Hopefully next time you get a different driving tester, or go to a different test facility. At least this tester didn't sh** his pants in your car...

#13 nice reference to a previous FML!

Ass hole indeed. I had a similar incident with a drive tester. They must have real shit lives if the most fun they can have is ******* over students.

Agreed!

Yeah that's the one thing in life they have power over everyone in so they will just abuse it

I was 1 point off from a perfect score on my driver's test because I stopped at an "imaginary" stop sign.

But they ask you to do something like that precisely to test how well you know the road rules. It wouldn't help anyone if they took it out. Ofcourse it's unfortunate that OP wasn't aware of the fact, buy to be honest I'm surprised he wasn't. Well, better luck (and a better understanding of the rules) next time. :)

Well, they are supposed to test your driving skills, which is why they call it a driving test and not a driving lesson.

They're allowed to as it supposedly tests the drivers knowledge of the road rules (when you can and can't do a u turn). Like if they say "take the next right turn" but there is a no right turn sign, you keep going until you can legally turn right.

Yes there supposed to test your driving skills, but the person being tested is already under enough pressure, and I don't think they should have to worry about trick questions on top of passing.

They aren't allowed to in the US

I know in California, they actually state to you before you start that they will not ask you to do any illegal maneuvers.

I took my test in MN about an hour and a half away from home. I wasn't familiar with the roads and it made it a lot more challenging. For example, one road I drove on didn't have a speed limit posted in the stretch that I was on. The cars around me were going 45, so I played it safe and went 34. The speed limit was actually 30. If I had gone 35 I would have failed. I probably should have asked the instructor what the speed limit was, but, like others have been saying, the nerves got to me.

@61 NC is the same way. They tell you they won't do anything to trick you when you take your test.

I took my driver's exam in 2009 in California. They did state that they will ask me to demonstrate what they ask, ONLY if it is safe to do so. They can ask you to do things that are seemingly misguided. It's up to the driver if they feel it's safe given the surroundings.

In my state they can't ask you to do illegal things like this, and the test would be dismissed if they did (pass or fail). They also state they can't try to "trick" you in all the paperwork beforehand.

It's probably here in the UK. They're not allowed to here either, but 87% of examiners are evil. I got one of the 0.01% of lovely angels.

Actually, thinking, here they may tell you to do one, but you'd be expected to not do one in a dangerous place, so you may drive another 100 yards. Hard call.

Because the OP needed to know the rules of the road, it's the instructor's job to test their knowledge to do so. I'd feel more safe knowing he did that to an inexperienced driver than have someone do that and cause an accidental death

Nerves is one thing, but you need to go back to the instruction manual concerning speed limits on roads when there is no speed limit posted. There are different ones for industrial/residential/commercial areas which they specify in there

he is an examinor.. and have all the right to do it.. as after getting the license he might do an illegal U turn just because some one asked him to.. it's sad how u have passed the Theory test

Even if you do have to take a right, and they say it when a one way is coming so you can't take it there, they will say take the next available right. If I were OP I would try talking to someone, although the DMV sucks already.

Drivers tests need to be more difficult anyways, i think every dmv should throw in trick questions. Roads will have more knowledgeable drivers that way and maybee prevent some accidents.

In Ontario they also inform you at the beginning that they will not ask you to do anything illegal. It's on the forms you fill out to apply, too.

Most states, you can only ask your test driver to confirm instructions, so that wouldn't have worked. Also, national law states that all roads must have speed signs posted every 1/2 mile if they are not the "standard speed." The standard speed is decided by the state. For example, in NY it's 30 for city, 55 for rural. It's good to learn that for your state.

Booooo

No kidding :)

Not in the US. You're good

That's not the first time I've heard about instructors doing something like that. In my hometown instructors tell you to take a turn onto a one way street (but it's the wrong way) and you're supposed to know not to.

They're not allowed to do that in Canada either. Methinks this ass hat could lose his job

Yes they are and they usually do it. My drivers ed warned us about it.

In California they aren't. They even say at the beginning of the test "I will not instruct you to do anything illegal at any time"

Yep same here in the US - Not allowed to do that.

I don't think OP was tricked or forced, since the FML says he was asked to do a U turn and not told to do one. The tester simply left it to OP to find where to make the U turn, while OP thought that he needed to make it right away, because those DMV guys are always right and must be obeyed without question.

I don't think this has anything to do with semantics.

I disagree, if the instructor had asked, as you say, then it would have come out "can you do a u-turn here" to which op would've replied. Op says he said to take the u turn, meaning he said "do a u-turn here please" which means he was telling op to do something illegal. Either way, I would expect to have to do everything the instructor tells me to. If he tells me to turn right I'm not going to turn left or I'll fail. We're relying on what they tell us to do. Seems really dirty to me.

OP is the one driving, the DMV guy is not an instructor. "Make a U turn" means "Make a legal U turn", not "Make a U turn immediately".

@37, the OP clearly states that the instructor TOLD him to pull over and do the first U-turn, and a few minutes later ASKED him to do another. I completely agree with 32, OP wasn't tricked, he didn't know the rules of the road, and failed because of it. And even if he was told to do the second u turn, the OP would have a lot more basis to contest the decision if OP stated that that u turn was illegal, or hell the OP could have kept going till he could take a legal u turn. If the instructor told you to change lanes, and there was a car next to you, are you going to crash into that car, or drive them off the road because the instructor told you to? No, you would wait. Common sense.

@7 He didn't 'make' op do anything. Why do people find this sort of thing so strange? It's a simple test to see if you are simply following orders, or if you are actually paying attention to your surroundings, which is like 90% of driving a car.

if I remember correctly, my driving tester actually said that one way to fail the exam is if I don't listen to him. I don't know if OP had the same rules but I'm assuming that's usually the case for driving tests, to listen and do.

I think it all hinges on the wording. If the instructor said, "make a u-turn when possible" it is OP's fault for not knowing the rules of the road. However, if the instructor said, "make a u-turn here please" then OP is not at fault. In my driver's ed classes, we were told that if we disobeyed the examiner at any point, we would fail the test automatically. That's why the examiners are supposed to be very clear about their instructions (ie. saying "change lanes when it is safe to do so" rather than simply "now change lanes"). Additionally in OP's defense, drivers are taught to follow the instructions of police officers, fire fighters, and other authorities, even if they seem to contradict the rules of the road. Perhaps OP thought driving instructors fell into this category. It may be true that the test should be more difficult, but trick questions aren't the answer; they only serve to confuse people who are otherwise confident in what they know.

They just want to make sure you're ready for the real world. Not just that you know the rules, but also have the confidence to trust yourself. If you don't, take the bus.