Journey to the License: The End (Part 2)

I wrote on what happened during my internal evaluation and the 6 practice sessions before my practical test in my last blog post yesterday. In this blog post, I will detail what happened on the day of my practical test, and also wrap up my experience with BBDC.

On the day of my practical test, which was 4 January 2019 (Friday), I managed to secure half day off from work since I did Christmas and New Year duties. I had a swim in the morning and thereafter a short meeting with my new boss before heading off for my test. A good colleague, Aaron, offered to send me and my Malay colleague out of camp, the latter having to attend to his Friday prayers.

After lunch, my colleague abandoned me as he went to toilet, and off I went to BBDC. Although my warmup slot was supposed to be at 1345, I arrived at around 1315 and registered next to the Instructor's office. The instructor on duty quickly checked my details and PDL, before passing my details to another instructor, who led me to my test car, car 157. 

And so began my warm-up, where I went through the entire circuit without any issue, and my road warm-up was also all right. The road warm-up was not a full route actually. I went out onto Bukit Batok Road, went all the way straight for a Uturn, returned to left lane, then filtered to right lane, and turned right, went around the exterior of HomeTeam NS, then returned to the centre. The instructor then said as long as I can repeat my performance and not be too nervous, there shouldn't be a problem passing.

He then led me up to the tester's office, where he dropped my 11B and car details outside the tester's office, and instructed me to sit around and wait. The interesting thing is that we (the ones waiting for the test) were just outside the room where people were receiving their test results. We could also see people finish their test go into the room, and people who just got their results leave the room. It was overall quite a nervewrecking experience. Once in a while, a tester will come out and summon a name. As I got there early, I was quite sure that I'll be one of the first few being called out, and hence I didn't go to the canteen below to chill. One of the first names called was similar to my name, but when me and another guy reacted, we checked the NRIC to be his, so I returned to my seat. 

Then began the long waiting game, as I saw people who came later than me go before me, and some of them even returning from the test (returning early from the test is not a good sign, though). As my luck would have it, although I was one of the first to report, because the testers randomly pick their candidates, I was one of the last to call. In true CW fashion, however, the tester came out and said "CHAN WEI-DE", which I knew had to be me. Perhaps being from the army, I stood up and said "Sir", took my assault pack and walked towards him to greet him. He made me recite my NRIC, and I walked with him down towards the carpark, where he reminded me to chill and watch my step, HAHA. I wished him a Happy New Year and he made small talk about my huge assault pack.

I was quite sure despite his strict look, he was definitely here to help me pass. When I entered the car, he gave me a quick brief and told me "we are here as a team, as long as we work together, I will give you your license". I was then sure, it was me against the roads, the tester is just here to evaluate.

After I drove out from the lot, I made my first bend when the tester shouted "STOP!" and slammed the dashboard 1 second later. The thing was that I was already anticipating the e-brake, so when he shouted STOP but hasn't hit the dashboard, my leg was near the brake ready to hit. So once he hit the dashboard I just e-braked immediately. After he gave the instruction to move off, I moved off and he said "Very good, now that you've done your e-brake, I will not test you e-brake for the rest of the test." I then proceeded to do my courses. I can't quite recall the sequence of courses, but I knew I started with S-Course and ended with Brake on Ramp. I'm pretty sure he didn't test me on slope, though.

When I turned right after brake on ramp, I was completely caught by surprise when the tester shouted "STOP" again and hit the dashboard a second after. This time, my mind was too confused when he shouted "STOP", and only reacted when he hit the dashboard, which resulted in a slight delay for my SECOND e-brake, but wasn't bad enough to garner demerit points. However, I was pretty frazzled and almost forgot to signal right and check right blind spot before moving off. Thankfully, before my leg shifted to the accelerator, I remembered the procedure and moved on without any DPs.

We turned out at number 50 and I was given the instruction to turn left, which meant my test route is along Bukit Batok Road. As I found out later, I was given test route 10. I did a u-turn first, then filtered left (which was easy), and filtered right within one traffic light, which was difficult because traffic was mildly heavy on all 3 lanes. Thankfully, I moved quickly at near speed limit when changing lanes, and cars were willing to give way, so I was safe to turn right. Once I was preparing to turn right, I was actually dripping sweat, which the tester taught I was feeling hot and turned up the aircon. But in actual fact, I was just that stressed out!

The neighbourhood part went fine, I stopped for pedestrians and traffic lights were generally in my favour. I even turned out quickly at the T junction leading to HomeTeam NS as the nearest car was stopped by a hump.

