Getting It Over & Done With

I arrived early at the driving centre on Friday, at 12 noon. My warm up was at 12.45 pm. As I was walking in, I saw people driving out for their test. It did wonders for my nerves. I sat around for a while & finally at 12.20 pm, I printed out my attendence sheet. It was then the people who went out for test came back with their tester in the lead. I was getting a serious case of butterflies in my stomach.

At 12.35 pm, an instructor came to collect our IC, attendence sheet, PDL & training booklet. As my training 'booklet' is actually the big green book (I registered after 1st of July) instead of the compact blue booklet, I get to keep it. We were instructed to go to our warm up car aka test car. I waited for about 5 min before the warm up instructor came. It was all very fast. The 6 courses in the circuit & 1 of the test routes. All done in 30 min. Then it was more waiting time. When you're driving, the anxiousness is kept at bay by the attention you give to the road. But when waiting, it all comes back to you.

1.55 pm. We were called into a room for the balloting of the test routes. Test route 3 was chosen for me. I wasn't familiar with it at all as most of the time, the instructors bring me to test route 8. I don't know why. Maybe it's the trickiest of them all. I remember a tip from the instructors: try not to chalk up any demerit points in the circuit. But when doing the directional change, I required extra reverse movements coz I was too near to the left kerb & I don't wanna risk striking or mounting it. But despite the adjustment, the car was still too much to the left & I decided to try my luck. I turned late so I wouldn't hit the kerb. I didn't. The rest of the courses were uneventful.

On the road. I felt that I drove quite badly & was thinking to myself that I was going to fail. I had to brake hard once and I saw the tester's foot move towards the master brake. But I managed to stop in time without him intervening. There were times I knew that points were getting deducted. Like when I didn't accelarate sufficently & the car vibrated. It felt like a long time before the driving centre was back in sight.

I followed my tester back to the room & was surprised that quite a number of people were already back. We sat down & he told me my mistakes & totalled up my points. It was truly a shock. I got 8 points. 2 for the additional reverse movement in dir change, 2 for insufficient accelaration, 2 for speed too slow for the road & 2 for not using the appropriate gear. We sat down for like 2 min and I was instructed to go downstairs to watch the video & make payment. I was the last 1 in the room & the 1st 1 out.

There were 15 of us taking the test in that slot. About half of us were watching the video. I wondered if the rest didn't make it or came back too late for the video. I broke the news to Jeff who was working & I could hear him whooping & cheering over the phone. I made it! :)