Alberta Class 5 GDL test preparations for mrHKer

Just sharing mrHKer's driving lessons and upcoming road test...

Picture courtesy from Drivewithcarrot.ca

To many, a road test and a car license is not such a big deal, right? It's ok to fail and try again. No biggie. Yet, many of us don't want to fail. Think of all the hours invested practicing driving, the days off work to find the time to practice, the stress you get from your instructor telling you off, the lack of positive feedback, booking lessons based on availability, booking the road test based on your schedule...etc And yeah, mrHKer has contemplated changing instructor but at what costs, ie go to a different area to learn, more lessons to pay for, getting used to the new settings and re-calibrating one's skills... It's often easier said than done. But we must take it easy, right? Driving is not such a big deal after all. 

Right! As newcomers to Canada, we do find that the public transport is convenient in Calgary and the infrastructure is pretty good. Although it won't cover all the places, it's surely helpful to have the mass rail transit and bus networks. 

Funny thing is that a car sure does make every place more accessible. Especially in a big city that expanded horizontally...

So, the driving lessons were not enjoyable for mrHKer. They were tough. Yes, his instructor puts extra pressure and will not hold back the snidey remarks nor give you positive reinforcements. The silver lining? At least the road test would look less stressful and feel closer like a walk in the park... 

Morale of the story?

We all accept failure and the consequences differently. We all go through different hardships to get by our every day, to get closer to our ultimate goal. Never give up. Sometimes, it is ok to look at a different path, but we're the best judge of it. MrHKer had not changed instructor because it would be too costly finance-wise and time-wise. Hence, knuckling down and soldiering on with it. But was close... spending an extra $500 to get a new instructor may still help, but he chose not to.

Some tips

While learning to drive on the right side of the road in Canada, a few youtube videos do help:

• https://www.youtube.com/user/acomvillerayconduite
• https://www.youtube.com/c/Smartdrivetest/featured

They cover a lot of the questions a new driver in Canada asks, eg 2 way stop, 4 way stops, changing lanes, driving in snow... and they even do a road test demo.