further on from my newbie post the other day, i wondered if anyone could share their experiences of the test?
im pretty read up on the process and what to expect, its in Farnborough where i’ve never ridden before, i’ve a feeling im either going to find the test really easy or very difficult and not somewhere inbetween! haha i can’t wait! the days since i passed mod 1 a week ago monday have dragged like you wouldnt believe!!! christ roll on thursday! ill be on the bike a good 2 hours before test so i should be warmed up and ready to rock, praying for zero brainfarts… 
its like theres the best club in the world and im standing outside the front door with one foot inside and the other nailed to the pavement right now…
try to stay relaxed/calm.
make sure your confident with the answers to the pre test questions, they are pretty straightforward so no point getting a minor there which can be avoided with a bit of studying. Also, if you sail through those, it’ll give you a bit of confidence and you’ll feel a bit more relaxed, the opposite might be the case if you fluffed some of those answers.
Maintain your concentration, and If you think you’ve made a mistake, put it out of your mind and carry on doing the best you can. I thought I’d failed turning right at a light across oncoming traffic, it was a bit closer than you would ideally like. We talked about it when we got back to the test center but he only gave me a minor and I passed.
Know your speed limits, and keep looking for the repeaters.
Look at the boards on the approach to roundabouts and get into the correct lane as early as possible.
Give a good turn of the head when your doing your lifesavers so that the instructor can’t miss them.
Don’t filter unless the instructor specifically asks you to. Save that for once you’ve passed! Better off sitting in traffic and running the clock down than putting yourself into a situation where you could easily pick up a fault.
Cancel your indicators.
Make sure you get up to speed on dual carriageways/motorways.
Leave plenty of room between you and cars in front.
All of the above. But I’d add:-
Positioning
Turning left at junction, get pretty close to left kerb, not touching, but close enough that another bike/cyclist couldn’t squeeze in.
Ditto right turn, position close to middle of lane, just to left of painted lines. But watch out for one way roads and road with no markings! Common gotchyas at the Enfield test centre is a one way street, where you’re expected to position over near the right hand kerb and not in the middle of the road. And similarly, they commonly take you down a small back road with no markings that appears like a one way street but isn’t, thus you need to imagine the lane markings in the middle and position accordingly. In Enfield this latter one is particularly confusing as its on a road with parking bays painted both sides half on pavement, half on road, giving the pretence of a single middle lane in the road - ignore these markings unless you’re parking!
At junctions if there’s a octagonal STOP sign, do stop and stick a foot down. At a Give Way, don’t hesitate if you can see its clear as you approach.
Also on point of speed limits, make sure you make decent progress, they’ll fail you for doing 40mph in a national speed limit (if road is clear and conditions are good)!
Lifesavers! All the time! Well, everytime you pull away (especially in the test centre car park!), pull out to go round an obstacle, merge lanes, change lanes etc etc.
Leave a doors distance when passing parked cars.
Drive around a mini round about not over them.
everything they said ^^^^^^^^^^^
plus.
indicators,
and relax, just remember to keep checking your dash, then you’ll get the speed, know if your indicators are on, know your gear, or if you are at lights, that you haven’t mistakenly found neutral like I did. oops.
still passsed though.
when not checking your dash, just keep your vision up. look really far ahead and you will see evrything much sooner and be nice and smooth.
you can do it, you have done rides that would have passed, (if you haven’t then your instructor is a dik) you just have to do another one.
I would also say that you ned to make sure the headset is comfortable and working properly before you set off. mine malfunctioned badly during the test and i couldn’t hear the instructions some of the time, which just made me even more nervous and twitchy. get comfy before you leave.
Remember not pull straight out in front of a car as you leave the test centre, what kind of knob would do that :Whistling:
Everything else has been said above. the only difference between this and all the other rides where you’ve had no problems is that you’re stressed about it, staying calm is a big part of it, everything else, you already know 
Once I made my daft mistake on my first test, everything else went smoothly because I relaxed.
awwww thanks you guys. i really appreciate you taking time out for your advice. cheers, will post thurs night as to the result
I wish I could but far too old 
Haha yeah I’m gonna say exactly the opposite, while you have to remember all of those things if you’re not doing it automatically by now you will have a hard time doing it - I find usually when you try to remember this 20 point list of things you must do you can get easily distracted and **** up easily. So my advice is be calm and ride with purpose, worked for me.
Hi - I actually did my test 4 months ago at Farnborough - have a few specific location based tips for you, so if you want a quick chat this afternoon, pm me your number. Main thing that really helped me was chewing gum - to stop my mouth going cotton wooly from the nerves and stress. Having a dry, tacky mouth can be very distracting. Remember to breathe deeply throughout. Never exceed the speed limit, but at the same time try to ensure you are no less than about 3mph below the limit for the road - remember to keep checking for road speed signs - if you don’t see any, assume it’s a 30! A lot of people fail at Farnborough going in and out of the test centre, so I can let you know the list of common faults to look out for! I’m sure your instructor will also tell you all of these as well if we don’t get to speak.
Good luck!!