I turned left from HomeTeam NS back to BBDC, and the tester asked me to overtake the bus at the bus stop outside BBDC. Although the instructors told me not to overtake before, I decided to overtake since traffic was clear and I didn't want to risk points for failing to overtake (which was a dumb move, since failure to overtake is 2 points with 1 free count, which I haven't offended till then. 

However, when I cut back in after overtaking, I had to turn left back into BBDC. Normally, I would full lock left to turn in. However, I approached an angle and STILL full locked left. As a result of overturning and me pressing the accelerator a bit too early, the car swung towards the left kerb for a moment, which I then quickly pulled the steering wheel back and the car was recovered. I knew I was slightly screwed when the tester made a "tsk" sound, but I still thought I would pass.

Then, I went towards the parking area for the vehicles. Normally, the space right next to the "HAVE A NICE DAY" sign would be available for me to park during lessons. However, since I was one of the last candidates to leave, all the cars were already parked. The tester told me to slowly go towards the end of the row of cars to park. Unfortunately, I was too excited and was already half-car in the parking row. And since I was told to go to the end, I sped up slightly.

Disaster then struck when I was going forward and another candidate, who was overly happy at his own test performance, swung the car door wide open without checking (which is standard protocol at BBDC). He stepped out when I noticed I was careening straight into him. I immediately slammed the brake (my THIRD e-brake, ladies and gentlement) and stopped the car just about half car length from him. He waved an apology and moved away, but my tester was like "AIYOH" and I knew I was pretty screwed. He then asked me to park the car (which I did haphazardly) and followed him up to the results room.

On our way to the results room, my tester met a BBDC instructor, who happened to be his ex-colleague! They started chatting and I believed that helped lighten the tester's mood. The BBDC instructor may have just indirectly saved my license.

In the results room, there were 2 candidates getting their results, and one Chinese lady waiting for hers. I can tell 1 of the candidates was in deep trouble when the tester went through his mistakes and said "lane change without due care", which I knew was an immediate failure. The conversation then got heated when the tester declared he failed and told him "do you know what to do?" and the candidate said "Yes sir, I will give up trying driving, sir." The conversation then escalated into the candidate complaining about how difficult it was for him to get a license in Singapore as compared to his hometown in India. Thankfully, the tester handled the situation well and calmed him down.

Then came the moment of truth, my tester came in. I immediately rose out of courtesy and invited him to sit. He didn't go through my mistakes. He just asked me "why did you make such mistakes at the last minute?" I was very worried by that point, so I admitted that I lost focus as I knew I would pass, which landed me in this state that I might not pass. The tester then told me overall my driving was good but the last minute was really unacceptable. However, he decided to give me chance, took out my result slip, and signed it. I heaved a huge sigh of relief, I just passed. 18 points!

I passed my theory tests and my practical tests all on the first time!

I quickly shook the hand of the tester, who reminded me to stay safe. I then started talking to another girl who passed her test too, and I could tell she was very relieved as she said it was her third time! We then chatted each other up and went downstairs to watch the graduation video. We were the last 2 to arrive before the close of that session, so we sat together at the back. The video was pretty gruesome with lots of pictures of accidents. The video was supposed to congratulate us on our license, but instead it almost killed the idea of driving for some of us! After the video, they had a short video to promote their Driving Orientation Course (DOC), and they returned our results slip. My result slip was held on for a while more as I had an existing uncancelled booking. Once we were dismissed, I said goodbye to the girl who then went straight to her boyfriend, and I went to the computer terminal to delete my last booking. I was then given my result slip and was released. 

I wanted to, and always intended to sign up for the DOC since it was taught my the professional instructors at BBDC! However, my heart was still racing at the events of the last 2 hours, so I quickly went to the canteen to get a Bandung and slurped it down with a few gulps. Being more composed then, I went to the BBDC counter to register for my DOC.

The wait for myself to be called to the registration counter was long, so in the meantime I texted my close friends and rang up my dad, who was in a small meeting but shouted "WOAH" when I told him I passed. When I was finally called to the counter, my registration was being processed when I saw Mr Tommy Ong, my first and last instructor! I called up to him and when I told him I passed, he was very happy and kept on congratulating me by shaking my hand. Once I was done with my DOC registration, I saw Mr Ong walking with Mr Ng, a strict but tired instructor, who also congratulated me on passing and reminded me on the triangle plates. Mr Ng smiled at me for the first time, I took it as a personal accomplishment.

When I got home, my mum immediately came down to drive me to fetch my dad as he was knocking off. I didn't reveal to my mum I took half day to take the test, in fact I only told 1 or 2 people of my test timing. When we were in the car, I told my mum I had lied to her, and said I had to go to the Traffic Police to settle some issue. I handed her a letter which she though was a summon letter, but then when she read I passed my test, she was pleasantly surprised!

