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another hurdle, cleared
Jul. 4th, 2013 03:39 pmSome of you may recall my mentioning that one is meant to obtain a local driving licence within one year of moving to Sweden. I was so busy and so enjoying life that 20 months slipped by before I actually really started the process of obtaining a local licence. Since I have 30 years (it still boggles my mind that it has been that long!) driving experience I decided that it would be a good idea to actually take some lessons with a driving instructor, so as to learn which bad habits I have that could interfere with passing a driving test on the first try, and how to get over them. I already knew, from having had to take the driving test twice in Australia, that when I learned the part about how engaging the clutch before stepping on the break can prevent sliding on the ice in winter, I learned it too well, and that my normal driving method of stepping first on the clutch and then the break, and holding the clutch in from then on till time to go again was NOT considered ok by modern driving examiners, and I thought it would be nice to try to unlearn that habit, and instead learn the pattern of down shifting and engine breaking that is recommended today.
But life is busy, and while I took a couple of lessons back then, that was October, and in November we bought a house, so I didn't book another till March, when I realized that it really has been too long since moving here, and I *need* to get that licence. Not that I drive if I can possibly talk someone else into it, but sometimes I am the only one available.
In May I finally figured out how to get to the part of the driving school's web page wherein one can look at questions which are "like the ones on the real theory test", and, every so often I would go there and play with it. The more I did this, the more concerned I became for the written part of the test. I know I passed the Alaskan written test on the first try, and found it easy, and I don't recall if I even bothered to read a book before passing the Australian written test on the first try (even though it took two tries for the driving test there due, primarily, to the aforementioned clutch issue), but these questions alternated between easy and HARD. Many of the most difficult ones were things I didn't recall being addressed in the book (which I read cover to cover once before trying the web page) and which I couldn't find addressed in the book through use of index and table of contents (e.g. how many of every ten pedestrians struck by a car driving 30 km/hr are killed?). Others were difficult because I couldn't understand the explanation in the book (e.g. here is a picture of registration for a car and for a trailer. Which level of licence do you need to have to pull the trailer with this car? The way to calculate the answer from the numbers on these forms seems to be more complicated than it needs to be, since it is necessary that the trailer count as "light" if one has only a B (normal) licence, and "light" depends on several factors).
Needless to say, those problem questions were starting to worry me. Especially when the web page abruptly changed its layout and I could no longer find the practice questions I had been working with, and instead could only find practice exams. The first section I had played with was a set of 700 some odd questions presented in multiple choice format, and once you answered one you could push a button and it would reveal if you got it right or wrong. If wrong you could return to the question the next day (or later), when it would show you what you had last guessed, and you could pick another answer, and then it would tell you if that one was right or wrong. Since most questions don't have more than four answers to choose from, in theory, one could work out the correct answer to all of them in four days of hard work.
However, I was doing these in the late evenings, after the rest of my work for the day was done, and so I didn't ever have the energy to go through all 700 questions, even though I would always go back and fix the ones I had guessed wrong on the day before. I had planned to go through the full set, and then go back and read them again to learn them all, but, as I mentioned above, one day, well before achieving this goal, the web page changed, and I couldn't find that section anymore. Instead what I found were practice exams, which used the same questions (and corresponding photos) as that set I had been working my way through. The practice exams were set up to be as much like the real test as possible--sets of 70 questions to go through, 50 minutes to do it in, and no finding out which were right or wrong till after you answer them all and push the "score test button" (of course, one could push that button before answering all of them, but it gives an "are you sure?" message, since you will get wrong any left unanswered).
Since I had already seen a number of the questions from the practice sessions I had done I found some parts of those tests easy--I knew the answer from having guessed wrong previously, but, sadly, every practice test also had questions I had never seen before. Some of them were easy (what does this sign mean?) and others are hard (also "what does this sign mean?", but instead of the primary meaning, they list only other, incidental, minor implications that are not explicitly mentioned in the book on Swedish road signs). As a result, as I worked my way through the stack of practice tests I nearly always needed to take each one twice before I was able pass it, and sometimes it took three tries. This was NOT good for my ego!
