T110's Long, Comfortable, Nights by the Fireside

The_Chieftain: Two particularly tough tests are Ireland and Finland.  Finland requires some time on the skid pan, which makes sense given their weather.  Ireland is notorious for having something akin to an 80% first time failure rate.  The trick with the Irish one is that it tests your abilities to drive in the real world.  The theory is that any idiot can follow road signs and road rules when the examiner is next to them, and that nobody ever drives like the examiner is next to them when there is no such examiner. Thus, what the examiner is looking for is your judgement in how you drive.  Case in point, brother of my ex came home after failing his test.  Ex's dad was a cop. Sure enough, he had failed.  When asked what happened, he said he was failed to keeping to a 30mph posted speed limit on a very good dual carriage way where the typical person drives at about 45-50. The correct judgement would have been to drive at 45-50, as the road and weather were both good, and he would be keeping up with the flow of traffic. Dad was not sympathetic: "You must make progress, and traveling slower than the normal flow of traffic makes you an obstacle and a hazard."   Thus, there is no substitute for experience.    California test was almost an embarrassment.  Took the written since I was already in the DMV, never really drove in the US before that.  Took the test in an Automatic.  Hill starts, three point turns, not tested. How can you fail it?