How I got my driving license from BBDC

I finally got my Class 3 driving license!!  This is really the most difficult challenge I have ever faced until now, more than any final exams :p. Hence, I shall update my blog to commemorate this almost impossible achievement!! -cheers by myself-

Below is a summary for those who don't have time to read the entire post since it would be quite long.

I enrolled in the BBDC Manual driving course in Nov 2020, passed the Basic Theory Test in Jan 2021, and Final Theory Test in Feb 2021. I started my first driving lesson in Apr 2021, and passed my driving test with 16 points, in Jun 2022 on my 2nd attempt. I had 51 lessons in total (others usually took 20 - 30 lessons to pass, and my friend only took 17), and spent about $4000 cos I'm damn bad at this. Do not use my experience as a benchmark cos I am clearly the outlier HAHA.
Please read on to increase my view counts if you are still interested :D

Theory lessons and tests

We had to attend a total of 4 compulsory theory lessons: 2 for the basic theory test(BTT) and 2 for the final theory test(FTT). After completing the lessons, we can book practice sessions for the BTT and FTT where they gave the exact questions and answers for the theory tests to practise. We would also have to pass the evaluations before taking the actual tests, which is good since the evaluations are cheaper than the actual tests. I recommend to book at least 2 practices for BTT and 3 lessons for FTT to be familiar with the questions tested. I needed more practice sessions for the FTT since there are more booklets of questions, and I failed my FTT evaluation once :p.  Oh there’s an app called TP test that is super useful.
You need to pass the BTT before you can get the Provisional Driving License (PDL) that is valid for 2 years to attend practical lessons.

Practical Lessons

The longest nightmare ever. There are a total of 5 stages, Stages 1 and 2 (driving on the road) have 10 modules and 1 review each, Stage 3 (driving in circuit) has 9 modules and 1 review. Stage 4 has 2 modules on defensive driving and Stage 5 is the final evaluation before you can book the test. 

 I read other blogs that mentioned that the instructors usually only cleared them one module per lesson. But guess what, I took 3 lessons to clear one module sometimes HAHA. I think I went home and cried twice during stage one cos I couldn't pass 1.05 after 3 lessons. That was also partly because I only booked one lesson per week and ended up forgetting everything after a week, so my progress was slow. So it would be better to book 3 lessons a week to not lose touch, especially when you are just starting to learn driving.

 
After struggling for about 14 weeks and only cleared stage 2.02, I decided to cancel all my subsequent weekly lessons after July 2021 and block booked the maximum 17 lessons in Nov and Dec. (Should have done that earlier). I spent about half my leave entitlement on taking multiple half days for driving lessons and sometimes I had trouble coping with my work lol. So it is better to get your license while studying.

 
The hardest part in stage 2 would be the U-turns. I must have caused the instructor a lot of stress cos he started saying things like "Eh I still want to go home alive today leh" and "You know there is a module called reacting to road hazards right, but YOU are the hazard now!" It was terrible HAHA cos I lacked awareness of my surroundings, and my foundation was really non-existent, probably cos I stopped lessons for 4 months and forgot everything. Both of us didn't talk much cos he feared for his life xD. Obviously I didn't pass my u-turn that lesson, so I had to continue the next time, and IT WAS HIM AGAIN. This time he tried to be patient at first, but as I made more mistakes, he was like "If I had known it was you today I would have taken leave" HAHAHA. Ok but he passed me in the end cos he said it might be better for me to proceed to the circuit courses first to improve my low speed control and the basics. (Which is probably true) I didn't cry this time lolol.

I thought I could clear stages 2 and 3 in the 17 lessons, but I overestimated my abilities lol. One good thing about circuits is that I mostly move in the first gear, so no need to be afraid of getting into accidents yay... I struggled a lot with the low speed control using the half-clutch technique, and I had trouble imagining how the car would move when I turn the wheels and reverse. The most problematic one was the parallel parking (3.05) which took 3 lessons to pass, and I ran out of lessons when I finally passed it. 

My next block of 8 lessons was in Mar 2022. It was super hard to book lessons since the slots are usually fully booked for the next 2.5 months. Again, I thought I could clear stages 3, 4 and 5 within 8 lessons but nope. :( So I should have booked more. I only passed the circuit slope (3.06) on the 3rd lesson as I forgot all my previous circuit stations and had to do multiple revisions (I suck). Unsurprisingly, I had to do 4.02 and the final evaluation twice ._. I experienced failure like more than 10 times throughout my whole practical driving lessons, so by then I was already desensitised and didn't cry anymore.

We also had to attend 3 driving simulations from the traffic police which were like 20 min per session, and 1 session from BBDC. It was quite fun la since I could get into accidents without stress HAHA. There is also a risk forecast lesson which was conducted online due to covid, the instructor would take turn to ask us about the possible dangers in a scenario. I think both the simulations and the risk forecast are quite useful as I got a bit more aware of my surroundings when driving. 

The most relaxing lesson would be the Autocar lesson. All manual learners have to take one lesson on it and it was much easier to drive since I didn’t have to worry about the engine stalling. I also managed to improve on my gradual lane changing during that lesson, like finally get the difference between gradual and abrupt lane change HAHA. Just turn steering wheel a bit and accelerate woohoooo. I managed to pass my final evaluation (5.01) in April, a week after my autocar lesson. 
 

