How do you pass your driving test?

What happened last time? Did you panic, have trouble with parallel parking, or make some other correctable mistake.

Practice some more in an empty parking lot until you feel more comfortable with the issues

And learn how to quell your anxiety (not easy, I remember).

No one wants to have or cause an accident while driving. The instructors always err on the side of caution.

Practise, practise, practise. Try to find out just what they’ll be grading you on and make sure you’ve covered everything on the list.

The biggies are: speeding, driving too slowly, not abiding by road signs, not paying attention to pedestrians, cutting other cars off, not using your signals and not shoulder checking and, obviously, getting into an accident.

Thank you for all the help!
I got a turn wrong at a junction, and they said I wasn’t using my gears properly.

Don’t be too worried about having to take the test again. You’ll learn from each attempt.

My sister had to take it 3 times before she passed.

OK, I’ll keep that in mind, I suppose I only tried it once.

@confuzzlement try hard to be calm, or, as calm as possible. Nervousness can cause a lot of problems when driving.

I remember failing first time I was devastated. Now I live in London and don’t really need to drive so I’m not going to bother.

@confuzzlement try to find an automatic transmission to take the test in, then you won’t have to worry about using your gears correctly.

Don’t have them in this country. Well we do, but they are very hard to come by.

So many people drive that people starting out driving think that it’s incredibly easy and it should be a breeze to get it right and pass your road test the first time but there is an art and a skill to it that takes practice. If the main problem is working the gears and the clutch rather than other things is there a friend or family member who can help you, give you some tips, tutor you in the shifting of gears and proper clutching? I drive a standard and it’s kind of a lost art here in the states but it just takes time. Anyway, practice, work at it and try not to get too confuzzled. :-)

I failed on my first test, and I am convinced that it had nothing to do with my driving, but with the small talk the tester wanted to have.

My sister failed her test three times at one location. Turns out all of her friends did, too; that particular bureau, we learned, had developed a reputation for misogyny. Before anybody asks, the evaluators are all female. MO law doesn’t give more tries than that, so we had to appeal to the state government to get her a fourth try. The second place passed her on the first go.

@Nullo that’s horrible. Why wouldn’t the state look into a DMV that had such a horrible pass rate?

@tranquilsea Probably because guys would be passed on the first try. I suppose that the numbers weren’t anomalous enough – not all of the girls were failed every time, but most of them.
Might also have to do with the way that the system is set up here. We have License Bureaus, and I suspect that they don’t have the same degree of monitoring as a DMV. They tend to have something akin to private ownership; the one in Rolla operates out of an antique store. While better off than Illinois, Missouri has its share of government corruption.

@Nullo That’s crazy! Also, what does MO expect people to do if they’ve failed three times? Just go without their license forever? That seems stupid to me too.

@Mariah We made those same arguments; part of why they gave us another go. Hopefully the legislation will change. I suppose that this is a good time to start harassing my state congressman.