Finally made it…7/7
Congratulations, you passed. – TP Tester
That was my 2nd attempt. I heaved a huge sign of relief and was elated. All at once, the restlessness and headache from the lack of sleep disappeared. I was sharing with the hub before the actual test on the mishaps during the warm-up session – mounting kerb when turning out of directional change, brake jerkiness. Stopped halfway when my name was called for the actual test.
My tester looks young and he patiently explained to me on what he would be looking out for – basically all the items that are immediate failures. Waved to my instructor, who happened to turn into the school, when I exited from the carpark lot for the commencement of the test.
First station was parallel parking – my nemesis. Thankful for the last minute confirmation from the warm-up instructor on the sighting point. It was perfect! However, when exiting from the lot, I almost hit the rear kerb (Tester exited from the car to check). From then onwards, I had more confidence in navigating through the rest of the circuit courses.
Parallel parking > Slope > Directional change > Reaction ramp > S-course > Crank > Vertical parking > E-brake
Glad that I had the crash course with a stand-in instructor on vertical parking corrections. In my first attempt, I exceeded the 3 minutes for vertical parking (immediate failure) and mounted the kerb when exiting (another immediate failure). This time, the car went into the lot with a smaller gap on the left, after some minor adjustments. Had to make a wide turn out of the lot to avoid hitting or worst, mounting the kerb (cost me 2 demerit points).
Exited from Gate 3 to the road, and had to abort the U-turn as I wasn’t able to filter to the right. Ended up taking a longer test route towards Airport Road, and waited a while for the U-turn back to school.
Accumulated a total of 14 points, and 10 was from the circuit. Unlike during my first attempt, 4 points was accumulated in the circuit (the vertical parking immediate failure was the last circuit course before hitting the road).
Overall, I was glad to have my 2 other sisters who went through this learning journey together. The 3 of us signed up with CDC. I took the lessons from Kovan, pick up point at Buangkok, while the 2 took their lessons in Ubi. Kovan students will have to pay an additional $9.63 for their practical lessons, as they will be assigned to the same vehicle with 2 fixed instructors (there will be stand-in instructors should any one of them are on leave and etc.). The advantage of signing up with Kovan, is the opportunity to build up my road awareness and confidence. I started to drive from Buangkok to Ubi from my 3rd practical lesson onwards.
A breakdown on the costs in my journey with Kovan CDC:
Would have spent less than $3K if not for the first failed attempt in May 2021. The Learner Driver Competency Screening (LDCS) is mandatory for school learners. School learners have access to e-videos based on the practical curriculum for a period of time. After which per view access is $1.07 per video.
Applied QDL online, bought the P-plate and will be taking a couple of “practical” lessons in the MSCP before attempting to hit the road. 😊
