Any ROSPA test tips

Topics relating to Advanced Driving in cars
Silk
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Location: South Glos.

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Silk » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:31 pm

fungus wrote:
Silk wrote:
ratty wrote:(including a moving brake test done properly)


:facepalm: Oh please. Who can be bothered with that?


My examiner said at the start of the test, " We won't bother with a moving brake test. I can see you've got here in one piece."



Very sensible.

Smeeagain
Posts: 90
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Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Smeeagain » Tue Aug 23, 2016 9:49 pm

ratty wrote:Basics for test.

Drive should be safe, legal and reasonably smooth. The vehicle should be positioned to maximise safety and the driver should make good use of the speed limits.

Perhaps extras for the test.

Good cockpit drill (including a moving brake test done properly) and an description / explanation of the vehicle. A good commentary is always a good sign, providing the quality of the drive does not suffer. (After all, it is a driving test not a talking test) Try to include a description of the road, road signs and other road users. Prioritise real hazards over potential hazards and talk about the future and not the past. i.e. I am approaching a junction as opposed to I just passed a junction. Include a 'systematic' description or two about how you are approaching hazards. Do not offer negative opinions of others. Pull /Push steering and rev matching add quality, as does a smooth, efficient use of the controls.

GET THERE ON TIME AND REMEMBER TO TAKE DRIVING DOCUMENTS.

Good luck, I hope you get the result you want.


Thank you - the result I want is a pass. The result I'd like is a gold, but then who doesn't? Plans in place to be there early.

Documents are already prepared sitting in a plastic wallet ready to go and its not till next week!

Drivers Licence, insurance, MOT, V5C, evidence of vehicle being taxed. Anything else I've missed?

Smee

Smeeagain
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Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 12:52 pm

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Smeeagain » Tue Aug 23, 2016 9:50 pm

Silk wrote:
ratty wrote:(including a moving brake test done properly)


:facepalm: Oh please. Who can be bothered with that?


I agree. But it's what the instructor (and road craft dvd) tell you that you have to do ........ sometimes we just have to play nice. :D

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Mr Cholmondeley-Warner
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Location: Swindon

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Mr Cholmondeley-Warner » Wed Aug 24, 2016 7:22 am

It's sod's law. If you don't do it, the examiner will mention that fact at the end. If he tells you not to bother at the start, fair enough. Otherwise, offer it, do it if he doesn't tell you not to, and do it as if you meant it.

If a driver sets off in a spirited fashion in a car with me as a passenger, a car that they're not familiar with, and doesn't get acquainted with the brakes early on, I feel very uneasy. In some cases I might suggest they do a MBT. YMMV.
Nick

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superplum
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Location: Above Suffolk

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby superplum » Wed Aug 24, 2016 8:13 am

Smeeagain wrote:
Thank you - the result I want is a pass. The result I'd like is a gold, but then who doesn't? Plans in place to be there early.

Documents are already prepared sitting in a plastic wallet ready to go and its not till next week!

Drivers Licence, insurance, MOT, V5C, evidence of vehicle being taxed. Anything else I've missed?

Smee


Make sure your car interior is clean/tidy and the windows gleaming - first impressions and all that stuff!

Bag of sweets for the examiner stops them writing. :lol:

Silk
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Location: South Glos.

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Silk » Wed Aug 24, 2016 8:43 am

Smeeagain wrote:
Drivers Licence, insurance, MOT, V5C, evidence of vehicle being taxed. Anything else I've missed?



Go here: https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence to get your code, just in case the examiner wants to check for endorsements etc.

Silk
Posts: 386
Joined: Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:24 pm
Location: South Glos.

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Silk » Wed Aug 24, 2016 8:55 am

Smeeagain wrote:
Silk wrote:
ratty wrote:(including a moving brake test done properly)


:facepalm: Oh please. Who can be bothered with that?