I have always been a good test taker and learn quickly, and have a good memory for things I have read, so it was frustrating to be getting things wrong because I had never been exposed to the information and was reduced to guessing. I eventually reconciled myself to trying to think of it not as practice tests, but rather someone trying to teach via the Socratic method, but not doing the best job of it. Or, perhaps the method was working on me--since the tests appear be generated by a semi-random selection of questions from a common pool many of the same questions came up over and over again, and the one I missed before I generally got right every time thereafter.
Since I was booked to take the written test today I have been putting more and more time into these practice tests over the past week or two. I worked my way through the first four sections, then through "repetition one", then through "end test", but still the section "repetition 2" wasn't clickable, so I started on the section below called "Osedda frågor", but I didn't think about what that title might mean, till I clicked on it a second time and got an error message explaining that it wasn't possible to generate me another such test as I have already seen all the questions. There you go "osedda" = unseen. New word for the day.
Not surprisingly, at that point the practice tests started to get easier for me, and I even managed to get 100% correct several times in a row on the "road markings" specific test.
Then, last night, I accidentally stumbled on another section of the web page, where I found that original section in which I had been working--where I found out that I had only managed some 300 odd of the 700+ set. So I started going through that again, and really appreciated the instant feedback. However, as I was scheduled for the real test this morning, that didn't leave much time for trying again on the ones I got wrong, since it sill won't let one try again till the next day. Not that there were so many of these--since I have seen all the questions by now I was mostly getting them correct, but, occasionally on a hard one I didn't remember what the right answer was.
So, this morning![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lord_kjar's alarm went off the first time at 05:30, since he needs many repeats of the snooze button before he will actually get up in the morning, and I had one last driving lesson scheduled for 07:30 before my written test at 08:45 (it was the only time this week they had any openings, and they strongly recommend taking a couple of lessons the week one takes the test). Since I wake up much easier than he does I did my morning situps and got out of bed straight away, and took my breakfast to the computer, where I happily told the web page the correct answers to the questions I had missed yesterday and then worked my way through more questions till he was finally up and ready to go.
Today's driving lesson was all in Swedish. I had previously had lessons from the two men who work at the driving school, both of whom are fluent in English, but this week the woman instructor was the only one available, and she is not fluent in English, and, indeed, is reluctant to even try. But my Swedish has become quite usable recently, so I did fine--it is easy to understand "rakt fram", "svang till hoger", & svang till vänster". In addition, much to my delight, in addition to that, we also conversed a little. I was able to tell her how long I have lived in Sweden, where I work, what I do there, etc., and she told me that she grew up in Luleå, etc.
After the lesson they dropped me off at trafikverket, where I found out that in Sweden the test is done quite differently than in the US or Australia. In the other countries the test was done on an individual basis--one comes in, checks in (pays the fee), is sent to a computer where one takes the test, and one leaves when one is done without it mattering if there is anyone else who also wants to take the test or not. Here in Sweden one pays (on line) weeks before the test, and on the day one checks in, shows one's ID and is sent to sit in the waiting room, with lots of other people. Then, once everyone has checked in they call everyone into a room at once, where we turn in our ID cards and are each sent to a specific, numbered, computer, where we log in with our personal identification numbers and all take the test at once.
The test itself consists of 70 questions, of which 65 actually count (the other five are questions they are testing to see if they want to include them in the real test at some point in the future), and there is never any way to find out which five didn't count. Of the 65 real questions one must answer at least 52 of them correctly. Since I knew that I haven't really been able to spare the time I have been making for all of the practice questions (getting further and further behind where I want to be for work), it was very important to me that I pass this test on the first try. Therefore I resolved to not only read each question carefully, but on every case where I wasn't *certain* of the correct answer I would mark the question so I could go back and look at it again after I had answered everything.
