Comments By Kevin R.

I took my test today. I passed the pretrip but failed skills so I have to take skills and the road trip next time. Many students get confused at the school. The exam course is kind of funky. I got all hundreds when I took the skills tests on the range in every course but one so knowing how to do the skills is not the problem. Just a very funky course with the test boxes all lined up together and lines and cones everywhere. When I finished pretrip I was thrilled because I think in many ways it is the most difficult and because I've done so well with skills I started thinking ahead to the road and lost focus.

You are right as they must have a valid CDL in order to accompany the permit holder taking his test. When I took my test the tester who was also the owner of the atlas testing site. Never drove a truck a day in his life he said. Just wanted to help Kevin to calm Himself before his test

Yosemite Sam wrote in response to the CDL exams:

Just think of it as a demonstration rather than a test. U are demonstrating to the tester what is done while pre tripping doing ur backing and finally ur road test. The tester probably never drove a truck in his or her life. Everyone is nervous just try to take a deep breath and show the tester what u got.

Sam...the "tester" must hold a valid and active CDL, they are accompanying a CDL permit holder on public roads and highways. At least the ones I have met and know, they are all former truckers.

I passed the pretrip and then failed the all skills. I got 100's for all of the skills but one on the range. The exam range is a little different and has a reputation for confusing drivers. All of the tests are kind of close to each other. There are dotted lines here and solid lines there and cones here and everywhere. In the end it's all on me. I was so excited when I finished the pretrip that I was thinking about the road portion of the test and didn't listen clearly to the instructions I guess. I thought the skills would be a breeze and lost focus thinking about the road final.

Thank you!!!

Kevin, here's a few thoughts that might help you out.

For one, I'm the type that never likes to finish second at anything. So I also prepare hard and take my pursuits seriously if it's something I'm really into. But naturally you can go too far with this. To say you're at a crossroad in your life is putting undue pressure on yourself. You can take the exam as many times as you would like. Many people fail it once or even twice before getting their CDL. Obviously no one wants to waste the time, energy, or money it takes to fail the exam and have to take it again but it's far from being a disaster. So don't put that much pressure on yourself.

Second, almost no one ever feels prepared to do anything when they're new in trucking. When you first head out onto the highway you feel like you're not ready. When you have to take the exams you'll feel like you're not ready. When you go on the road with a trainer they'll ask you to do stuff all the time you don't feel you're prepared to do. When you go solo you also won't feel like you're ready. Getting started in something that's complex, difficult, and dangerous like trucking means you have to get used to the feeling of not quite being 100% ready for everything all the time and not quite being in control of the circumstances around you (like other vehicles, weather, traffic conditions, etc) as you'd like to be. You just have to keep your nerve, stay focused, and try to stay relaxed while you work through it.

I asked for a few more days to practice pretrip and airbrakes but he said I had six months to prepare so Tuesday it is

Honestly, even though you don't feel like you're ready you had better be ready after 6 months of training. Most training programs are a matter of a few weeks to a month. After 6 months you're ready. Don't sweat it.

There are also other factors to keep in mind. For one, the instructors will know if you're ready far better than you will. They have a lot of experience getting students through the testing. For two, having you at the school when your training is already completed will interfere with the other students to some extent.

Just try to relax and go with the flow. You've completed your initial training and you're ready for the testing. Now go for it. Try to remain relaxed and confident and allow yourself to do what you've already learned how to do without overthinking it. You'll be fine.

Let us know how it goes and best of luck to ya!

I've been through some things in my life that make this look like a tea party but those things I went through took me over 20 years to recover from and now this is literally (considering what I've been through and how far I've come) a cross roads in my life. I'm prepared as much as possible but am aware of how important it is to me to finish strong. I'm doing a lot of praying. I wanted to come in Monday to prepare all day and the director said it's against the rules. I got great grades and had perfect attendance but there was a HUGE drop off in the quality and quantity of the training once we got behind the wheel. My classmates and I were shocked at how professional and talented the instructor and instruction was in the classroom and then how dramatically poor in comparison the actual road training was. Blew our minds how bad it was.