I agree. But it's what the instructor (and road craft dvd) tell you that you have to do ........ sometimes we just have to play nice. :D


Of course, you are quite correct. I don't have to like it though. I don't think I've ever really mastered the cockpit drill - I just accept it will be commented on in the debrief and leave it at that. I find it's best to be as good as you can at the things you know you're good at and hope everything else falls into place - it usually does.

hir
Posts: 590
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 1:16 pm

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby hir » Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:26 am

Gareth wrote:
hir wrote:For example, if I see a warning sign ahead for "Road Narrows", that knowledge will be... "in my processing of what's upcoming". The sign gives me advance warning of a hazard that I probably may not yet be able to see. Therefore I'll be looking for where the road narrows

By the time the question has been asked you most likely be dealing with a narrowing road, so what you're doing will be uppermost in your mind rather than the discarded memory of the road-sign.


Hi Gareth,

Insofar as the timing of the question is concerned - You know me well enough to know, that I know, that you know, that you don't believe for one moment that's what I would do when it comes to the timing of the question!. :lol: :lol: :lol:

In one of the examples given above the examinee was asked what the last sign was AFTER he had passed the hazard. That's plain stupid.

My example of the "road narrows" warning triangle was in response to another contributor regarding whether or not the warning triangle formed part of... "my processing of what's upcoming". I would not use that particular sign to demonstrate to the associate that he is not consciously using the information provided to him by a warning triangle. I'm more subtle than that. I use a "Farm vehicles" warning triangle where there is no farm, so the sign can't be second-guessed. The sign refers to a field entrance which is completely obscured. There is often mud on the road at the field entrance. The surface of the road is hidden by a very gentle crest. Any mud on the road will be just before the entrance to a roundabout, just at the point where one starts to brake. On an associate's first drive I take them on an open NSL where you "can see for miles" into the distance. As we come over a crest we can immediately see the warning sign "Farm Vehicles", of which I speak, and which is visible for at least 20 seconds before we've passed it. There are no hedges to hide it, no long grass, there's never any parked vehicles in front of it, it's in plain sight for, in driving terms, a very long time. There are no other signs or warning triangles near to it; so there's no information overload. It's placed at the end of a straight, right at the beginning of a very gentle right-hand curve. So, it's right in front of the associate as he drives towards it. The only reason he doesn't crash into the sign is because he must gently turn the steering wheel as we enter the curve. I make a point of not talking to the associate from the moment we are approaching the crest until I pose the question, so as not to distract him, which could give him a get-out-of-jail-free excuse that I was talking to him. As the front of the car passes the warning triangle I start to ask the question. I know instantly whether or not the associate has consciously taken in the warning information. Interestingly, In 15 years only one associate has been able to tell me what the sign was when the question was posed. So, what I then do for the other 99% who can't tell me what the sign was, is that I ask them to turn around (there's a convenient roundabout 500 yards further up the road) and, without any hint of smugness, I suggest that we drive the same piece of road again. Having driven the same piece of road again there is always an element of incredulity on the part of the associate that the sign didn't register in their consciousness. In fact to a man, and woman, they readily admit that, in their words..." I didn't see it". My usual words at this juncture are, again without any hint of smugness, along the lines of... " you cannot really tell yourself that you didn't see the sign, because you did. You were driving towards it and looking at it for twenty seconds. Perhaps what you should be telling yourself is that although you saw the sign you didn't use the information that you saw in front of you". Invariably, they are chastened by the experience. I tell them... "not to worry about it because nobody gets this exercise right first time", (I never tell them about the one that did). But, I say, by the end of the ten week course you will be using all the information available, including the warning triangles".

In my defence of my exceptional smugness on this occasion I would simply say that the smugness on my part is confined to my belief that the exercise described above is a valuable one for the associate. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Last edited by hir on Wed Aug 24, 2016 12:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Smeeagain
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 12:52 pm

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Smeeagain » Wed Aug 24, 2016 11:05 am

Silk wrote:
Smeeagain wrote:
Drivers Licence, insurance, MOT, V5C, evidence of vehicle being taxed. Anything else I've missed?



Go here: https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence to get your code, just in case the examiner wants to check for endorsements etc.


Will do thank you

Smee

Smeeagain
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 12:52 pm

Re: Any ROSPA test tips

Postby Smeeagain » Wed Aug 24, 2016 2:54 pm

ratty wrote:Basics for test.

Drive should be safe, legal and reasonably smooth. The vehicle should be positioned to maximise safety and the driver should make good use of the speed limits.

Perhaps extras for the test.

Good cockpit drill (including a moving brake test done properly)


Care to elaborate on "done properly" ......?

Smee


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