I completed my first go through with 33 minutes still available on the clock and pushed the button to see the list of questions and how many I had marked. Fourteen!?! That is a scary number of "not certain"s on a test where one is only free to get 8 wrong (ok, 13 if all five of the "don't counts" happen to be in that pile). So I went through them again and determined that for all 14 questions the question mostly addressed points that had NOT been covered on any of the practice questions I had seen (e.g. into which of these four circled places in this engine does one put the oil?).
I went back through those 14 questions three different times before finally deciding that, nope, I really don't know which answer they want in most cases (few I was able to figure out the right answer by looking again at the photos), and no amount of looking again is going to help, so I finally pushed the "grade it" button, with 18 minutes still to spare of the 50 available. Let me tell you, pushing that button was probably the scariest thing I have done in a long, long time. It certainly raised my stress levels enough to feel the tension and other physiological reactions in my body. And oh, the relief I felt when, a split second later, it told me I had passed! I answered 60 of the 65 questions correctly (and will never know how I did on the other five, which don't count).
The computer gave me the option to see which ones I got wrong--they flashed each of them on the screen for 10 seconds, with my incorrect answer still marked, but no indication of what the correct answer was. Much to my surprise, four of them were from that pile of 14 uncertain questions, and one was one I thought I had had correct. however, I no longer recall what it was. The only one I am certain I got wrong now was the above mentioned "where does the oil go?" question, and I knew I had a 50% chance on that one, since two of the circled reservoirs were white plastic and had a pale liquid in them, so were certainly not oil, so that left only two options. When I got home I compared our engine with the one in the photo, and it looks nothing like it--the one I should have guessed in the photo was an opening smack in the middle top of a huge black object which dominates the engine compartment, and in our car the huge black engine dominating object does not have an opening set into the top of it--instead the oil goes into a separate opening off to the side. I can live with missing this one!
After I got out of the test it was 09:41, so I started walking along the bike path homeward (lord_kjar had driven me in this morning, since I am not yet legal to drive on my own). About half way to uni I ran into a colleague, who had been out for a jog, but stopped to cool off with a quick dip in the lake, and had just left the water as I passed the beach. I like living in a town small enough that these things happen. I reached the uni around 10:44, and lord_kjar, who had been working across the street from my office today, was about to go home for lunch, so I rode with him the last four km. Since then all I have accomplished is a lovely lunch, a short nap, and typing this, so I had better close here and do some uni work. While I count taking the test as uni work, since I sometimes have to drive for work, it is not the sort that gets the project any closer to done...
But life is busy, and while I took a couple of lessons back then, that was October, and in November we bought a house, so I didn't book another till March, when I realized that it really has been too long since moving here, and I *need* to get that licence. Not that I drive if I can possibly talk someone else into it, but sometimes I am the only one available.
In May I finally figured out how to get to the part of the driving school's web page wherein one can look at questions which are "like the ones on the real theory test", and, every so often I would go there and play with it. The more I did this, the more concerned I became for the written part of the test. I know I passed the Alaskan written test on the first try, and found it easy, and I don't recall if I even bothered to read a book before passing the Australian written test on the first try (even though it took two tries for the driving test there due, primarily, to the aforementioned clutch issue), but these questions alternated between easy and HARD. Many of the most difficult ones were things I didn't recall being addressed in the book (which I read cover to cover once before trying the web page) and which I couldn't find addressed in the book through use of index and table of contents (e.g. how many of every ten pedestrians struck by a car driving 30 km/hr are killed?). Others were difficult because I couldn't understand the explanation in the book (e.g. here is a picture of registration for a car and for a trailer. Which level of licence do you need to have to pull the trailer with this car? The way to calculate the answer from the numbers on these forms seems to be more complicated than it needs to be, since it is necessary that the trailer count as "light" if one has only a B (normal) licence, and "light" depends on several factors).
