Some people thought it would never happen, I often doubted it myself but finally the day has arrived when I will sit my Driving Theory Test.

I do have some nervous feelings about it but I have also had a lot of encouragement and support from people which I have really appreciated.

To prepare for today I have only been using an App on my iPhone to practise for the questions side of the test and 12 days ago I was given a disc to help me with the Hazard Perception side of the test by my good friend Jody who has recently passed her theory test using the same disc, she explained how the test worked and really managed to put me at ease about the whole thing.

I have been putting it off for far too long but it has always been on my list of things To Do! I had tried to book the theory test several times but every time I did something would end up stopping me, often due to time constraints or prior plans that interfered with my intentions. It felt hopeless but then one night I just put everything to one side and went for it, I was sick of things stopping me from what I was trying to do, it was getting me nowhere fast. I first needed to locate the paper part of my provisional driver’s license as Jody had told me that you need to take it with you to the test centre but I didn’t know exactly where it was so I looked everywhere. I thought it would be somewhere obvious, maybe in a drawer in my desk or maybe in my important documents folder, perhaps it was attached to my L plates? I couldn’t find it in any of these obvious places! I ended up finding it in a random shoebox amongst a load of other things I was trying to disregard. I always end up doing stupid things like this. It was like I was plotting against myself and purposely making it more difficult so that I wouldn’t be able to do the test if I couldn’t find this crucial paper. I also had no memory of doing this. It is probably why I am my own worst enemy.

With the paper in hand I wasted no more time and went onto the official DSA website from there they redirect you to http://direct.gov.uk/booktheorytest where you can easily book your theory test online. I understood that you would have to wait a few weeks but at the time of booking there was an opportunity to take the test in just 7 days which would have been great but I was working on that day so I opted for the next possible date which was more convenient.

Since that day I spent much more time practising the questions, doing mock tests and spending time looking at the hazard perception side of the test. One day after booking the test I managed to score a perfect 50 out of 50 on a mock test which I was very pleased about, it was very encouraging to see that I could get top marks but I had also failed twice that week. I didn’t let it bother me and just kept on practising. Now that I knew the deadline had been set and the countdown was on I simply couldn’t avoid doing it any more and this is really what I needed to get me where I needed to be. Every lunch break, after dinner and any random time throughout the day I could just tap on my iPhone and practise a few questions, the App I used allowed me to monitor my progress across the various topics and explained the reasons for the answers which also helped me to learn from my mistakes.

The hazard perception side of things wasn’t as smooth, the disc I was using recorded all their clips in quite a low quality video setting so that sometimes made it difficult to actually see the hazard that you are expected to identify but also sometimes I was so busy looking for a possible hazard that I missed it completely. Classic examples included when a tiny dog was running loose by the car but to me it just looked like a dot in the video and by the time I realised what it was it was too late, I also scored zero when I didn’t realise that the driver turned a corner and pulled up behind a Fire Engine in hindsight I could clearly see that it was a hazard but for some reason I just didn’t click to acknowledge it, as a result spotting emergency vehicles is my weakest area. I suspect my concentration will be a lot better on the real test as there will be less distractions and I will be more aware of these things in the videos. Out of all the mock hazard perception tests I have done over the last 12 days I only failed twice but on most of my passes I had scraped through by one or two points so that is probably my weakest side of the test but I also thought it was quite difficult to score good points in some of the clips due to the video quality. Aparently in the actual test the video quality is a lot better, I also understand that the hazards are supposed to be staged rather than real life situations but at this moment I don’t know what effect this will have.

So that’s it, times up, I have done all I can do and hopefully all my preparation will have paid off today. Then the countdown will be set for my actual driving test, I have been taught everything I need to know for the test but I haven’t had any lessons in 18 months so after the theory test is out of the way I will be able to concentrate on practising for my next challenge: the dreaded driving test!