012: Test day
I had a quick lesson covering the same routes as usual because it took us close to the test centre. Vaughan had wanted to me familiarize myself with them and see the narrow entrance to the test centre because, believe it or not, today was the day.
After having done this route four times, Vaughan got me to pull over into a parking bay on a side road, near the test centre, so he could show me what I needed to know under the bonnet for the two “show me, tell me” questions.
We got back into the car for the final few minutes to go over what I needed to know inside the car for them too, for Vaughan to answer any questions I might have, and then we just chatted about every day things to try and calm our nerves.
Before I knew it, Vaughan turned to me and said: “Come on, then”. This was it…
I drove the same route we’d just done once more, turning into the very narrow entrance of the centre and reversed into one of the parking bays there. With my heart pounding and my stomach doing somersaults, I turned the engine off, took the key out of the ignition, locked the car and Vaughan and I walked into the test centre.
Vaughan registered me at the desk and we walked up the steep staircase, through the big double doors, into a full waiting room. Great, we’re gonna have a long wait until my slot comes up!
But, Vaughan and I had barely struck up a conversation before my examiner came through the door and called my name. He checked my licence and its counterpart and got me to sign a form stating that I still lived at the address I had on my licence. He then took me out of the room. As we left, Vaughan whispered: “Good luck,” to me. ‘Thank you. I’m gonna need it,’ I thought. My confidence was low after the lesson I’d just had.
My examiner, Keith, took me back downstairs, out to the car park to read a number plate before we walked over to Vaughan’s car to do the “show me, tell me” questions. I opened the bonnet once I could find the catch - good start! “Show me where the brake fluid is and how you would check its levels.”
Er ... My mind had gone blank. Great! Vaughan had been trying for the last 20 months to get me to clear my mind. This was not the time to do it though. I answered the question as best I could before we got in the car for the second one, about the windscreen wipers. Keith wrote down some of Vaughan’s details, explained what the test would contain and said: “When you’re ready.”
We turned left out of the test centre and went along some residential roads - not the ones Vaughan and I just been around though! Keith asked me to pull over three times in these roads to see me check my observations before pulling off.
After we’d driven round for a bit, he got me to pull over again and do a parallel park. Just what I wanted after this morning! This one wasn’t any better. In fact, I think I may have gone up onto the kerb slightly, as well as having to make plenty of corrections to actually get into the space. So I’d failed in my mind by now.
We carried on regardless, continuing through some more residential roads, one of which was filled with parked cars that I had to navigate my way through. I saw one of the cars had a green ‘P’ plate on its back and I just thought: ‘That’s not gonna be me at the end of this.’
It wasn’t long after this that the ‘independent driving’ section of the test began and Keith got me to follow the signs to Brighton - the test centre was in Worthing, West Sussex, so we could do that.
This was the only part of the whole 40 minutes that I breathed a sigh of relief. I really didn’t want to have to remember three different directions. But my relief didn’t last for long as I had a bus and a cyclist to deal with on this part of the journey and it got worse when the independent drive led onto the A27 dual carriageway. This was exactly what I’d been dreading because I know I can waver on fast roads sometimes.
We came off the dual carriageway and through some more residential roads, back to the test centre, where I drove into a parking bay. That had flownby, but as I waited for what felt like an eternity, whilst Keith wrote on, and ticked endless amounts of boxes, on the test sheet. I’d really resigned myself to failing now.
All I heard of the next part, when Keith had finished writing and turned me, was: “You’ve passed!”
“Really?” I asked him, completely shocked.
“Yeah.”
I opened my door for Vaughan to come over for the debrief of the test. All I could do was smile at him. He beamed with pride and scooped me up in a hug whilst my body shook. I genuinely couldn’t believe it!
Keith didn’t do a debrief of the test. He just took my provisional licence and the counterpart off me and gave me a certificate saying that I’d passed. How the hell did I do that?!
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