Needless to say, those problem questions were starting to worry me. Especially when the web page abruptly changed its layout and I could no longer find the practice questions I had been working with, and instead could only find practice exams. The first section I had played with was a set of 700 some odd questions presented in multiple choice format, and once you answered one you could push a button and it would reveal if you got it right or wrong. If wrong you could return to the question the next day (or later), when it would show you what you had last guessed, and you could pick another answer, and then it would tell you if that one was right or wrong. Since most questions don't have more than four answers to choose from, in theory, one could work out the correct answer to all of them in four days of hard work.
However, I was doing these in the late evenings, after the rest of my work for the day was done, and so I didn't ever have the energy to go through all 700 questions, even though I would always go back and fix the ones I had guessed wrong on the day before. I had planned to go through the full set, and then go back and read them again to learn them all, but, as I mentioned above, one day, well before achieving this goal, the web page changed, and I couldn't find that section anymore. Instead what I found were practice exams, which used the same questions (and corresponding photos) as that set I had been working my way through. The practice exams were set up to be as much like the real test as possible--sets of 70 questions to go through, 50 minutes to do it in, and no finding out which were right or wrong till after you answer them all and push the "score test button" (of course, one could push that button before answering all of them, but it gives an "are you sure?" message, since you will get wrong any left unanswered).
Since I had already seen a number of the questions from the practice sessions I had done I found some parts of those tests easy--I knew the answer from having guessed wrong previously, but, sadly, every practice test also had questions I had never seen before. Some of them were easy (what does this sign mean?) and others are hard (also "what does this sign mean?", but instead of the primary meaning, they list only other, incidental, minor implications that are not explicitly mentioned in the book on Swedish road signs). As a result, as I worked my way through the stack of practice tests I nearly always needed to take each one twice before I was able pass it, and sometimes it took three tries. This was NOT good for my ego!
I have always been a good test taker and learn quickly, and have a good memory for things I have read, so it was frustrating to be getting things wrong because I had never been exposed to the information and was reduced to guessing. I eventually reconciled myself to trying to think of it not as practice tests, but rather someone trying to teach via the Socratic method, but not doing the best job of it. Or, perhaps the method was working on me--since the tests appear be generated by a semi-random selection of questions from a common pool many of the same questions came up over and over again, and the one I missed before I generally got right every time thereafter.
Since I was booked to take the written test today I have been putting more and more time into these practice tests over the past week or two. I worked my way through the first four sections, then through "repetition one", then through "end test", but still the section "repetition 2" wasn't clickable, so I started on the section below called "Osedda frågor", but I didn't think about what that title might mean, till I clicked on it a second time and got an error message explaining that it wasn't possible to generate me another such test as I have already seen all the questions. There you go "osedda" = unseen. New word for the day.
Not surprisingly, at that point the practice tests started to get easier for me, and I even managed to get 100% correct several times in a row on the "road markings" specific test.
Then, last night, I accidentally stumbled on another section of the web page, where I found that original section in which I had been working--where I found out that I had only managed some 300 odd of the 700+ set. So I started going through that again, and really appreciated the instant feedback. However, as I was scheduled for the real test this morning, that didn't leave much time for trying again on the ones I got wrong, since it sill won't let one try again till the next day. Not that there were so many of these--since I have seen all the questions by now I was mostly getting them correct, but, occasionally on a hard one I didn't remember what the right answer was.
So, this morning
lord_kjar's alarm went off the first time at 05:30, since he needs many repeats of the snooze button before he will actually get up in the morning, and I had one last driving lesson scheduled for 07:30 before my written test at 08:45 (it was the only time this week they had any openings, and they strongly recommend taking a couple of lessons the week one takes the test). Since I wake up much easier than he does I did my morning situps and got out of bed straight away, and took my breakfast to the computer, where I happily told the web page the correct answers to the questions I had missed yesterday and then worked my way through more questions till he was finally up and ready to go.Today's driving lesson was all in Swedish. I had previously had lessons from the two men who work at the driving school, both of whom are fluent in English, but this week the woman instructor was the only one available, and she is not fluent in English, and, indeed, is reluctant to even try. But my Swedish has become quite usable recently, so I did fine--it is easy to understand "rakt fram", "svang till hoger", & svang till vänster". In addition, much to my delight, in addition to that, we also conversed a little. I was able to tell her how long I have lived in Sweden, where I work, what I do there, etc., and she told me that she grew up in Luleå, etc.
