Road Test

4 months after i got the learner's license, i decided that it was time i took my road test. With my husband travelling often, it was important that i take the road test. Although, i practiced with the driving instructor at the Plano DPS site, i took the road test at the Carolton DPS site.

For those who need to take a test at the DPS office, one needs to go early in the morning say 6:00 AM to stand in the queue for the road test. In that case, you would take your road test by 9:00 AM or 10:00 AM depending on the number of test takers ahead of you.

I wasnt asked for identification documents by the Carolton office probably because my drivers license had the temporary visitor stamp. In any case, one should take the identification documents as required by TX DPS. In addition, F1 visa need to take I-20, school schedule, bursar receipt, social security card, insurance receipt, passport and I-94.

We used our own car so i had the insurance on my name. I suppose if you use a friends car, one needs to fill out a form and the person whose car you take needs to be with you. I am not so sure about that part.

On the first day when i took the test
1) I was asked to switch off my engine and told to brake, put on the right and left indicator and honk. The DPS officer also asked for my insurance copy and took a look at the registration and emmission on the windshield.
2) I was asked to start the car and unfortunately for me there was a problem with the car and she decided i dont know how to start the car and deducted points for that.
3) I was asked to parallel park between two single poles. Our car is a 2009 Honda Fit. I pull my car parallel to the poles and go ahead until my back door is aligned with the front pole. Thereafter, i put the right signal on, put the car on reverse and turned the wheel all the way to the right. I have a blind spot mirror which enables me to gauge the distance from the curb - i can actually see the curb. I backed up and thereafter turned the wheel to the left until i straightened out and was parallel to the curb. Thereafter, i turned the wheel to the right twice to straighten out the wheel.
The distance from the curb should be between 6 to 12 inches. At the carolton office, they are a little lenient with the parallel parking part unless you hit the curb or the pole in which case you fail.
4) After parallel parking i was asked to pull out. I put on the right signal, put the car on reverse to back up a little, looked over my shoulder to ensure no cars were coming. I put the car on drive and thereafter drive out.
5) Afterwards i was asked to go on to the main road, take a left and taken through a residential area with many stop signs where you turn right and turn left. There was a point where the road was being dug up and it was a little nerve wrecking to go through it. One should not drive at a speed higher than 30 in the residential area.
6) After the residential area the instructor takes you to the main road, the service road and the first time i attempted to turn when a vehicle was in sight. She stopped me saying i could have caused and accident and didnt get through the test. The second time i took the test i spent a few seconds to make sure there were no cars and i got through the test.
7)Once you are on the main road, you are asked to do a lane change to the right and a lane change to the left. One must make sure that they use their mirrors, look in the rear mirror, right mirror and over the right shoulder after showing the right signal and thereafter change the lanes. Similarly, for the left lane change, check the left mirror the rear view mirror and over the left shoulder after showing the left signal before making the lane change. The lane changes should be smooth.
8) Thereafter, one is taken to the DPS office and asked to reverse for less than a minute. The key here is to ensure that you constantly look back while reversing. Even if one goes slowly its fine.

I had two attempts at the road test, in the first attempt my parallel parking came out proper but in the second attempt i was a little further away from the curb. I guess i was more scared of hitting the curb.
I was taught by my driving instructor to always stop at the stop sign and then go ahead and stop again if one does not have a 180 degree view of the road. However, the DPS officer said i should stop at the stop line and not at the stop sign. So well, if there is a stop line i should stop at the stop line. If there isnt i suppose stopping at the stop sign makes sense.
I lost points on the first test since the engine would not start. However, the second time everything went perfectly fine. Also, my lane changes could have been smoother.

Passing the road test was not so difficult at the Carolton office. The instructors expect you to be observant, use your mirrors, follow instructions.

If you pass the road test, you go to the DPS office where they take your vision test and a photograph, give you a temporary permit and tell you your license will arrive in the post.

Instruction Permit

Nishanth had to go to Finland for 2 months and for the first time in two years i needed to get around Dallas myself. And hence i signed up for Driving Lessons and have decided to blog about my experience driving.

Since, i reside in Texas i visited the following website for more information on the driving test procedures. http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/
The first step in front of me was to give the written test. This test contains rules

I went down to the Plano office to give the test.
Address
2109 West Parker Road Ste 224
Plano, TX 75023-7739
General Information
972-867-4221

At the office, they asked me for my identification. I had taken the following:
1) A Fee Receipt
2) A letter from the registrar stating i was a student
3) My passport which had my F1 visa
4) I-94
5) I-20
6) Social Security Card

Getting the letter from the registrar took 3 - 4 days. I studied from the Texas Drivers Handbook
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/ftp/forms/DLhandbook.pdf for one day before taking up the test and searched online for sample questions.

Upon arrival at the TX DPS office,i was asked to fill a form which contained details such as Name, Nationality and Address. Thereafter, i was asked to take the vision test which consists of reading the 4th line. I read through quickly and made a mistake the first time and was asked to read the second time. Once i took the vision test, i was assigned a computer where i had to take up the written test. In order to pass the written test, i needed to score 70% on the test.

The questions were directly from the handbook and in many cases were intuitive. There were questions on road signs, lane change, right of way, stop signs, speed limits, school buses, time taken to stop. There are many sample questions on the internet and going through these questions helped. Nishanth had a few sample questions from the time he gave the test and i found that many of those questions were repeated.
There is an option to skip a question and get back to it at the end. One therefore could always come back to questions one was not sure of later. The moment one scored 70%, the test would stop regardless of the "skipped" questions and then you would be asked for your finger prints and a photo was taken. One is given a temporary license and actual drivers license comes in the post. I got mine within three weeks.

Since one has to option of opting for learners license (24$) valid for 6 years with a photo or an instruction permit (6$) valid for one year, i opted for the learners license. That way i had 6 years to give my road test and a photo ID. The following restrictions were placed P, A, B . "A" was for corrective lenses, "B" stated that i needed to drive with a license holder 21 years and above and P stated that i was a temporary visitor and had a duration of one year validity for F visa holders.