Fast-forward to today, I have completed both my DOC lessons, where I learnt expressway driving and parking in multi storey carparks too, as well as vertical and parallel parking. While I was disappointed I didn't get to drive along Orchard Road, which I realized that it was not a guarantee since the contract stated "Driving along congested areas", I was thankful for the advice given by the instructors. 

And so completes my BBDC journey. While I do not rule out going back to BBDC soon, be it to collect my lost cashcard, accompanying a friend, or maybe for another course, I bid goodbye to BBDC after an eventful 5 months with them. Memories were made with a lot of sweat and pain, but I'm glad I've reached this point. I would especially like to thank Mr Tommy Ong, Mr Ng, Mr Chong, Mr Gay, and other instructors who have guided me along the way. There are a few who I didn't like, but a majority of my lessons were fruitful and I enjoyed them. When I'm free, I will be writing a letter of commendation for the good instructors.

I would also like to give many thanks to my family who has supported me along this journey, and dissuading me from taking up Class 2B in view of my safety and physique. Special mentions to Gladys and Tze King who have been my BBDC advisors through the way. Vernicia, Raelene, Yi Shiuan, Shi Ting have supported me through this journey by giving moral support, and not to forget my colleagues, Timothy, Aaron, Heng, Winston, Nicholas, Said for advice. I also thank my ex-boss, Mr JP Wee for giving me time to study and take my BTT, and ME4 Seet and ME4 Haddy for allowing me to take offs to attend practical lessons and my practical test. I look forward to good news of my close friends Glenda, Raelene, Matthias, Johanna, Ryan Wang and Manfred to get their license soon. All the best!

I will be more than willing to answer any question regarding driving. Feel free to drop me a text or DM to ask away your queries!

ANNEX A: A REVIEW OF MY MISTAKES

Insufficient Acceleration (2 Demerit Points per offence) - 2 offences, 1 free count, 2 DPs in circuit. Perhaps I was too nervous during the initial part of my test such that I was going rather slowly during my circuit part, though I don't think it was such a huge problem as I was not obstructing traffic?

Failure to Check Safety (4 DPs per offence) - 1 offence, 4 DPs during parallel parking. I think this mistake happened at the last part of myself going into the lot. I had to reverse straight back to end up and the centre of the lot. Since my car was already in the lot, I did not check back and just reversed while being fixated at the left mirror. Seems quite unfortunate for a 4 DP, considering there was literally no one around, but given the emphasis put on safety checks, I accept the mistake.

Failure to check Blind Spot (4 DPs per offence) - 2 offences, 2 free counts, 0 DPs on the road. I do think I checked all my blind spots, but I have a bad habit of checking very quickly such that if the tester is not very observant, he will miss it. But since no demerit points were awarded for this, I did not challenge the mistake.

Veer off course (4 DPs per offence) - 1 offence, 4 DPs at entrance to BBDC. This was my full lock despite coming in to the entrance from an angle. I have no one but myself to blame for this mistake, I fully accept it as my own error.

Failure to give sufficient side clearance to other road users (8 DPs per offence) - 1 offence, 8 DPs at parking area of vehicles. This was the near miss at the parking area. While I felt that this was not completely my fault, had the other candidate not swung his door wide I probably won't be penalized, I felt it was rather appropriate. There was no "evasive action" the driver could do (8 DPs), and my reaction was not slow (10 DPs), hence this was the most appropriate fault. I recognize though, had the tester been completely anal and strict, he could fault me for "Inappropriate action causing near accident", which would be an immediate failure.

In total, I gained 18 Demerit Points, a JUST PASS. However, in my 30 minute test, 6 DPs were awarded in the first 15 minutes in the circuit, no points were awarded on the road, except that in the last 1 minute I made 2 serious mistakes and was awarded 12 DPs.

In other words

0000-0015: 6 DPs

0015-0029: 0 DPs

0029-0030: 12 DPs

However, I must still thank my tester for being very kind and making my test experience as smooth as it could be. Although I probably left a sour note in him during the last minute, but he probably saw through my carelessness and decided my first 29 minutes was sufficient to pass. I can also tell he wanted me to pass. If he didn't, he could fault me for any other mistake I may have made and pushed me over the 20 points limit. Or he could award me an Immediate Failure for the last mistake. But he didn't, which means he wanted me to pass. Thank you Mr Ng Ah Ba!

But for now, life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long, WOOOHOO!