Today I'm angry about.....

[thebish]

I have no point of comparison but will take your word for it - I guess the relative failure rates would provide the answer.

very generous of you!

relative failure rates would give you AN answer - but not a very useful one... if it is harder to pass - then driving schools up their game in order to achieve better pass rates and thus produce better-prepared test-takers... you'd still be comparing onions with mangos...

for one thing - knowledge of the highway code used to be a couple of totally obvious casual questions at the end of the driving test - now you have to know the whole thing and pass an examination before taking to the road...

for another - you now need to know some basic information about how your car works - how to do routine day-to-day maintenance - which you never needed to do before...

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I have no point of comparison but will take your word for it - I guess the relative failure rates would provide the answer.

very generous of you!

relative failure rates would give you AN answer - but not a very useful one... if it is harder to pass - then driving schools up their game in order to achieve better pass rates and thus produce better-prepared test-takers... you'd still be comparing onions with mangos...

for one thing - knowledge of the highway code used to be a couple of totally obvious casual questions at the end of the driving test - now you have to know the whole thing and pass an examination before taking to the road...

for another - you now need to know some basic information about how your car works - how to do routine day-to-day maintenance - which you never needed to do before...

Which is all very well, but doesn't actually mean the test is harder to pass - all that means is that those that do pass are potentially more competent to drive.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

...which does not give the corollary that them what passed under the older less stringent system were in any way inferior drivers.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I have no point of comparison but will take your word for it - I guess the relative failure rates would provide the answer.

very generous of you!

relative failure rates would give you AN answer - but not a very useful one... if it is harder to pass - then driving schools up their game in order to achieve better pass rates and thus produce better-prepared test-takers... you'd still be comparing onions with mangos...

for one thing - knowledge of the highway code used to be a couple of totally obvious casual questions at the end of the driving test - now you have to know the whole thing and pass an examination before taking to the road...

for another - you now need to know some basic information about how your car works - how to do routine day-to-day maintenance - which you never needed to do before...

Which is all very well, but doesn't actually mean the test is harder to pass - all that means is that those that do pass are potentially more competent to drive.

Also, today's students have been educated and trained to the new standard. I'm not sure what routine maintenance means (apart from checking fluid levels and air pressure). My car certainly has an on board computer that lights something up if it is unhappy, but how to fix it is beyond me (usually a false alarm from a faulty sensor). I know if the "check engine" light comes on I undo and redo the gas cap before panicking, but other than that I have no clue.

[thebish]

I have no point of comparison but will take your word for it - I guess the relative failure rates would provide the answer.

very generous of you!

relative failure rates would give you AN answer - but not a very useful one... if it is harder to pass - then driving schools up their game in order to achieve better pass rates and thus produce better-prepared test-takers... you'd still be comparing onions with mangos...

for one thing - knowledge of the highway code used to be a couple of totally obvious casual questions at the end of the driving test - now you have to know the whole thing and pass an examination before taking to the road...

for another - you now need to know some basic information about how your car works - how to do routine day-to-day maintenance - which you never needed to do before...

Which is all very well, but doesn't actually mean the test is harder to pass - all that means is that those that do pass are potentially more competent to drive.

well - there is more to learn and the test is longer and has more parts - it involves everything that used to be in it - plus a lot more - so I think it's fair enough to say it is harder to pass - there are more hoops to jump through and more opportunities to fail...

and - in as far as my own experience can inform my opinion - i have taken driving tests under both systems - and found the modern one to have been a harder test...

[Bruce Rioja]

Around 20 years ago in Ireland there was a protracted Driving Examiner strike.

People waiting to take their tests began to mount up ... it wasn't easy to see how they could be dealt with even once people returned to work. in fact that point was a major bargaining point of the examiners.

So the Govt decided that it would give out licences to ...
a. Anyone who had already taken the test
and
b. Whose surname began with alternate letters of the alphabet (A, C, E etc.)

Sorted.

So if you ever get into a prang in the Republic you check those details carefully.

From experience I imagine that Ireland must be right up there (Probably with Turks and the Portuguese too) when it comes to annual number of motorist deaths in relation to the number of the country's drivers. Dreadful roads driven on by fecking idiots.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I welcome harder tests. My contention is that incompetent drivers are not prohibited from driving by a testing system... They just take longer, or spend more money, or learn more efficiently by rote, or whatever... but in the end they are still the same lethal cnuts driving a killing machine to which if we were honest they should be banned from ever going anywhere near. That's my contention.

[Bruce Rioja]

...which does not give the corollary that them what passed under the older less stringent system were in any way inferior drivers.

Indeed, however, I'd been driving a variety of vehicles, off road, since the age of 11. When it came to learning to drive a car on the road and taking my test, aged 17, I had seven lessons then passed first time. However, and as I mentioned earlier, my knowledge of the Highway Code is dreadful and when it came to that part of the test the examiner even coaxed me through it. At the end of the test I thanked him for passing me, to which he replied "Not at all, you've driven very well, but please brush up on the Highway Code".

