Hi Everyone,
First of all I really appreciate quick response from the group members.I found this forum very informative and productive.
I want to know if someone have experience or information regarding Major and minor mistakes category for driving exam. For example red cross or overtaking from Right on Motorway consider to be major mistakes. Any further information. Secondly how many mistakes are acceptable for passing driving exam. Moreover if anybody know difficult tracks with more signboard /turning/priorities, kindly mention for practice purpose before exam.
Thanks again to everyone for being so supportive.

It all depends on who is giving your exam. And his/her impression of you, if he/she thinks you are nervous and thus make a few minor mistakes he/she might forgive you, if he/she thinks you don't check your mirrors enough since you just don't care about them he should let you fail.

Overtaking on the right should be serious enough to fail (I hope), red cross is also a major mistake but might be less of a safety issue if there is nobody else and it might depend on your overal driving skills and if you notice it yourself.

Basically make sure the general impression is that you are a safe driver who is aware of his surroundings and anticipates on it without making major mistakes and not to much small mistakes, tho most of us think we do, nobody drives without ever making mistakes.

If you break any road traffic laws, by speeding etc, during the driving test, you will definitely fail!

when I took the exam, we were 3 candidates in the car.
The lady who took it right before me didn't see a car coming when she left the parking lot and the examiner had to press the breaks. She then proceeded with the exam, doing a 30 minutes drive in the city and on the motorway. At the end, the examiner said "thanks, you failed because of the parking lot exit". My turn...

Examinator having to do an emergency stop for you is about the most major mistake possible, after that you might as well just stop for an ice cream and let time pass.

It would help us to help you if you told us where you lived.
What is a "red cross"??

My instructor told me it's a myth that some minor mistakes are allowed. However, I did make a small mistake. The car had green but an elderly person was trying to cross the street (or so I thought) and I slowed down for him. This was wrong, as the pedestrian signal was definitely red. But the instructor did not hold this against me. Major mistakes are not allowed at all.

The amount of times im driving and some idiots just take their time to cross the street when its red for them is unbelievable. And they look at you like you are the one making a mistake.

In india a traffic light is a "red cross". Traffic lights are usuallly placed only at crossings in india and we only "sort of" stop if its red (If it's green, we drive by, if it's yellow, we drive by faster, if it is red and there is no traffic guard or oncoming traffic, we drive really really fast. Pedestrians, they can try to run faster or wait.)

Jut remember that the driving test is representative of an imaginary moment in time where the pupil will be driving in a vehicle alone and unaided. Are their road sense, driving capabilities and understanding of situations around them at a good level...are they safe on the road?
The moment an examiner deems it necessary to intervene in any manner, grabbing the steering wheel, using the foot break or offering verbal warning of a seemingly unseen situation, then it is curtains.

Edit: nvm

In the Netherlands we'd call these things "Emergency assists" which almost always as a single fact is enough to make you fail the test. I assume this to be the same in every civilised country.

Slowing down for safety would not be a fail, in fact it is essential to indicate road awareness.

The only issue would be if you'd done it in a dangerous manner, for example an unnecessary emergency stop, or slowing down / maneouvering in such a strange way that other drivers were confused.

I don't think this was a mistake, quite the conctrary. You need to be ready to stop in time at all times. Consequently you have to be ready to react to others' mistakes, especially with children and the elderly.

Having green doesn't give you right of way, it simply means you're allowed to proceed, circumstances permitting. You do have to stop/swerve/etc if the situation requires. Somebody running onto or crossing the street is such a situation.

Where is there a mistake? If you had good reason that the person might step onto the road you have to stop and you have also to take specially care of the elderly, disabled, and children. Art. 26 Abs. 2 SVG. https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...index.html#a26

And yes you are allowed to make some minor mistakes. Like once a little bit of overspeeding (1 or 2 km/h over on the speedo meter) for example.

I would say any mistake which could not be handled by a simple fine (https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...ndex.html#app1) will surely lead to immediate failure. This includes by definition any situation where someone or something was endagered.

Additionally, flock makes also muck, as they say. Lots of small and for itself negligible mistakes can lead to an overall bad impression and failure. Confidence is key or you may end in a spiral to do hell if one little mistake makes you nervous and insecure. Been there done that. (Plus that I thought that my expert is a complete asshole before I even knew he will be my expert. Damn karma.)

The general guidelines regarding practical exams can be found in annex 12 of the VZV. https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...l#app15ahref15

As the above is only available in the official Swiss languages but not English you may try this new online translator, which supposedly is a bit better than Google Translate. https://www.deepl.com/translator.html

__________________
"Okay, I just hope we don't wake up on Mars or something surrounded by millions of little squashy guys."

Just to be clear - green light does give you right of way.

The problem is that some people think right of way = right to be a dangerous idiot.

Right of way is always dependent on the way being clear and safe.

Let's nip this at the bud right away on this thread.


This statement from your instructor is totally wrong. It makes little difference which country you may be sitting your driving test in, no one is perfect, and we all make mistakes.


You also need to consider for what aspect of driving do these minor faults concern? If it is where vehicle control is concerned then different minor faults are acceptable, for e.g., there used to be a rumour in the UK that said that if you stalled the car during the test you would automatically fail. This is of course not true, however, and where the UK is concerned, where you would fail would be if you failed to carry out the correct procedure immediately after a stall, that is to say: hand break on, gear into neutral, start engine, engage 1st gear, move off correctly.


If we are talking road sense and road safety, then I really don't believe you can consider any fault in this category as minor, i.e. failing to reduce speed when approaching a busy zebra crossing, failing to use mirrors before changing direction or speed, failing to use turn signals where necessary (where other road users are present and you need to inform of your intentions to change direction, road position or turn), driving at speeds not reflective of current road conditions, traffic conditions, weather conditions (including micro-climatic)

We are not robots, we all make mistakes, but it is how we deal with them that can either let us be seen as an overall sensible, safe driver, or a menace and a liability on the road.


BTW, your instructor is a bawsack for having told you this and not taken the time to explain correctly.

I made one small mistake during my driving test - I drove straight ahead into a car park ("drive straight ahead unless otherwise instructed") and it took us a while to work out how to get back out. The examiner noted it down, I told him I didn't realise it was a car park, no problem.

I also did a proper emergency stop, stalled the car and took forever to find a gear when we drove off again. Since the kid whose ball had just hit the examiner's window had run straight in front of us, this was considered a good result, and he took longer to compose himself than I did.

As long as you don't break any actual laws and demonstrate you can drive and understand what being on the road means, you should pass.

I don't think so.

Say you have an ordinary crossings, two roads each with one lane in both directions. You want to turn left. It's quite common for the oncoming traffic to have green at the same time you do. Obviously it's impossible for both of you to have right of way.

The green gives you right of way to cross the line at that light.

Giving way to the other traffic is a separate point which comes after that.

But I get your point - regardless of the legal terminology (and I have no idea how this translates into German), green is still only an indication, common sense and other road rules still apply.