So how did all of you prepare mentally to keep your nerves in check?

Try to keep things in perspective. Is this the most important thing you've done in your entire life? For some it is and those people spend a great deal of time preparing. For others, it is just the next thing, not the biggest thing. Only you can describe its relative importance in your life. Keep in mind that the anxiety of the test is only a stepping stone to the anxiety of the job. When you're blocking traffic while backing across five lanes of LA traffic and praying you can get the trailer into that tiny alley in one shot without pulling forward, that test won't seem like such a big deal.

I am scheduled for my state exam at school on Tuesday at 1:30. I asked for a few more days to practice pretrip and airbrakes but he said I had six months to prepare so Tuesday it is. I said I'd come in on Monday to practice airbrakes and pretrip. He said I'm not allowed to. I would not recommend this place to anyone. Very strange operation. So how did all of you prepare mentally to keep your nerves in check?

I'm scheduled for 1:30 on Tuesday. He said I'm not allowed to come on Monday to practice pretrip and air brakes but can come early Tuesday. Very strange operation.

The school I attended also had us test in trucks and trailers that were very different than what we trained in. they like to collect that xtra 100 for the retest. I did pass but many fail.

I have just finished a six moth training program but the school will not let us practice in or pretrip the truck before our test so I want to drive and inspect a truck before I take the test. It's crazy that they won't let us touch the test trucks.

Here in Florida, all testing is done at 3rd party facilities.

Think a Class A (with tractor & trailer) is $450 for test and rig at the County VoTech I did my school at.

That doesn't help for PA. I don't think ANY TESTING SITES (official DMV offices) "provide test vehicles" - even for automobile testing. Way too much liability exposure if you kill someone in a state-owned vehicle.

Rick

Correct Rick. Not in PA.

I will name the school after I get my cdl. They are very vindictive and petty. I spoke to the head of the program to talk about where I'm at and how to prepare for the final. He became defensive and articulated clearly to me that his only goal us to meet the legal bligations of the contract I signed. I was told when I was recruited that there are extra trips available. I asked if I could take one and his response was "those trips are not guaranteed." Which I guess was a no. I heard the "unbiased and objective" state examiner of the school say to one of the instructors who is pushing for us to be able to at least pretrip the truck we will may yest in that "we will shut up the whiners" by allowing them to pretrip the exam trucks in advance. Our tuition puts food on his table and clothed on his back allowing me pays his mortgage but feels comfortable looking at students who just want to prepare for the test as "whiners" who need to "shut up". This examiner has the reputation of Darth Vader and seems to enjoy failing people. When I told the head of the program that I had not driven the truck I took my road final test, he very obnoxiously told me you did drive that truck in two of your 14 road trips.AND I HAVE IT DOCUMENTED PAL. This was a perry mason moment to him. The truck also had a sideways steering wheel so you couldn't see the tachometer.

have just finished a six moth training program but the school will not let us practice in or pretrip the truck before our test so I want to drive and inspect a truck before I take the test. It's crazy that they won't let us touch the test trucks.

What??? Isn't that the purpose of a Truck Driving School? I'm confused! What is the name of this School?

Yeah - that's what I was going to ask.

He has a thread on the Training Diaries (title "Confused") - where the school sounds a little "fishy" - and yes - there are 3rd party private schools that are still crappy (Metropolitan down here is one of them) that give minimal help and give you just (barely) enough to pass your written/skills tests.

But at least they do the testing.

Kevins school HAS A TESTING TRUCK - but he is concerned (in his other thread) about doing a one-shot test in his schools truck - because he is unfamiliar with it and the school apparently doesn't let them practice on that truck.

