Today I failed my driving test in Germany AGAIN. But this time I didn’t cry. I was sad, but I felt so much better than the first time. Let me take you back to one month ago…
It was my birthday, and I decided to take the test on my birthday. I thought that by choosing that day, I would be very motivated to learn and pass on my 1st try. But it was the wrong decision. Instead of motivation, it just added more pressure.
One week before the 1st exam, I cried almost every day because I didn’t feel ready… at all. I never had a perfect practice – always some mistakes, big or small. But overall, my instructor thought I could already take the exam. Deep inside, I was still afraid of turning left at big junctions, and I overlooked so many ‘rechts vor links.’ Also, growing up, I learned that I should do everything perfectly. Although I know nothing is perfect, it still affected me and drained me so much. I was hoping for a perfect practice so I could feel more confident entering the exam. But I tell you: there is no perfect driving lesson in Germany :))))
Then came the day of my 1st exam. I came to the driving school on time, and we were starting to drive to the exam place when my teacher realized that the exam wasn’t happening until TWO hours later. So we went back to the driving school, and I had more coffee – that day I had THREE cups of coffee in just 3 hours. When I got into the car again to drive to the exam place, my legs were shaking. But we started, and around 15-20 minutes into the exam, I failed because I drove into a restricted street and missed two ‘rechts vor links.’ All three mistakes happened within 5 minutes.
So my birthday didn’t go the way I expected, of course :))))
Then came more practice and more stress. I woke up crying for one whole week after that failure, just because I didn’t know how I could finish this. It seemed impossible to me. All my life, whenever I tried and was persistent, I got the results I wanted, but this time I didn’t even know how. I had passed my theory test on the 1st try by really understanding the rules, not just by learning tricks. So I thought knowing would be enough. It wasn’t. I understood the situations, but sometimes I reacted slower than I should have, or sometimes faster, and so on and so on. That’s why I felt so hopeless and cried A LOT.
And I watched so many YouTube videos too! I also asked for help, like asking people to drive me around a few times so I could see the streets, but somehow there was no progress.
Before I tell you what changed, here is my background: I grew up in Vietnam and was always a passenger. I was rarely in a car, and most of the time when I was in one, I slept because I got carsick, so I always tried my best to ‘avoid’ cars. This means that when I started driving in Germany, I started from minus, not even zero.
But now I’m starting to see progress, even though I failed. In my 1st exam, I made three mistakes in 5 minutes. In my 2nd exam, I made one. And I didn’t cry.
So what changed? I didn’t stop watching videos or looking at streets. I changed how I did it. Before, I watched whatever came up and hoped it would stick. Now I prepare for each lesson on purpose, and I train my reactions, not just my knowledge.
So I am writing my whole journey down here for you, and if you are in the same situation as me, you can speed things up – it took me one year to understand this.
If I could go back to when I started, these are the things I wish I had known and done:
1. Watch these videos from the channel How To Drive In Germany, in this order:
- How to Drive in a “30 Zone” in Germany, because most of the time the instructor will start your lessons in a residential area. When you watch that video, also observe how to turn right and left, because that is what you will do in your 1st lesson.
- How “Right Before Left” German Traffic Rule Works!
- How to Give Way in Traffic in Germany!
After you watch the three videos above and remember the key points, you can decide what to watch next, because after around 2-3 lessons in the ‘30 Zone,’ your instructor will take you out onto real, busy streets, and there you will encounter ALL scenarios.
2. Don’t wait for your instructor to tell you what to do.
Every instructor says, ‘Don’t worry, I will tell you what to do!’ I had lessons with two instructors – one for automatic and one for manual. They both said the same thing, and they did – they did tell me what to do. But you know what? I came home crying a few times, I was sweating, and I got more white hairs because of ‘I will tell you what to do.’
That saying comes with the expectation that they tell you and you do it smoothly, and if you make the same mistake next time, their patience gets lower and lower. My instructors are nice, but they did get stressed during my lessons. Imagine this scenario: a stressed student + a stressed instructor trapped in 1.5 square meters of a moving thing that constantly has to face stressful situations :)))) Eventually you will relax and you will learn, but it costs you so much – physically, mentally, and financially.
So MY TIP for you is: be proactive. Ask your instructor what they plan to practice with you in the next lesson, and start preparing at home by watching videos about that topic in advance.
3. Get to know the streets before you drive them.
The bad news is you will never know the streets the instructors will take you to and that is the whole point of learning. But you have to know one thing: being stressed slows down your ability to absorb new knowledge and turn that immediately to the right actions. So you won’t know which streets but you can know ‘similar streets.’
The advice ‘Be relaxed’ is useless! At least in my case. Being relaxed comes from knowing, and the only way of knowing in driving comes from experience. So either you have someone with a car who helps you get used to the streets and exposes you to different situations, or you eat and sleep Google Street View like I did the past few weeks. Otherwise, it’s amost normal to make mistakes in your practice.
So open Google Street View and study streets!
4. Train your reactions with dashcam videos.
Google Street View helps you understand the streets, but it won’t teach you how to react. After weeks of ‘driving around’ on Google Street View, I am more familiar with reading signs and stuff, but reactions???? That’s another thing!
So after you eat and sleep Google Street View, you can eat and sleep DashcamDriversGermany. A lot of people watch videos from driving schools on YouTube, and I recommend that too because I did, but if you already have and still feel unsure in reality, this helped me. Most of the time, we fail when we encounter tricky or dangerous situations on the street. Nobody would fail if they simply drove straight ahead and nothing happened. The dashcam videos give you a lot more perspectives. So every day, watch someone doing crazy things on the street so you can learn how to avoid them and react.
5. Protect yourself on exam day.
Confirm your exam time the day before. And don’t do what I did: three cups of coffee on top of nerves is a recipe for shaking legs.
Well, doing these 5 things has made me a more confident learner, and I hope it does the same for you. Or at least the tips will save you time and money.
By the way, here is how I failed the second time. I was entering the Kreisverkehr, looking at pedestrians on the right, slowing down, and giving way to them, but they didn’t cross. So I continued, and then a pedestrian from the left appeared, or somehow I didn’t see her early enough, and yes, I was entering the Kreisverkehr, and I failed :)))) Exactly the kind of situation tip 4 is about. My lesson: when you’re focused on one side, check the other side again before you go.
I am not successful…YET, so I can’t report that, but I will :)))
Good luck!