Traffic Police Test
Continuing from my previous post on BBDC Practical Lessons. The final hurdle of the driving lessons would be the Traffic Police Test.
Upon passing my Evaluation for the practical, I did not jump into booking the test date, as the timings clashed with my university exams. I waited for a couple of days, and the ideal date was released (25th April 2019 – Thursday).
I was deliberating which timing to take since there are about 7 timeslots available. After searching and reading other blogs online, I narrowed down to the 9.55am slot or mid afternoon where the test is about 3.00pm.
I chose these timings for the following reasons (which I have observed):
- There is a break for the instructors which translated to lesser training cars on the circuit.
- The roads were less congested, especially on a weekday
I decided to take session 4 – the warm up session was at 9.55am and the test was scheduled to be at 11am. However, one of my instructor warned me that they may hold the test earlier at about 1030am.
One day before, I did a revision class to prepare myself mentally and to recap the rules and make sure I don’t do rookie mistakes.
25th April 2019 – Test Date
I arrived at the centre about 20 minutes earlier so that I could visit the restroom and register for the test.
On level 1 you would see a place to register your attendance and you would be asked to provide your PDL and NRIC for verification purposes. After which, a warm-up instructor will bring you over to the assigned car to prep up yourself. Looking at the car plate, I was assigned to a pretty new car and it was easier to control the steering wheel and brakes.
During this warm up session, I had a not-so nice instructor, who kept rushing me on the roads and I almost collided with an empty SMRT bus.
Tip : Go at the pace you’re comfortable and confident with.
After the warm-up, I had to take a couple of mints (to calm me down after the incident), I was asked to sit at level 2 where the tester came and called me at 10.40am.
Tip: Greet the person, (basic manners) and SMILE.
The tester will ask you to ‘usher’ them to the car which you just did the warm-up session. My tester was friendly and tried to strike a conversation and was asking what I was doing.
Tip : Dress up like a responsible person (even if you aren’t one). If you are able to make them feel safe, you tend to pass the test.
During the test, the instructor will let you know the route that you will be undertaking and FOLLOW instructions.
Everything went smooth in the circuit, but at the end, I was told to turn right but I heard it as left! It was the time where many of the training cars were returning and I was about to make a left turn, an instructor speed through and almost cut my lane, forcing me to brake hard. Thankfully, the tester corrected me and he decided to give me 4 demerit points since I had 0 points at that moment.
Tip : keep calm, just be more cautious and treat everyone else as road hazards. Don’t expect others to stop for you, just because you are doing the test (you aren’t that special).
Moving forward, I went for the Teck Whye Route (the one with no U-Turn). However, half way through I was asked to drive into a more ‘neighborhood’ place which isn’t inside the route at all. My tester warned me to drive cautiously as there are more people on the roads crossing etc.
Here, I gave way to a truck even though I had the right of way (so it got a demerit point but thankfully there was a free count).
At the zebra crossing, I didn’t wait for a lady to put both of her legs on to the pavement, so it cost me 8 demerit points. I was rushing to cross before the crowd, so that I could execute a easy lane change, but … there was a sweeper moving slowly on the left lane. Taking a deep breathe, I tried to change lane slowly and a lorry gave way (surprisingly).
With that I ended my test and I was asked to return to BBDC. It was a smooth ride and it started drizzling as I entered the circuit.
The tester told me to wait for a while, as he was making the calculations and report. After which, he ran through my errors, what I did well and then ta-da he said I exceeded … exceeded expectations with 18 points (a little disappointing ).
Remember to slow down at traffic lights, otherwise you will be awarded 6 demerit points (like me).