What’s worse than taking your driving test? Failing your driving test. This is the one test in high school that students tend to find the most important to them. They don’t seem to care what the square root of 225 is, or how many leaders it took until the United States had captured a Victory at the War of 1812. Instead, the biggest priority to students is getting to drive around with their friends. Windows down, music blaring.

Just a friendly tip, do NOT blare your music while you’re taking your test. Yes, they will most likely fail you for that alone. Many students at Verona High School had made some poor decisions while taking their tests this past year. Thus leaving them not only licenseless, but also leaving them with a slip of paper with a new date on it for when they were told to come back and “try again”.

Fear not, for tips and advice are coming your way. Many senior students who had failed their driving test the first time they took it, have come to share exactly what to do, and what not to do, on the dreaded day of one of the “most important tests of your life”.

“The first and most important thing going into your test, is to get it out of your head that it is a test. The more in your head you get about it, the higher your chances of messing up are,” admits senior Daniela Trujillo. Daniela had failed her driving test the first time she took it for “running over a set of cones while pulling up to a spot I was told to parallel park in,” explains Trujillo. Daniela had been so worried and worked up about parking perfectly in that little spot set up for her, that she hadn’t even payed attention to the cones leading up to it.

“I got in my head. I focused only on the one task I had to do, and blocked everything out. Literally, because I blocked out the bright orange cones I rammed down”. In case you were wondering, yes, she parked perfectly shortly after her cone destruction. Daniela learned how to stay out of her head, and left with a license the next time she took it.

Getting in your head seems to be one of the leading causes of people failing their tests. It is so simple to overthink the process of driving. People overthink how far they are from the curb, they overthink how long to stop for, and they overthink when they should turn on their blinker. Eventually it all will come naturally, so relax behind the wheel, and just let yourself drive.

Senior Ally Madigan also shared her experience on the day of her driving test. “It all started off so well. Yeah I was scared, but I got over it once I started driving. I did everything perfectly, until the parallel parking”.

Ally explained that she did her best to get as close to the curb as she could, but ended up tapping it before sliding into her parking position. She thought it wasn’t something serious enough to fail her, but apparently it was. The driving instructor told her to come back and try again once she practiced her “spacial awareness” more thoroughly. The only advice Ally could give from her experience was to, “always make sure you are getting close enough to the curb, but not too close to the point where you hit it”. She worked on it, and passed the next time she took it.

“Although I probably shouldn’t have passed, because I got into a car accident three weeks later” she laughingly admitted, “but that’s a story for another time”.

One of the last seniors to share their driving test experience was senior Ashley Kenneally (pictured above). She mentioned that she failed her test because “I incorrectly predicted the amount of space I had to complete my K-turn”. It is easier if the car you are using for your test has a backup camera to see, but for those that do not, it is important to always look all around your car and use your mirrors to estimate the amount of space you have to turn. Going off the road or hitting the curb is another automatic fail. Ashley’s advice for those who are preparing for their tests was to “practice on the most narrow streets you can, because you never know how much space you will have on the day of your test”.

Whether you pass or fail, you will always have another chance. While keeping that in mind, just remember: stay relaxed, keep out of your head, and focus on the road.