My 2 driving test attempts

I booked my first driving test in end May on a whim. I actually booked 10 revision lessons (mid May to mid Jun) after a 1.5 months’ break from driving. My plan was to book my test date that is one or two days after my last revision, but one day I just decided to try my luck and booked a test slot that was right after my 5th revision lesson. (The latest test slot available: 15:10 to 17:00). 

First Test

I took a full day leave for my first test, even though I had nothing on in the morning as my revision lesson was at 13:20 to 15:00. The instructor was very helpful as he went through all the common pitfalls/traps that the testers may test on, and I made so many mistakes during the lesson. But it really helped me to refresh my memory and be more careful during my warmup and actual test.

The warm up was uneventful as I went through all the circuit elements without much issues and went out of the road and back. Then I went to wait for the actual test at the 2nd floor. I was the first one to be called and I finished the circuit elements quite smoothly. I wasn’t tested on the emergency brake. After I finished the parallel parking, the tester said “Ok let’s go out to the main road”. I was relieved and forgot that I didn’t return the steering wheel, so I hit the kerb on my left and got an immediate failure HAHA. That was for causing an accident/near accident, so the test just ended like that, and I saw that I only got 6 points in circuit *cries*, 4 points for turning steering wheel while vehicle was stationary for each parking, 2 points for vehicle roll back on slope, and one free pass for wide turning. SO WASTED. 

Second Test

I booked the second test date immediately after the first test, also on impulse. I think this last slot is one of the least popular slots, so it was again, the only one available. I also had my 10th and last revision lesson on the test day. Coincidentally and with much luck, I met the same instructor who taught me on the lesson before my first test. He went through with me again on the common mistakes and told me that I should be able to pass as long as I don’t get too careless. Cos I tend to space out and get distracted when driving lol. He also said that he don’t want to see me again HAHA. 

I only took half day leave that day cos I didn’t want to waste my leave in case I fail again. So I was a little more tired than last time. During the warm up, I forgot to signal right after stopping at the slope. And my directional change also not very good. I also almost didn’t make it to the right lane when turning right at the Bukit Batok road. There weren’t any serious mistakes but I felt less steady than my first warmup.

I was the 4th or 5th person to be called for the test and this time the emergency brake was tested. I got 2 points cos I did not grab the steering wheel with two hands AIYA. Then he asked me to turn right and stop behind a car to wait for it to finish vertical parking, but I ended up going in front of it(I dumb). He just sighed and asked me to do other stations first. 

When doing the circuit slope, I actually rolled back a bit when I released the handbrake at the slope, but I stepped on the brake immediately so it was less than 1 m(another 2 points). 

During the parallel parking, the first turning point felt weird but I just reversed and turned, then I stopped when I saw that my wheels were dangerously close to the kerb!! I had to reverse my action to figure out what wrong. Turned out that the angle of my side mirror was off, so the turning point was wrong. This never happened before so I thought I failed at that point cos it felt quite long. I got another two points here for turning the steering wheel while vehicle is stationary.

I think the tester really wanted to help me pass, cos after I went into the vertical parking lot, I was SUPER close to the right kerb that I would almost definitely hit the kerb if I had to turn left to exit. But he asked me to turn right so I was safe. He also did not give me points for failure to adjust back mirror after both parkings. 

Then we went out to the road. I thought I would have accumulated more than 10 points at that time, so I was not very concerned since I assumed that I would fail. I just told myself that at least I managed to go to the main road this time. I made sure to slow down at every traffic light, stop at every stop line, and check blindspot at every turn and lane change, so no points given for those yayyy. But I changed lane at a bend at Teck Whye Ave which got me 6 points, and u-turned to the wrong lane which got me 4 points. Note: if you are already at the wrong lane just move on and don’t go back to the correct lane or it may be dangerous. I was lucky that there were few cars at the road so nothing happened.

I also forgot to cancel signal once which cost me 4 points, this happened a lot during my revision lessons too. :p 

On the way back to BBDC, I had to make a right turn back. But there was a SUPER LONG queue going into the school, and the traffic was quite heavy. So I waited near the divider for about 7 minutes, getting more anxious as it was nearing 5pm. I wanted to rush in a few times but the moment I moved the tester whispered “Eh”, so I just stopped and waited. I thought I would get penalised for delay in moving off but I didn’t so YAY. 

At the end of the test, I parked near the entrance and the tester was like “off engine and wait upstairs” but I only heard the wait upstairs part. Then he repeated it again. I thought he has failed me cos I probably looked idiotic HAHA. But he didn’t. I think he could have failed me but decided to be lenient about it, so I was really really lucky.

Conclusion 

I was super happy when he told me that I passed, I even suspected that I was dreaming. My hand-eye coordination has always been terrible and I’m bad at remembering things and following instructions. Also, I always get confused between left and right so I turned in the wrong directions many times when driving lol. 

Finally this ordeal has ended. I’m so happy that I spent hours writing this post HAHA. It feels like I can achieve anything I want, if I want it badly enough, even though it may require a much longer time and more money. Or maybe I was just lucky this time. I'm very grateful for the instructors in BBDC who kept correcting my repeated mistakes and really tried their best to help me improve. (except for the guy in my stage 1 low speed control module who was sleeping the whole time I was turning in the circuit lol)