We Passed!!! Yippee!!!!

It's great having a car again. Playdate drop offs and pick ups are easier and quicker, those runs to tennis lessons, dance classes and bringing the groceries home in the boot instead of dragging them in a trolley - it's all wonderfully liberating.



However......lurking on the horizon was "The Driving Test". As British Driving License holders, to drive here we needed to pass the Basic Theory Driving Test to convert our license to a Singaporean one. We had 12 months from our arrival date to pass this.




The road system here is loosely based on the British system and they even drive on the left, but it's all the subtleties that are different. We had to learn the parking restrictions, bus lane times, road signs, lane positioning, braking distances etc - there are numerous slight differences and we had to learn them all to pass the test. Those that just assume they can do it because they've been driving for years invariably come unstuck and with a pass mark of at least 90% required, some serious studying was needed.



First I went to Borders and asked for a copy of the highway code. They sold me a book which, on close inspection, appeared to be a version from about 1950. The photos were of cars that were almost vintage and it had useful advice such as "most cars today have signalling devices but in broad daylight, hand signalling is more readily seen and understood". I'm not sure we learnt a large amount from this, but it did provide some entertainment.



A friend then gave us a more modern copy of the highway code and, more interestingly, a book of 600 multiple choice, genuine test questions which got us thinking (and worrying). Many were straight forward, but there were a number of highly ambiguous ones such as:

"You are some distance from a set of traffic lights on green. Do you
A: Speed up,
B: Maintain your speed and be prepared to stop
C: Take your foot off the accelerator?"

Some distance - I mean, what is that? 10m, 100m, 300m ...? You also need to know that roads here are often quite straight and you can see the lights (which are green for several minutes at a time) a long way ahead .

With such a vague description, what do you do when your licence to drive and right to freedom are at stake? Well, it is not A, obviously. The answer is clearly B but... no it’s not. It is C! Honestly. David tried it the next time we saw a green light. He immediately took his foot off the accelerator and gradually ground to a stop around 200 metres short of the junction!

Try this one:
When driving, the distance to look ahead should be:
A: Twice the speed you are travelling.
B: Three times the speed you are travelling.
C: Four times you are travelling.

Think about it. What does it mean? We do not know....and is it metric or imperial? mm, cm, inches, metres, furlongs? Answer: B. Don’t ask why!

One more...this is fun.

From the driver’s seat, the actual width of the road required for your vehicle is:
A: wider than what you think you will need
B: not as wide as what you think you will need
C: just as wide as what you think you will need


Doesn’t it depend on what you think you will need? Apparently not. It’s B



We spent hours pouring over bizarre test questions saying things like "I'm sure that's not how I was taught to drive" & "that's just wrong" or trying to decifer some puzzling wordings with double negatives. We tested each other on car mechanics, driving techniques, bus lane hours, braking distances, police hand signals, road signs and markings, all in the hope that we could get 45 of the 50 questions right.


Our test date was booked and last Tuesday we headed off to the test centre. It was all very nerve wracking. I felt as if I was 17 all over again and hardly told anyone of our test date - I couldn't face saying we'd failed, if that happened...which seemed inevitable! We went in at our appointed time and were given a briefing. Then it began.


We had 50 minutes to do 50 multiple choice questions of which, we had to get a minimum of 45 correct. When we were happy we'd finished, we pressed a button on the screen which then told us immediately if we'd passed or failed and we could then leave the room. I think about 40 of my questions were very straight forward and obvious. One I wasn't sure about and the rest I was fairly confident but not 100%. I ran through them all again, felt more certain on a number of others and did the missing one. One last run through and I spotted (and corrected) a silly error and decided there were only 3 I wasn't totally certain about, so hoped that meant at least 47 were right. With my heart pounding I pressed the Finished button. I PASSED!!! I resisted the urge to leap up and down and shriek and instead just breathed a huge sigh of relief and left the room. I'd been there about 20 minutes or so but I could see David, who was on the other side of the room, was still working.



He emerged about 5 minutes later. He'd also had a few suspect questions (each terminal has a different selection) but had also passed. I was so relieved as I had visions of not being able to get another test date before we'd been here a full year which would mean having to stop driving in a month's time. Worse, I would find myself walking past the car in the car park every day and not being able to drive it until I passed.



Relieved to have the test out of the way, we returned today to apply for our new licenses as the queue was too long last Tuesday. I think we'll keep the old highway code for fun and right now it's on the bookshelf next to a Jeremy Clarkson book - somehow, that just seems appropriate!