Core Skills

CORE SKILLS NEEDED TO PASS YOUR DRIVING TEST

There are certain faults which regularly cause people to fail their driving test. These faults are often caused by failure to exercise the skills listed below.

CONTROL OF SPEED WHEN MANOEUVRING

Can you make the car move really slowly throughout manoeuvres? If you can’t then you’re unlikely to control the car accurately. Also observation becomes rushed or omitted.

RESPONSE TO ROAD SIGNS AND MARKINGS

Signs and markings are there to help you as they give you advance warning of hazards. Many Learners ignore these signs and so react late or not at all.

GRADUAL SLOWING

Are you slowing gradually as you approach hazards such as roundabouts or parked cars or do you do it all at once? If it’s the former then you are in control; if the latter, then you will slow too late and approach too fast. This will affect the accuracy of your steering and positioning.

MOTIVATED OBSERVATION

Do you check your mirrors before changing direction because you’ve been told to do it, or because you want to know if someone is overtaking you? If you check your mirrors because you want to know what’s there, then you’ll do it every time. If you do it by rote then you’ll forget to do it under pressure or just not take in what you see.

MIRROR, SIGNAL, MANOEUVRE

This is one of the first things you start with when learning to drive, yet many people are not regularly doing it in the correct order when they come up to their test. You will get faulted for checking mirrors at the same time as or after signalling. If you change gear before slowing down, your gear change will be rushed and late as you will be going too fast. If the gear change is late then observation will be rushed and ineffective. Above all you will feel flustered and under pressure.

Be more successful in your test by making these simple changes in your driving habits.