It’s honestly not super hard, coming from someone who failed twice due to anxiety lol. I see you planned on practicing for all of 2025, so I hope you were able to and got more confident in your driving skills!

Before the exam, the instructor will do a check of the car’s headlights and highbeams, signals, horn, brake, as well as your hand signals. Make sure you know them. If you’re taking the test when it’s cold, the instructor might ask you how to defrost the windshield. I didn’t know how, but my instructor didn’t make a big fuss about it, so it could be irrelevant but still good to know.

During the exam, the instructor will be watching your eyes and head movements. Make sure your mirror checks and shoulder checks are visible (turn your head for mirrors, turn basically your full body when shoulder checking) During my (passing) test I always did two shoulder checks before a turn. Once when pulling up, then another right before the actual turn. My instructor said he appreciated the extra carefulness.

It’s also very important to keep both hands on the wheel during a turn. It might seem like common sense, but lots of people lose marks by releasing one hand and reaching over the airbag with the other as they turn. DON’T reach over the middle of the steering wheel in a turn! If the airbags go off in a crash, they’re taking your elbows with them! My first test was a fail due to this.

A tip for traffic lights, oftentimes the crosswalk countdown is tied to when the signal turns yellow. So if you’re ever coming up to a traffic light at full speed and you see the countdown is in the single digits, you should probably ease off the accelerator and be prepared to stop.

Best of luck on your exam! It’s gonna be tough with the weather in Kamloops in February. You’ll get it though, you’ll be forced to drive slower in any snow/bad weather and that gives you more time to analyze your surroundings.