I've got my test next week as well. I'm not feeling too optimistic: this is my fourth attempt at it.
What have I messed up on in the past?
1st time: I was approaching a roundabout literally 5 minutes into my test. I really don't know what was going through my head but I didn't stop when it looked busy, I just seemed to keep going and was about to pull out in front of someone. The examiner had to put the brakes on for me. Obviously, instant fail.
2nd time: Really, really messed it up this time. I did almost the exact same thing at the exact same roundabout except it was much quieter and I would say it was more a case of me not leaving enough room between myself and the driver coming around who was going much faster than I realised. The examiner didn't put the breaks on this time, so I thought it hadn't been bad enough to fail but it was. I continued on to mount the curb when coming out of a stop junction. I was a complete and utter disaster. Again, I haven't got a clue what was going on in my head.
3rd time: My instructor suggested that he came along with me to see if it could help me. I think he thought I'd just been unlucky and that it hadn't just been awful driving from me. This time I got through my dreaded roundabout and was taken up to an estate area with really steep hills with busy junctions at the end of them. I didn't have enough power when I was going up the last of them and then pushed the clutch in too early to give way at the junction, and I stalled. Because I was on such a steep hill, I couldn't get moving again; I just kept rolling backwards. I began to panic and I must have been there for 15 minutes trying to get up this hill, sobbing my heart out. In the end, the examiner asked me to stop and he handed me a tissue to let me calm down. He told me that I was doing everything right to fix the problem, and he talked me through it and helped me up the hill. I had to pull over at the side of the road after the junction and was violently sick in some poor person's hedge
safe to say, the test was terminated.
I didn't mean to scare you, but I kind of just wanted to put this out there
I don't even really feel that I can put my failures down to nerves, it's just been very very poor driving. Nevertheless, I went to my doctor and have been given some medication to help me stay calm. I'm just really demoralised by it now, and I cry whenever I think about having to sit the bloody thing again. However, each of my examiners were lovely and understanding, and I think it's important to remember that they want you to pass. They're not out to get you. If yours is anything like mine, your instructor wouldn't let you sit the test if they didn't feel you were ready/thought they could squeeze more money out of you.
I wish you the best of luck, my friend!