Tips for Vicroads Driving Test

If you are planing to do your driving test in near future, there are many instructions on the Vicroads website. Please read them carefully.
Following are some additional tips that might come handy.

• There are three main things that can go wrong during the driving test, even if you are an experienced driver. Head check, Driving speed, Signalling "sequence".
  
• Do your head-checks. Especially when you change lanes. You can do it in two ways. You do the headchecks or you do the headchecks in a manner that testing officer can see you do the headchecks. The first will save your life and the latter will pass you too. Yeah, its all drama.
  
• Try to maintain MAX-5 rule. i.e. Try to drive 5 km/h less than the MAXimum speed limit. That way you do not need to worry about slight deviations of driving speed.
  
• To turn into side roads, just signaling only is not enough. You need to check mirrors as well. There is an expected sequence of activities. If you turn left, check the back mirror->left mirror -> and then put the indicator ON. Miss the sequence, you will be penalized. So repeat with me. back mirror, side mirror, indicator///. That's more like it.
  
• Try to keep both hands on the steering wheel as much as possible. Yeah, the grandma style. You may remove one hand from the steering wheel to change gears.
  
• Use pull and push driving. Testing officers love it. You need to practice this for sometime before the test. Otherwise there is a chance that you will mess-up with steering, e.g. hit the curb in a roundabout, twist your arms and remove both arms from the steering wheel at the same moment.
  
• Sometimes when you are driving in an arterial road, the Testing Officer might ask you to turn right from next road, while you are driving in a mid-lane or the left-most lane. But make sure that you properly move to the right-most lane first before turning right. If you cannot do that safely before the next cross road, do not panic. That's OK. Keep moving forward. Then testing officer will give fresh instructions. I heard its a test too (trap perhaps?)
  
• Carefully listen the instructions. Some instructions are relatively more specific, e.g., From next color lights, turn right from the left-most turning lane". This usually comes when there are more than one turning lanes.
  
  Other best practices:
  
• Before the test (e.g., in the morning or previous day) get familiar with the possible driving route. Notice the construction work on road and also school zones. That way you can predict what will come at you in the next turn. So that you can adjust your driving speed accordingly. If your testing center is Dandenong, familiar with the route I have shown in the map below. The route might be slightly different for your test. But it is more likely that you get the same area. I have also highlighted the critical sections. If you are using some other testing center, you can easily identify the route by following a car during a driving test. But please do not scare the testee.
  
• Usually in roundabouts, the the indicator might get switched off before you complete the turn. Make sure to turn it ON again.
  
• Book your test between 9.30 AM and 11.30 AM if possible. This way you can avoid school zones and heavy traffic.
  
• Practice both 3-point turn and reverse/parallel parking several times before the test even if you have practiced these earlier. Do not steer wheels while the car is stationary (dry-steering).
  
• Read this.
  
• DO NOT PANIC!. Many things can go wrong if you get panicked. Just think that you are driving your grandma home or something similar. That might help.. Basically it is not your Driving Test.
  

All the best... :-)

Shown here is the test routes for the phase 1(blue) and phase 2(red) of the driving test. Applicable only for the Dandenong testing center.

View Dandenong driving test route in a larger map

Note 1: All these TIPs should be considered at your own risk. I wrote them down based on my very limited experience and does not gurantee a successful outcome of your driving test.

Note 2: If you have more driving test routes please post them here.