What Was The Most NERVEWRACKING Aspect Of CDL School For You All?

I have been talking in my diary about how I have been so nervous about doing 90s. I was wanting to know for those of you in CDL school now or even experienced drivers, what was/is the most NERVEWRACKING aspect of CDL school for yall? Feel free to chime in here. Thanks.

Backing was a huge nerve racker for me, still is, and probably always will be. I try to avoid difficult backs as much as possible if I had a choice. I'd easily choose to park at a rest area compared to certain truck stops any day. Unless of course that truck stop has pull throughs or straight backs available.

Another nerve racket while in CDL school was learning to shift. Never shifted a day in my life previously, first day driving, I killed the engine at least a dozen times. I got so frustrated that I actually started having an anxiety attack as I was pulling over. My head started swimming, my mouth was dry, I couldn't even speak properly. That was probably the worst 15m of my life.

Backing was a huge nerve racker for me, still is, and probably always will be. I try to avoid difficult backs as much as possible if I had a choice. I'd easily choose to park at a rest area compared to certain truck stops any day. Unless of course that truck stop has pull throughs or straight backs available.

Another nerve racket while in CDL school was learning to shift. Never shifted a day in my life previously, first day driving, I killed the engine at least a dozen times. I got so frustrated that I actually started having an anxiety attack as I was pulling over. My head started swimming, my mouth was dry, I couldn't even speak properly. That was probably the worst 15m of my life.

For me: Learning the Pre Trip Inspection and then the 90 and offset back and last, relearning how to double clutch. That is what I mostly need to work on.

Mine was the first day they threw me in the driver seat and took me on real roads, scared the crap out of me, lol.

Doing the 90deg backup, remembering which gear I was in and reading all the signs while trying to check the mirrors and look 12 seconds down the road. The worst part was realizing that my first driving instructor actually thought I would learn from 10 minutes of driving and then having to stop and listen to him talk about it for the next 30 minutes. Luckily the next instructor just asked what I wanted to work on and would let me try as many times as I wanted while pointing out corrections when they became relevant.

Downshifting. I kind of got thrown in the deep in there.

The guy I was training with had been driving farm trucks for years so he could already do everything. Our Road trainer decided to take him into town (and this is a tiny town, only 2000 people. Imagine the roads and turns) and see how he did there. When he was done, our trainer told me to hop up in the driver's seat.

I figured we'd just run up the highway to the truck stop and come back as that's all I had done so far. No downshifting really and no turns.

NOPE!

I ran the exact same route he did. Lots of downshifting and tight turns. Neither of which I had done yet. I was a mess when we finally got back to the school.

I hate to say it, but that set me back. I ended up extending my school out a week to get my feet (and pride) back under me.

Downshifting. I kind of got thrown in the deep in there.

The guy I was training with had been driving farm trucks for years so he could already do everything. Our Road trainer decided to take him into town (and this is a tiny town, only 2000 people. Imagine the roads and turns) and see how he did there. When he was done, our trainer told me to hop up in the driver's seat.

I figured we'd just run up the highway to the truck stop and come back as that's all I had done so far. No downshifting really and no turns.

NOPE!

I ran the exact same route he did. Lots of downshifting and tight turns. Neither of which I had done yet. I was a mess when we finally got back to the school.

I hate to say it, but that set me back. I ended up extending my school out a week to get my feet (and pride) back under me.

I believe that's called a stress test. See how you performed under pressure and build up them there. But hey, if you set the bar low for yourself, that leaves more room for improvement which makes instructors that much more proud of you by the end.

Downshifting.

Dealing with traffic while attempting to pull out and make a left turn on a busy 4 lane highway that has no traffic control within 5 miles of the school.

Dealing with traffic while attempting to pull out and make a left turn on a busy 4 lane highway that has no traffic control within 5 miles of the school.

That can be a pain even to an experienced driver (I use that term loosely)! I can't even imagine the stress of having to deal with that every day while in school.