It happens to the best of us.

We bump into other cars.

We miss turns.

We fail.

RHS Senior Ryan Milne attempted to take a u-turn accidentally when her instructor told her to turn left. Luckily, her instructor hadn’t started the test on the ipad yet. Ryan tried her parallel parking three times during the test, but still passed.

RHS Senior Radha Lahiri took a 5-hr energy drink before her first test and thought she would ace it. She had practiced with an experienced driver ahead of time, who told her she would do fine. During the actual test, the driving instructor was silent and strange. Radha didn’t think much of it until he told her to start driving.

Suddenly, he told her to turn left. Radha wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly, and asked, “Left?” to confirm. “Oh my god, literally turn left. Do you not know what left means? Left means left! Just go left? What even—,” yelled the instructor. His berating resulted in her panicking and the test ending.

Her second test, she went to a different driving instructor and drank a 5-hr energy again. She There was a tricky road at the very start where she believed she could go at a green light, but she couldn’t. Her instructor was calm, despite the fact that Radha nearly killed them both in that second. Needless to say, she failed for her second time.

The third time, Radha did not take the 5-hr energy. Her dad conveniently placed a giant cup of coins in the back of the car that clashed around during the test, her instructor made her do a three point turn in front of a bus with children in it, and she even got yelled at to hurry up multiple times. She miraculously ended up passing.

Alexis Martinez, a senior at RHS, did not fail his first test but he did show up to the DMV without his papers and had to go home. The second time Alexis made sure to show up with his papers and passed his test. 

Joe Hagerty’s first test was flawless until he hit the curb and scored an automatic fail. The second time Joe passed without hitting the curb and hardly lost any points. Both times Joe took the test in Millbrook. “Failing gave me a chance to hone my skills,” said Joe Hagerty, the junior class president at RHS. 

For my own driver’s test, I had an instructor with a face tattoo of a star and long nails that were super annoying when they hit the ipad.

My dad drove me to the test, so when I got into the seat, it was adjusted for a taller person and I didn’t know how to fix it. The seat was too low down and the steering wheel was way too high. I was super nervous and the terrible driving position didn’t help.

I was told to turn right at an intersection and started turning on yellow, but the light turned red. I had just accidentally run a red light. I also parked too far away from the curb but it didn’t matter because I already had an immediate fail with the red light.

I honestly don’t know what came over me because I had never run a red light before and I haven’t since. I have another test scheduled, and this time I will make sure to not run a red light!

Best of luck to all future drivers out there. You’re not alone.