Comments By Ryan R.

I started my journey down their road after visiting the campus in Stockton. I spoke with a woman named Cynthia, who informed me that I may be able to get the school paid for entirely with a grant. I was delighted to hear such news. She also had me sign a form claiming I had been given a tour of the campus – I hadn’t, but what did I care? I soon learned that signing for things that didn’t really happen was commonplace with the school, but it’s mostly done with the students not realizing what they are signing for. I followed up on the call to the woman I was referred to. After answering questions, meeting in person, taking tests, and filling out paperwork, I was golden. My way was paid for. I was given the option of going to some other schools, but I felt I should be loyal to the school that informed me of my good fortune.

Then came orientation. My first annoyance was noting that Cynthia was being extremely stingy over items of very little value. She was verbose about only those that had already paid for the program being able to sit down in front of a few dollars’ worth of supplies. We sat down and listened to the school’s job placement woman for a while, were given a bunch of phone numbers to call, and went through endless amounts of inane paperwork to sign. In came the school’s manager - I didn’t like him from the start. He comes across as very smug, and never misses a chance to be annoyingly glib. He looks a lot like Santa clause sans the outfit. The first thing he did was try to open the file cabinet by, “picking” the lock with a paper clip. He just shoved it in the keyhole and twisted it around wildly, and then asked if anyone in the room knew how to pick locks. Clearly he didn’t, he wasn’t even using anything as a tensioner, nor seeming to have a clue about pins. He then informed us he was a rebel. Mr. Rebel continued to inform us of the school’s rules, which reminded me of being in grade school again. Further, we were agreeing to random drug testing as if we were criminals. We filled out paperwork, listened to him mock a few students, were informed of how great a decision we had made, and went on our way. Not everything he said about what a great decision we had made was even true. Our classroom was a rotting mobile trailer with a ceiling that looked like it was going to fall in on us. I left fuming feeling I had certainly made a mistake.

I called up the school the next day to see if Bryan would be my instructor because I was going to quit right then and there if he was. I was relieved to find out he wasn’t. My classroom instructor was Ken. I liked him. He was easy going, informative, full of wisdom, and didn’t ride my butt for breaking inane rules. I do believe that the classroom aspect was a waste of time and money because we could all read the handbook and study it on our own, but Ken made it as palatable as possible. We spent a week on studying the CDL handbook, and just barely skimmed over the hazmat section on the last day. Off we went to take the permit tests… it was a breeze. If you want to pass the written tests, all you have to do is read the handbook, take a few online sample tests, and if you did well, you’re going to pass – just make sure to thoroughly investigate every question you got wrong until you understand why perfectly. I passed one the sample tests before I even studied just guessing to see what it was all about. Make sure to get all your endorsements because it’s very simple and opens a lot of doors. Further, just passing isn’t good enough. Know that handbook by heart because this is what we’re choosing to do with our lives, and mediocre isn’t good enough. Also, get your TSA background check started as soon as you can. We were all instructed to do it after the permit test on the day of orientation, but that was when we were being bombarded with new information, and it was only briefly touched by Cynthia in her fast paced flailing ways. Out of the others I trained with, I was the only one that remembered to do it.

So I posted this once before and it quickly digressed into a poo flinging competition. Let me preemptively address some of the haters. 1. According to the instructors at WPTS, I was not a poor student, and I did well. 2. I do not believe that WPTS takes the full blame for my failure. Some students do pass, but there are far better schools, and far cheaper schools.

3. Their exam passage rate for 2014 was 55% http://wptruckschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/spfs-stockton-class-a-cdl.pdf There are schools with an exam passage rate of 98%+

4. I, "graduated" from the school so I am included in the graduation statistic.

5. Ironically, I might even be included in the placement rate statistic since they got me pre employed with SWIFT, against my wishes

6. I am not looking for people to tell me that I do not have a chance in the industry, etc. It is not constructive, and it's called taking a **** on my thread. If you want to hate on me, go do it elsewhere. This is for new truck drivers such as myself - I wish someone posted this for me before I went.

7. I am now going to a different school. I do not have an opinion on it yet.