After the lesson they dropped me off at trafikverket, where I found out that in Sweden the test is done quite differently than in the US or Australia. In the other countries the test was done on an individual basis--one comes in, checks in (pays the fee), is sent to a computer where one takes the test, and one leaves when one is done without it mattering if there is anyone else who also wants to take the test or not. Here in Sweden one pays (on line) weeks before the test, and on the day one checks in, shows one's ID and is sent to sit in the waiting room, with lots of other people. Then, once everyone has checked in they call everyone into a room at once, where we turn in our ID cards and are each sent to a specific, numbered, computer, where we log in with our personal identification numbers and all take the test at once.
The test itself consists of 70 questions, of which 65 actually count (the other five are questions they are testing to see if they want to include them in the real test at some point in the future), and there is never any way to find out which five didn't count. Of the 65 real questions one must answer at least 52 of them correctly. Since I knew that I haven't really been able to spare the time I have been making for all of the practice questions (getting further and further behind where I want to be for work), it was very important to me that I pass this test on the first try. Therefore I resolved to not only read each question carefully, but on every case where I wasn't *certain* of the correct answer I would mark the question so I could go back and look at it again after I had answered everything.
I completed my first go through with 33 minutes still available on the clock and pushed the button to see the list of questions and how many I had marked. Fourteen!?! That is a scary number of "not certain"s on a test where one is only free to get 8 wrong (ok, 13 if all five of the "don't counts" happen to be in that pile). So I went through them again and determined that for all 14 questions the question mostly addressed points that had NOT been covered on any of the practice questions I had seen (e.g. into which of these four circled places in this engine does one put the oil?).
I went back through those 14 questions three different times before finally deciding that, nope, I really don't know which answer they want in most cases (few I was able to figure out the right answer by looking again at the photos), and no amount of looking again is going to help, so I finally pushed the "grade it" button, with 18 minutes still to spare of the 50 available. Let me tell you, pushing that button was probably the scariest thing I have done in a long, long time. It certainly raised my stress levels enough to feel the tension and other physiological reactions in my body. And oh, the relief I felt when, a split second later, it told me I had passed! I answered 60 of the 65 questions correctly (and will never know how I did on the other five, which don't count).
The computer gave me the option to see which ones I got wrong--they flashed each of them on the screen for 10 seconds, with my incorrect answer still marked, but no indication of what the correct answer was. Much to my surprise, four of them were from that pile of 14 uncertain questions, and one was one I thought I had had correct. however, I no longer recall what it was. The only one I am certain I got wrong now was the above mentioned "where does the oil go?" question, and I knew I had a 50% chance on that one, since two of the circled reservoirs were white plastic and had a pale liquid in them, so were certainly not oil, so that left only two options. When I got home I compared our engine with the one in the photo, and it looks nothing like it--the one I should have guessed in the photo was an opening smack in the middle top of a huge black object which dominates the engine compartment, and in our car the huge black engine dominating object does not have an opening set into the top of it--instead the oil goes into a separate opening off to the side. I can live with missing this one!
After I got out of the test it was 09:41, so I started walking along the bike path homeward (
lord_kjar had driven me in this morning, since I am not yet legal to drive on my own). About half way to uni I ran into a colleague, who had been out for a jog, but stopped to cool off with a quick dip in the lake, and had just left the water as I passed the beach. I like living in a town small enough that these things happen. I reached the uni around 10:44, and lord_kjar, who had been working across the street from my office today, was about to go home for lunch, so I rode with him the last four km. Since then all I have accomplished is a lovely lunch, a short nap, and typing this, so I had better close here and do some uni work. While I count taking the test as uni work, since I sometimes have to drive for work, it is not the sort that gets the project any closer to done...
