That is quite normal, but the questions in the test were laughable, wrong by its nature and just expect you to memories some shit which you will never need. But it was easy. The driving test itself was complete joke - just drive around the block.
i remember my driving exam in North Carolina...
Question : What do you do when the carburetor is flooded... IT IS 2000 ... NOBODY has a carburetor in his car anymore. Bunch of rednecks ...
Practical test : Please perform a 3 point turn...
Me: i can make a u-turn here.
Examinator. no you can't it is too narrow.
I executed 3-point turn , then did a u-turn just to show it could be done.
instructor : you must be from europe. americans don't know what is the turning circle of their car.. or they show up in 'boat anchors' ...
pffft, on snowy days I used to drive around the block without turning the steering wheel.
And that car was an automatic transmission and no hand brake, it was foot operated and had a separate release handle. WAY too easy with a nice hand brake lever.
pffft, on snowy days I used to drive around the block without turning the steering wheel.
And that car was an automatic transmission and no hand brake, it was foot operated and had a separate release handle. WAY too easy with a nice hand brake lever.
And that was before it was called "drifting".
Somewhat seriously those of us who have had the "privilege" of driving in the snow have baked into our neurons how to handle a car when sliding and have it under control. A lesser form of WRC driving if you may.
While different countries try to educate their new drivers to the task of public driving, with varying degrees of difficulty, the reports I've read is that after few years "people" all tend forget the better stuff they were taught and gravitate towards the US mean of ... crap driving.
No doubt the US will fix "our" problem via autonomous cars and finally outlaw actual drivers.
WRT engineering degrees and education ... the economy has changed so much since my graduation that it's hard to say what's right and not. Certainly rote memorization is out but then again there's something to be said for being able to add 582 + 128 in your head w/o a "calculator" in a moments time. Given the specialization in any engineering field these days, learning to be a good control systems engineer won't get you a job designing ASICs.
And that was before it was called "drifting". Somewhat seriously those of us who have had the "privilege" of driving in the snow have baked into our neurons how to handle a car when sliding and have it under control. A lesser form of WRC driving if you may.
On that note, the last few days in Boulder, CO have been pretty fun! Rush hour not so much, but once everyone goes home and the roads open up it's a blast.
Btw, the American system to get a driver licence is the biggest comedy show ever invented. The price for it says it all, 75 bucks out of my head. In Europe you pay easily 2500 euro. Guess where I feel safer (and seen the obvious difference in person)?
Fun litle other fact, roundabouts with traffic light?
Really?
Yes, and if you speak french, you fail at the test, if you use the turning signal for turning, instead of the horn. Also, they teach you how to park, by crashing into every car around you.
When I took my driver's license test - I did so in a station wagon, it was our only car. I could have easily done the 3 point turn with just one 'point' (only a very small car could possible U-turn in the space - it's not on the public street, it's a specially designed course), but they fail you if you don't do an exact 3 point turn. The REAL trick is at the end, as you are leaving the course. The instructor, a state police officer, will point to the right and say "park over there." Well, there is a stop sign at the exit to the course! Probably half the people that fail do so because they just follow the direction and drive right over to the parking area.
After the first year of engineering, our class size was cut in half because so many people failed and immediately switched majors.
Even after graduation, when I went to take the FE exam, I overheard a group of people talking and one person mentioned it was his SEVENTH time to take the test, and he hoped he passed this time. It made me wonder how he even graduated.
Engineering is not for everyone, but some people don't get the hint until it's way too late.
I know a lot of people who are the opposite.
They perfectly graduate in 4 or 6 years, sometimes even cum laude.
But the only thing they can is study well. They are not even close of being half decent engineers or scientists.
Sure they know every definition very well and precise, but if you ask about the context aka seeing the bigger picture they are completely clueless.
Reading all these (interesting) stories, i still make the same conclusion. Schools still teach you memorizing things, not understanding things. Big difference.
Btw, the American system to get a driver licence is the biggest comedy show ever invented. The price for it says it all, 75 bucks out of my head. In Europe you pay easily 2500 euro. Guess where I feel safer (and seen the obvious difference in person)?
Fun litle other fact, roundabouts with traffic light? Really?
I believe that you are messed with the terms. The 75 bucks will be the driver right exams , on Spain was 80-90€. I rememeber that on Usa , you can present to driver exam,on the same day( Theorical/Practices) for free(without Auto-school). Now , if you contracts a autoschool is aproximatly 1200€ more expensive(Theorical (400-800€ and the practise car 25-35€/practise).
Now for arriving to spend 2500€ , How many do practices do you ?
Nowadays an average amount of (mandatory) lessons is about roughly 30-40, plus your theoretical exam and a one hour final practical exam, which is driving in real traffic in the city and the high way.
You're not really being tested if you can make only a 3 point turn, but more how you drive and anticipate with other traffic.
Also things like parallel parking, driving/turning backwards, driving away from an hill (we only have manual gearboxes) are standard parts of the final exam.
So as long as you drive safe, a little mistake in parallel parking won't let you fail.
Creating a dangerous situation certainly or obviously showing insecureness in general, will.
i remember my driving exam in North Carolina...
Question : What do you do when the carburetor is flooded... IT IS 2000 ... NOBODY has a carburetor in his car anymore. Bunch of rednecks ...
When I took NC driver's license test, the theoretical test is done on a computer and the questions are all about road rules.
mine was done on computer as well. here is an interesting tidbit :
the machine picks a set of questions. you need to score a certain percentage. i don't remember the exact numbers but it is something like this :
you need 50 correct answers. you can only have 5 wrong. the machine picks a set of 100.
so .. if you do not know the answer : DO NOT GUESS !. simply skip the question. you have 'spare' questions. chances are you do know the answers to those. so you can actually 'game' the system a bit.