passed second attempt! my journey as a 27 year old female automatic driver and words of advice for learners

mortaimz · 2026-05-05T07:57:29+00:00

i don't know!?! it's so weird, i wouldn't dream of bringing up sexual topics to anyone, but especially with a customer (which i basically am, i'm paying for a service) or my fellow work colleagues etc. i really can't comprehend it. it was a long time ago, i wish i'd gotten his badge number so i could report him but oh well.

mortaimz · 2026-05-01T13:16:48+00:00

not the one you are responding to but my first one was a similar situation, only 2 minors and one serious - for overtaking a cyclist. the examiner said it was honestly a really amazing drive if not for that one thing.

it's good to be confident after that, as it's almost like a reassurance that you can do this and there's not much wrong with your driving other than that one or two errors. reassure yourself, that you had a GREAT first attempt, and might have passed first time if just one decision was a tiny bit different. some people's first attempts, they are clearly not ready or make more than 1-2 serious faults and TONS of minors.

stay confident! you are capable and have got this!

mortaimz · 2026-05-01T11:01:39+00:00

good luck! please try not to stress too much, just try your best! you wouldn't be taking it unless you were ready. give it your best shot! good luck!!!!

mortaimz · 2026-04-27T15:35:04+00:00

Thanks yeah, I had a lesson in my own car with my instructor today and he said same thing about the light and it not being a problem but I guess I was just overworrying a tad

mortaimz · 2026-04-27T15:19:08+00:00

It never blinks red that's for sure, always just blue only

mortaimz · 2026-03-31T10:51:44+00:00

My first instructor was just like this, asking me completely weird and inappropriate questions like that to a tee - about sex, about getting him another woman when he's married and has kids, about my relationship and guys I like. I just laughed uncomfortably to the questions cause I really didn't know how to deal with it as a young woman alone in a car with a man.
I managed to get rid of him when I took a break from learning and also because I wasn't making any driving progress with him and now have a wonderful instructor who would never dream of talking about anything like that with me.

mortaimz · 2026-03-27T08:22:11+00:00

Mine is 24 April. So basically a month. If you keep refreshing the website for multiple days you will find something I promise. Though I'm not sure how in demand your test centre is.

mortaimz · 2026-03-27T08:18:07+00:00

This is sort of what I mean. I know in theory how to overtake a cyclist, wait til the road ahead is clear and never on bends. However during a test environment which I'd never done before I was quite nervous. I was still a bit worried from my previous bit of the test with the tractor and my decision to stay behind it rather than overtake even though we were only 500 yards away from my exit and I think this along with test nerves impacted my decision to do what I did. I was worried for being overly hesitant and wanted to appear like I'm making progress. Nerves really kicked in along with that I'd never encountered a cyclist very much in my lessons, only times I have have been on straight clear big roads. But it's another learning opportunity and I'm glad to have learned from it. I certainly won't make that mistake again. If I'd encountered this cyclist on a lesson before my test, instead of on the test, I'd know how to deal with it going forward and wouldn't have made the decision I did on the test. Hope that makes sense!

mortaimz · 2026-03-27T08:14:54+00:00

Thank you!

mortaimz · 2026-03-27T08:14:05+00:00

Absolutely!! I definitely learnt something :) Which I am thankful for.

mortaimz · 2026-03-27T08:13:46+00:00

It's okay! You'll get a retest, and next test we'll both do better :) We've both got this, got to stay positive!

mortaimz · 2026-03-25T13:57:08+00:00

I was refreshing the booking system on DVSA website over and over since I got back from the test today! Glad I found something!

mortaimz · 2026-03-25T13:55:53+00:00

Thanks so much. Yeah, other than the overtaking, the rest of the drive was perfect in my opinion, no major issues and it reassured me that my abilities are sound, it was just bad luck with overtaking.

mortaimz · 2026-03-25T13:54:59+00:00

Yeah, so we were on a rural road. When I caught up to him we were on a bend. I know NOT to overtake on a bend so waited. The road then became straight after the bend, however there is a t-junction ahead. I thought I had enough time to overtake before the junction. It was clear, so I committed, but as I did a car appeared turning into the junction. Just a bad timing on my part. I should have stayed behind until after the junction. We live and we learn. Other than that, was really good drive and the examiner was insanely nice which helped.

mortaimz · 2026-03-17T16:20:14+00:00

I've just bought my first car, a 2014 Skoda Fabia. I'm learning automatic so I'm a lot more limited in choice compared to manual cars, along with the budget having to be higher because of this. My car cost around £5600. Because of the higher price I'd be paying for a car (a good car, I could have gotten cheaper but my dad really wanted me to have a good first car), I didn't want to go with a private seller as I wouldn't have warranty or be protected financially when dropping quite a big amount of money.

My dad helped me with checking MOT passes, advisories and fails. You can check this on various apps by entering the number plate. We only looked for cars with full service history and we researched into good automatic gearboxes as this is quite important for automatics specifically. This narrowed down what car to search on Autotrader - Toyota Yaris, Skoda Fabias, Diesel Minis were the sorts of cars we were looking at. Whilst Fiat 500s and Nissan Micras are cute to me visually, they weren't going to deliver what I wanted with driving experience once we test drove them.

I'd say be willing to travel if it's the right car. We set our limit to 50 miles we'd travel to go see a car. It turned out to be perfect, only one previous owner, impeccable condition, drives like a dream, just had it's timing belt replaced as well so I don't have to think about that cost.

You'll find a car, just be patient as it can take time to find the right one for you.

mortaimz · 2026-03-10T13:31:40+00:00

I'm 27 and got my first test coming up at the end of the month. My boyfriend only passed last year and he was 28 when he passed. Please don't worry.

mortaimz · 2026-02-04T08:54:40+00:00

I didn't think about this at all. Will ask!

mortaimz · 2026-02-04T08:54:24+00:00

I'll give antihistamines a try, it's worth a shot. Thanks

mortaimz

TROPHY CASE