Battling Driving Test Nerves
No matter how well you know your driving skills, no matter how much practice you’ve had, you may be one of those people, and there are many of us out there, that get very nervous at the mere thought of sitting your driving test. This may be your first time, or your second or third, but you’re worried that perhaps nerves may get the better of you.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
We’ve put together some tips that might just help you get through that test without getting so nervous you can barely breathe, never mind sit through your driving test successfully.
Driving Test Nerves Tips – The Compass Prodrive Way
Mind over matter helps – remember you must have been good enough to have got this far. Your driving instructor has decided that you’re good enough to sit your test – if for one single moment he didn’t believe you were ready, you certainly wouldn’t be where you are now – ready to sit your driving test. Look in the mirror and tell yourself you ARE ready and you CAN do it.
Don’t tell anyone
Don’t let anyone know you’re sitting your test, the last thing you need to worry about is letting people down, or people emailing you and texting you afterwards to ask how well you did. Keep it quiet and then when you do pass, make a surprise announcement.
Watch What You Eat
Eat well and make sure you eat properly before you sit your test. It’s important to make sure you take care of yourself, if there’s one thing that’s going to impact on your concentration, its lack of food, or not eating the right foods. Aim to eat something that will give you energy and help keep yourself focused.
Arrive Early
Arrive early and ready prepared, you don’t want to turn up flustered and sweating because you’ve only got there just in time with seconds to spare, make a good impression and help yourself to stay calm by arriving focused and ready for your test.
Test Day – Relax
Don’t try to do too much on the day of your test. If you’re working, take the day off so you have the whole day to rest. Spend the time relaxing and don’t use it to agonise over aspects of your test and whether you’ll pass, have a quick practice, but don’t dwell on things. You’ve spent weeks and months preparing – you know it well enough.
No, It’s Not Your Test
Tell yourself it’s not the test, but a mock. If you convince yourself it’s just another practice run, you’ll be more relaxed and less intimated by the whole event. You won’t be doing anything you don’t already know, or done a million times before.
Make Sure You Go to the Bathroom
Don’t turn up bursting for a visit. Make sure you’re ready and relaxed. Bathroom visits should be done beforehand.
Coffee is a No No
Stay off the caffeine, you need to be focused but not hyperactive, this could contribute to anxious feelings, so stay away from the coffee jar. Drink plenty of water, but not enough to keep you in the loo, drink enough to keep you hydrated and calm.
Take Your Time Over Manoeuvres
Take your time over manoeuvres you’re asked to do, it’s not a race, you’re not trying to break the world record for reversing round a corner, and you won’t win any medals for carrying out parallel parking in record time. The driving examiner knows exactly how much time is allocated for each task, it’s all been worked out beforehand. It can all be fitted in nicely into the time it takes to sit your test. Don’t worry, just take your time.
Fail?
No, you won’t fail. But if you do, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t beat yourself up about something that you might feel is terribly important, but isn’t really something that defines you, because you’ll survive if you don’t pass your test.
And try, try again, because you will pass. It doesn’t matter whether you pass first time, or whether it takes more than one attempt. When you do pass, all that will matter is that you can now drive on the road, no one will remember how many times it took you to get there.
Get in touch with Compass ProDrive if you want to learn with instructors that will help you arrive a calm and confident driver on test day.
