Tuesday was the best day I've had since starting my adventure. After driving on the road for a week with varying success, I finally passed my road test. This afforded me the unexpected pleasure of driving on the highway today. Unspeakably awesome.
After passing my road test on Tuesday and returning from lunch, I also managed to pass backing manuevers twice. I was already ecstatic having passed one skill test and passing a second just rocked my world.
Like I said, Tuesday was the best day.
I passed my 4 point brake test on Friday and again every day since. This test is administered at the end of every road test and pre-trip inspection. So, tons of practice on that and I'll never forget how to do those.
That means I've passed three out of the four skills tests required to be sent to take the official CDL test with the state. Well, sort of. I still need to pass both the road test and backing manuevers with the final instructor for final qualification. Shouldn't be a problem after passing both on Tuesday and again today. Practice, practice, practice.
I still haven't tested on my 400 point pre-trip inspection. The sign-up list for that is insane. The pre-trip inspections take about an hour to perform and, unlike the other skills tests, there really aren't any designated instructors that test students for those. It's just whoever whenever and be lucky enough to get it done. Far more aggravating than that system of testing is the pre-trip inspection itself. There are 100 separate parts to identify and each of those has about four or five things to check. The wording of what to check for on each part must be verbatim. Here's my problem: similar parts utilize different verbage.
Example:
Part X
-Not bent, broken, or missing.
Part Y
-Not cracked, damaged, or broken.
Part Z
-Not cracked, bent, or broken.
All of these parts are pieces of the same operating system and the other things to check on each part are completely identical. Why the symantics?! I don't know and it seems completely ridiculous to me. The only way I can compensate is by using all of the buzzwords.
Not cracked, damaged, bent, broken, or missing.
Yeah. Apparently you only lose points for what you omit, you don't lose any points for checking something needlessly. So... I'll check for every buzzword possible. It's assinine, but I'll manage it. I will jump through whatever hoop necessary to get this done and get out of here.
I'm actually alot closer than I thought I would be right now. I'm legitimately surprised by my progress. I'm not surprised by how much I love driving these beasts. I didn't fully experience that until this morning on the highway. All I can say is:
Oh. My.
No comments:
Post a Comment