I'd back my driving against anyone's, but not my knowledge of the Highway Code (And I drive about 15,000 miles a year abroad).

Bish mentioned 'basic maintenance' forming part of the test nowadays. I've got Green Flag on speed dial.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I've got Green Flag on speed dial.

I wouldn't be too embarrassed about that. I've got KFC and Pizza Hut on speed dial

[Bruce Rioja]

I've got Green Flag on speed dial.

I wouldn't be too embarrassed about that. I've got KFC and Pizza Hut on speed dial

You, my good man, ROCK!!!!

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I've got Green Flag on speed dial.

I wouldn't be too embarrassed about that. I've got KFC and Pizza Hut on speed dial

You, my good man, ROCK!!!!

KFC deliver here <fat bastard smilie>

[Prufrock]

I'm book-marking this thread for next time someone says A-Level exams are getting easier

[Bruce Rioja]

I'm book-marking this thread for next time someone says A-Level exams are getting easier

Oh, aren't they now 'A Star' Levels?

[Montreal Wanderer]

When Tango took the test it wasn't that easy ...

[TANGODANCER]

Why lie? My first test was a disaster and an emergency stop that caused the examiner to lose his hat and finish flattening his nose on the windscreen didn't help. BSM put me in for a cancelation and I simply wasn't ready and hadn't had much practise.

Second time I'd no idea why I failed, neither had the BSM instructor. Later, the examiner was sacked after complaints of failing people for no reason. His name was "Strange". It's the truth.

Third time, passed clean as a whistle driving a Triumph Herald.

[Bruce Rioja]

[Montreal Wanderer]

Why lie? My first test was a disaster and an emergency stop that caused the examiner to lose his hat and finish flattening his nose on the windscreen didn't help. BSM put me in for a cancelation and I simply wasn't ready and hadn't had much practise.

Second time I'd no idea why I failed, neither had the BSM instructor. Later, the examiner was sacked after complaints of failing people for no reason. His name was "Strange". It's the truth.

Third time, passed clean as a whistle driving a Triumph Herald.

I passed in a Triumph Herald as well - belonged to the driving school - my instructor was a Mr. Layton. During my test the examiner dropped a pencil and, in picking it up, put his other hand on the dash, This was the signal for an emergency stop and I too practically put him through the windscreen - this being before seat belts. I apologized profusely but he said it was his fault and didn't fail me.

[Prufrock]

There's an owd lad in the pub who tells how he nearly failed his for overtaking a horse and trap on a zebra crossing. At the end, the examiner asked him where he thought he'd gone wrong, suggested he didn't do that again, and told him he'd passed!

[Prufrock]

Right, can anyone explain how a signal failure at Milton Keynes leads to the cancellation of a train sat an hour and a half away in Preston? Now, there is another train in an hour, but even if the delay is longer than an hour, we're still likely to be in front, if only by dint of being ahead in the queue.

It does seem a lot like Virgin have thought, 'f*ck it, let's save on the running costs of a train', which is all well and good if you're Virgin, and all poor and bad if you're in the crowd containing half of Britain currently stood waiting on the platform. Company running costs beat customer service. Again. But it's ok, because the trains are private now, and so there must be some sort of competition, meaning I can f*ck Virgin off for their poor service, and use someone else. Oh, no, of course I can't, because that's fecking obviously not how a train system works!

The best thing is that Virgin can quite honestly say that the original problem is 'not our fault, guv' as they, like all other businesses (by which I mean no other businesses) don't have to trouble themselves with paying superfluous nonsences like operating costs.

Nice one Maggie.

[Worthy4England]

Right, can anyone explain how a signal failure at Milton Keynes leads to the cancellation of a train sat an hour and a half away in Preston? Now, there is another train in an hour, but even if the delay is longer than an hour, we're still likely to be in front, if only by dint of being ahead in the queue.

It does seem a lot like Virgin have thought, 'f*ck it, let's save on the running costs of a train', which is all well and good if you're Virgin, and all poor and bad if you're in the crowd containing half of Britain currently stood waiting on the platform. Company running costs beat customer service. Again. But it's ok, because the trains are private now, and so there must be some sort of competition, meaning I can f*ck Virgin off for their poor service, and use someone else. Oh, no, of course I can't, because that's fecking obviously not how a train system works!

The best thing is that Virgin can quite honestly say that the original problem is 'not our fault, guv' as they, like all other businesses (by which I mean no other businesses) don't have to trouble themselves with paying superfluous nonsences like operating costs.

Nice one Maggie.

At the risk of missing out of a pop at Maggie, I suspect that a train an hour and a half away is only one of the trains that will require that particular line, including some probably already in transit nearer to Milton Keynes than an hour and a half away.

You don't get the whole and sole use of the line for your train. Although the price of train tickets might lead you to believe that.

I also suspect there's not half of Britain waiting, but will allow you this little hyperbole as your train's fecked.