Driving Questions- PLEASE HELP

Okay so I've had around 100 hours of driving experience (20 lessons 80 privately driving around with my mum) and I feel much more confident driving around. This is a long post so I apologise in advance
The issue now is that I feel like I've become TOO experienced and am now driving like an experienced driver rather than a learner and today I noticed I have picked up some bad habits. I'm gonna try and solve them but I think its gonna be quite hard :frown:

I had a few questions about the driving test:
I'm aware that you can get major faults for being too close to parked cars and this would be a clearance issue- I know its around a meter distance but we have this really nasty road where 1m is not possible in terms of clearance and there isn't really anywhere to stop on the sides if a car comes because the cars are constantly parked there so the only thing to do is either carry on really slowly or just stop on the road itself. Now if I was to just stop (not on the sides as this isn't possible) will I get a major?
I've noticed that I drive pretty fast now and barely ever do stuff in first gear, particularly mini roundabouts and junctions, should I get into the habit of putting into first gear? I feel like my approach speed is a lil faster than a learner would normally go for just because I've become pretty confident doing it. It's not a fast speed, its just that I don't put it into first gear because my car can handle going as low as 6mph in second gear.
Also, I don't make my mirror checks that obvious and sometimes I just glance or just move my eyes to the side mirrors when exiting, do I need to make it completely obvious?
I also stop kind of early before the stop lights and often move forwards slightly because my juddgement is a lil off here, so I just stop early and then move if needed, I'm worried the examiner will think I'm trying to go on a red light
Again, if the junction is closed, I tend to slow down a lot but I never fully stop (unless it says so or I need to). I take a quick glance left and right and just go. Is this wrong? I feel like I should maybe check twice just to make it obvious. If I was to stop and nobody was coming from either direction on a give way sign, would I get a hesitation fault?
My signals are really sensitive and basically will switch off at the slightest steering movement so when it comes to parallel parking, the signal will cancel pretty quickly, do I need to keep the signals on at all times?
I feel like I'm rushing quite a lot whilst driving, idk like I'm being cautious but at the same time feel like I'm doing things too quickly... my mum is a little strict lol so if I miss a gap, she's always like why would you not just go so I just feel like I've picked up this bad habit of kind of rushing and trying to do things in one go.
Lastly, I feel like I drive a little slow on roads with bends, like we have this road with some bends and its a 30mph area but I never really go above 25 just because the road has some fairly sharp bends, would this get me a minor for driving too slow? It's a little dangerous to be doing 30 as the straighter sections are just too short to bother speeding up
To summarise my questions:
If there is no way to avoid getting too close to parked cars, is it better to stop and let other cars get through or just drive very slowly past them?
If I don't do junctions and mini roundabouts in first gear (unless needed to of course) will they give me a major fault?
Is not making mirror checks obvious an issue?
Stopping like 2-3m before a red light too much distance?
If signal cancels itself and I don't put it back when parallel parking, fail?
Is slowing into first gear necessary even when nothing is coming?
Driving 20-25mph in a 30 zone with bends a minor for slow driving?

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

OP

Omg I just realised how long the first post is.... oops

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

OP

Even though I know I can drive just fine, I'm still so nervous when it comes to the thought of doing the test and I just really wanna pass now. I'd be absolutely gutted if I failed again.
I've already failed once but that was just lack of knowledge on what actually counts as a driving fault, I only had 2 faults and both of them were major- one was due to an unfortunate situation where I was in the right hand lane and couldn't really move into the left because of a lorry, the other was I signalled wrong when moving off and a car was approaching but it was far away so I moved but obviously they had to slow down as they got close to me because they were not expecting me to move. I didn't realise the driving in the right hand lane was a major fault and the signalling one was pretty early on because I was so nervous...

