The Student Room Group

asking examiner a question

hey, just wanted to know what would happen if you actually asked the examiner what the speed limit on a road is, say if u hadn't seen the sign...

i'm guessing he wouldnt tell you but is there anyway he would, maybe at the expense of just a minor??

i failed first test because i was going 40mph on a 60mph road - marked by national speed limit sign which i must have missed....

thanks and please reply!

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Reply 1
The trick is to learn every road on the test route and know their limits, know little quirks etc.
Reply 2
I very much doubt that they would let you get away with that! You should be capable of driving on your own, without needing to ask anyone else what the speed limit is/what lane you should be in or anything else like that! They will literally just direct you, but won't tell you anything else.

One I was always unsure about was if you were allowed to ask them if it was clear, if you couldn't see past something, but they could, I was never sure if you would be allowed to ask them, or if that would be seen the same, and that you have to do what you would do if you were on your own in the car etc.

Anyway...if you have an instructor you could check with them if you wanted, but personally I very much doubt you can ask them what the speed limit is!
Reply 3
no they wouldnt tell you, i've had 3 examiners (failed twice) and none of htem gave me an answer other than "its up to you"

even on really tricky occasions, like a man was doing something with the drainage and i asked what do i do? and he said its up to you.... (the man took up the whole road and it was at a junction, in side roads)
so i said, well i'll wait because hes nearly finished...10 seconds later when iwent through he said i could have driven on the curve provided that i'd look out for pedestrains etc.

sorry i rambled on a bit, basicly no they dont answer you even in the trickiest situations
They wont tell you :biggrin:

I failed first time for the same reason, Missed the sign marking a change in speed limit and was driving too slow!
Reply 5
That's so mean!

I'm always driving along and then think, 'Er, what's the speed limit again?!' How slow is too slow? I don't like going much above 50 :tongue: will they proper do you for that on a test if it's a 60 or 70 road?
abc101
That's so mean!

I'm always driving along and then think, 'Er, what's the speed limit again?!' How slow is too slow? I don't like going much above 50 :tongue: will they proper do you for that on a test if it's a 60 or 70 road?


I failed for doing 30 in a 40- but I think it entirely depends on the examiner and the standard of the rest of your driving.
If it wasnt for my lack of speed my examiner said I would have passed:frown:

At the end of the day, dont go faster than you feel you can handle, but also take into consideration factors such as weather, how built up the area is and whether or not you are holding up traffic.
If its a really busy street- for example outside a school and the limit is 30, it doesnt mean do 30, its do a MAXIMUM of 30, so if you think 20 is a safe speed then do 20.
Reply 7
The ONLY question you should ask an examiner is "can you repeat that please" if you didnt hear his last instruction.
Reply 8
I was chatting away to mine, asking where he was from, what he thinks of the job, funniest job moments etc. He was a nice guy.
Reply 9
abc101
That's so mean!

I'm always driving along and then think, 'Er, what's the speed limit again?!' How slow is too slow? I don't like going much above 50 :tongue: will they proper do you for that on a test if it's a 60 or 70 road?


I would doubt that they would be happy with you going at 50 in a 60 or 70 area. Don't know if you would fail for it or not, but I would have thought you would be likely to if you did it for long enough. Obviously you need to judge it looking at the conditions on the day, if its raining/bad visibility/really busy etc then you probably don't want to be doing 70. But...if the weathers fine, clear(ish) road they would expect you to get pretty near the speed limit. You are just as likely to be 'dangerous' in a way driving a lot below the limit as you are over it as people will then start trying to overtake you, tailgating you etc.

Its not that bad driving at 60/70 tbh, just try and get plenty of practice at it and you should be ok! :smile:
They won't tell you, unless you put someone in danger, most likely yourself. i.e. 40 in a 30 zone. I think that's a major.
Reply 11
Solemn Wanderer
DomTom, the examiner shouldn't really tell you you've committed a fault until after the test ends! They shouldn't say, "well, you've failed now!" ten seconds after you've committed the fault.


The first test I took, I forgot a signal and he said straight away "A signal would have been nice just then."

He also made me more nervous by saying "Calm down" and that made me all the worser.

But I have a licence now yay :smile:
Hehe, mine helped me out soooo much! Like he was advising me to creep forward and look round the corner when pulling out of a horrid junction, and to watch my speed on one bit. I was so sure I'd failed because he surely wouldn't have been helping me if I was still on test conditions? But I hadn't, and I PASSED :smile:

I felt really sorry for one of my friends though. Pulling out of the test center, there was a lot of traffic, so she was waiting and waiting, but then realised if she waited too long she mght fail for "undue hesitation" so she pulled out when she saw a gap. Alas, the examiner didn't think it was large enough, so he touched the footbrake. She looked over to him and said "You interfered, that means I've failed doesn't it?" "Yep," came the reply. So she had to do the rest of the test in tears, knowing that she'd failed without even leaving the test center :frown:
Reply 13
My examiner told me what to do when I got stuck in a street where cars were parked on both sides and me and this other car were facing each other head on :eek:

It just depends on the situation really I suppose
Reply 14
I didn't ask him any questions, but he did give me advice on how to get out of and into the test centre, and mentioned things like check that it is safe and stuff like that.
Reply 15
There was heavy traffic and i was told to go straight over the roundabout when i got there, so i followed the left hand curb, and my instructor told me that the left hand lane, was a left turn only lane. He said he only told me due to high amounts of traffic, not sure if thats normal or not.
Reply 16
Solemn Wanderer
DomTom, the examiner shouldn't really tell you you've committed a fault until after the test ends! They shouldn't say, "well, you've failed now!" ten seconds after you've committed the fault.

he didn't say he failed for it though. why would he fail for waiting?
chewwy
why would he fail for waiting?

You get minors for "hesitation"
Mine, the time when I passed, seemed really really grumpy, but then said "Isn't it getting dull so early today?" HINT HINT... "Uhh, better put my headlights on".

JC.
The ONLY question you should ask an examiner is "can you repeat that please" if you didnt hear his last instruction.


To be honest I think that if you ask them anything that'd fail you if you answered, they just say "It's up to you" / "Just do what you'd do with your instructor."

You can verify instructions as much as you want because when you're driving it doesn't matter whether you follow exactly the instructions of the person sitting next to you... it matters that what you actually do should be safe. eg. If he says "Please can you take the next left" you can ask "The one with the blue car coming out of it?"

As far as checking the speed limit... you should definitely be able to see for yourself! I had great problems with that - I'd miss a huge speed limit sign because I'm concentrating on the junction, and not notice the repeater signs / the repeater signs wouldn't be there 'cos the local council is crap (IMO that would justify reverting to national speed limit, ie. 30mph). Didn't fail a test for missing a speed limit though.
Reply 19
When I made a complete cock-up of my parallel park I asked the examiner if I could start again. I don't know if that counts but he did give me an answer, saying I couldn't do it again but I could 'tidy it up' so to speak.