Typically - states have certified examiners that do the testing, that are NOT DMV Employees. Here in Fl - most of the 3rd party schools have their instructors certified as examiners (at least a couple) to do their skills tests, do the tests are done BY the school, on equipment you're at least somewhat familiar with. My old instructor is one of 1/2-dozen guys that train and certify the examiners.

In my school (County VoTech) - we did our yard work & pre-trip with single screw daycabs and 43' boxes - then they took the top 1/2 of the class out in double screw (tandem drives vs single) road trucks (some days, a few sleepers) for a few laps around the road course - and tested 1/2 the class, so they could "ride shotgun" for the other 1/2 of the class. Basically - 2 students per road truck - we did 1,000 road miles as part of a 320 hour certificate class.

I feel your pain Kevin (somewhat). When I did my road test (top 1/2 of the class) - they grabbed me and my buddy, told us to pre-trip a road truck and go test. I asked if I could take a couple of laps around the inside track to get a feel for a truck I had never driven before - I got "are you a driver or a wheel holder?" as a response. Failed on missed shifts, because the truck shifted way different from everything else I had driven on the yard. Plus - I had already been "floating my gears" on the crappy yard trucks - so my double-clutching skills weren't up to snuff to begin with. And I was floating on the road test out of habit, and get yelled at to double clutch (probably could have passed floating).

So I understand that Kevin is looking for someone with a truck in PA - to road test. But there's a few "issues" there. Finding a STRANGER that's going to let you drive HIS TRUCK. Still being in the position of going to road test in an UNFAMILIAR TRUCK.

Rick

I have just finished a six moth training program but the school will not let us practice in or pretrip the truck before our test so I want to drive and inspect a truck before I take the test. It's crazy that they won't let us touch the test trucks.

Here in Florida, all testing is done at 3rd party facilities.

Think a Class A (with tractor & trailer) is $450 for test and rig at the County VoTech I did my school at.

That doesn't help for PA. I don't think ANY TESTING SITES (official DMV offices) "provide test vehicles" - even for automobile testing. Way too much liability exposure if you kill someone in a state-owned vehicle.

Rick

Correct Rick. Not in PA.

Hi. In Pennsylvania testing sites do not provide vehicles. I'd like to be able to pretrip and drive a private owners vehicle to get a feel for it then test in it. I live in Philadelphia. I'd be happy to work something out with an owner willing to help me.

I had a talk with the head of the program this morning and it was horrible. All this school is concerned with is meeting it's legal obligations of the contract I signed. We are told there are extra trips available if we don't feel prepared for the test. This morning he said the extra trips are not guaranteed and I can't use them. Then said sorry Charlie and smiled. Before you assume that I must be the ******* here because why would they refuse me the extra trips I want to inform you that I did not miss a roll call in six months. I had PERFECT attendance and a 3.5 GPA. The 3.5 GPA includes a 72 on my road final and a 68 on straight line where the instructor told us we had to pull out of the box when we touched a line and start over. We all should have gotten 92 scores but decided not to complain because we passed the course. I have busted my ass all summer in 95-100 degree heat to be told sorry Charlie. They have their money and have met their legal contractual obligations and don't care one bit if I get my cdl. I know I'm a big boy but when you're told if you apply yourself you'll make it then find out the most important part of the training (actually learning how to drive the truck) is inadequate it's pretty annoying. Again 33 hours to learn how to straight line and then 14 hours to drive the truck without any physical practice learning how to shift. They hand us keys on the side of the road on our first road trip acting say go. The only training I had in shifting was from a textbook and a demonstration from the insteuctor that lasted 30 seconds. I learned they meet the federal required regulations to get financial aid and that's all they care about.

Have you tried asking the instructors for some extra help? If you paid out of pocket for this school, they owe you quality instruction. If all else fails try Paid CDL Training Programs. Good luck.

Kevin, I agree with Big Scott on this...can't go wrong with company sponsored training. Considering the point you are at, you might be able to breeze through it, quickly pass your CDL and be on your way to Road Training with your chosen company.

Good luck.