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

OP

I have been working so hard at driving and am now getting bored of having to drive day in day out and my new test date hasn't been sent via email yet so I'm just losing my mind about when this test will be.
I have around 15 days worth of insurance left so I'm gonna probably drive for another 12-15 hours or so and am really gonna try and focus more on driving as a learner and not trying to rush to change into a higher gear. Hopefully 10-15 hours is enough time for me to improve on getting rid of the bad habits and practicing more on the really narrow/ nasty road
I'm gonna be doing the test in my own car, will this mean that the examiner is less likely to take me into a busy area? Last time I did the test in my car as well and they took me on a fairly easy route with mainly dual carriageway/ straight roads but I think that was because I'd failed (the signalling fault) pretty much less than a minute into the test so I think she just took me on the easier route

Reply 4

Zarek

21

One lesson with a decent driving instructor should assess your test readiness and clear up all your questions. To address them, from my view, having done the advanced driving test: of course you can go through gaps that are so narrow you can’t leave a metre, but as you say less space, less speed; if your speed and gear match and are appropriate for the hazard situation, no problem; you need to check your mirror clearly but not in an exaggerated way; 2-3m from a stop line is a bit too much, but seeing tyres and tarmac is a good guide for spacing from the car in front; signal cancel ok if your already clearly committed to the manoeuvre but if in doubt put it back on; final two questions, again if speed and gear match and are appropriate for the hazard situation, no problem, there are situations where it is clearly not appropriate to drive at the speed limit.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Zarek

One lesson with a decent driving instructor should assess your test readiness and clear up all your questions. To address them, from my view, having done the advanced driving test: of course you can go through gaps that are so narrow you can’t leave a metre, but as you say less space, less speed; if your speed and gear match and are appropriate for the hazard situation, no problem; you need to check your mirror clearly but not in an exaggerated way; 2-3m from a stop line is a bit too much, but seeing tyres and tarmac is a good guide for spacing from the car in front; signal cancel ok if your already clearly committed to the manoeuvre but if in doubt put it back on; final two questions, again if speed and gear match and are appropriate for the hazard situation, no problem, there are situations where it is clearly not appropriate to drive at the speed limit.

Okay

I have been looking into booking like 5 lessons with someone (one for readiness/getting used to the car and 3-4 for mock tests) but it's so expensive and idk if my parents will let me do them with the coronavirus, they are really cautious.
I might talk things through and see if I can convince them

Reply 6

Zarek

21

Original post by Anonymous

Okay

I have been looking into booking like 5 lessons with someone (one for readiness/getting used to the car and 3-4 for mock tests) but it's so expensive and idk if my parents will let me do them with the coronavirus, they are really cautious.
I might talk things through and see if I can convince them

Good man, I think it would be a wise investment, to get you through the test.

Reply 7

bones-mccoy

19

Original post by Anonymous

To summarise my questions:
If there is no way to avoid getting too close to parked cars, is it better to stop and let other cars get through or just drive very slowly past them?
If I don't do junctions and mini roundabouts in first gear (unless needed to of course) will they give me a major fault?
Is not making mirror checks obvious an issue?
Stopping like 2-3m before a red light too much distance?
If signal cancels itself and I don't put it back when parallel parking, fail?
Is slowing into first gear necessary even when nothing is coming?
Driving 20-25mph in a 30 zone with bends a minor for slow driving?

It all depends on the kind of junction you're talking about. If you're approaching a busy, major road that's got a limit of, say, 40 mph, then yeah, you'd most likely be stopping completely and going into first, same as turning into roads that are very narrow and/or have cars parked on either side. But wider, open junctions you can approach and stay in second, there's one in my area that you can do in third. So it really does depend on many factors.

I would definitely recommend making very obvious mirror checks even if you don't normally

You need to put the signal back on if you're halfway through a parallel park, yes

When would you need to slow into first gear? It's generally only used for going less than 5mph or stopping completely

Imo 20mph in a 30 zone is too slow (unless there's icy weather, slower moving traffic, an accident up ahead etc)

Driving Questions- PLEASE HELP

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