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Wednesday, May 04, 2011

So I didn't pass...

Oh well.

I missed 9 out of 25 when you are only allowed to miss 5.  But I think I know which ones I got wrong.  A few I didn't understand at all.  No, really, the vocabulary was something I'd never heard before.  I had no idea what the man was saying.  So obviously I wasn't likely to get those.  But I'm slightly frustrated because some of the questions were unduly complicated, unlike the practice tests where the situations depicted were much more straight forward.  I've got to get back the mindset of the Danish equivalent of the US Department of Motor Vehicles where you don't think like a driver, but like an anally-retentive OCD-suffering five year old.

"I would have put on underwear under my pants, but you didn't tell me to put them on TODAY.  Then you didn't tell me not to pee BEFORE I put on my pants.  Therefore, it is not my fault that I peed in the car on the way to school and then mooned the principle.  Really, mother, it is ALL YOUR FAULT."

It's nice to know that driver's tests are universally more complicated then they need to be and do not mean that the people who pass are good drivers, just good at thinking like that nutty 5-year old.

There was an interesting mix of people taking the exam.  Most of us were fairly young.  ("Most of us?" Jesus woman, you are 32, not old, but a good deal older than the five 18 year olds that were there.)  There was an older guy there.  And by "older" I mean in his 50s.  I don't know if he'd lost his license or had just decided you were never to old to learn to drive, but it was nice to not be the oldest person there.  I also didn't do the worst.  That was left to a woman who missed 20.  Twenty!

There were several of us who spoke Danish as a second language, but I think I was the only one who had only recently learned Danish.

I'll find out tonight what I need to do now - how much will it cost to take the test again and when I can take it again and what I should do to study more.  I can pay to take all the tests on the website, but not a single picture or question there appeared in my test, which seemed to date from the 70's.  They were slides for crying out loud!  I really wish I could have seen the one's I missed and gotten the correct answers.  It would have made it far more easy to study.  As it is, I have to guess.

And until I pass, I'm forbidden from driving AT ALL in Denmark.  They took my American license away.

The joke's on them, though.  It expires relatively soon, so I'll be getting another one.  Bwahahahah!

9 comments:

  1. There are, I think, 5 different tests in rotation and they change them up so that it's a different one each time. That being said, according to my driving instructor, one is significantly more difficult than the other 4. There is a code on the sheet they give you but for the life of me I can't remember how the various tests are coded, but I want to say that the one that is more difficult is labeled with X or X3 or something like that.

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  2. I think your results were impressive considering the phrasing they use in these tests.

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  3. All the best drivers pass second time around...! I think you did pretty well by the sounds of things anyway... Good luck for next time!

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  4. If it makes you feel any better (not that you feel bad or have reason to feel bad) it took me three tries to pass my written test...and English is my first (and only) language. I can't even read in another language.

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  5. @ Patti - it was the NX and my driving instructor also told me it was the worst test to get!

    Thanks May and Emma!

    @ Laura - remember, it took me three times too!

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  6. I agree about the vocab... being an American is a DISadvantage on this test.. way too many British terms that just do not make sense!!

    Crossing my fingers for next time!

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  7. Anonymous12:17 AM

    I feel so,bad because I didn't pass the route test today.I took the test first time ,I made a mistake ,when the examiner toll me back up. somebody help me please.

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  8. I'm sorry you didn't pass. That sucks!

    I'm an American expat, I've been here for about 1.5 years. I have a negative attitude about having to hire an "approved" translator, and I don't dare to attempt the test in Danish, and so I've been putting off converting my license.

    But if I have any hope of making it through this winter without offing myself, I need a car and a license. I hate the bus almost as much as I hate riding my bike in the rain (and sometimes on ice) to the bus. A Fiat 500 lease costs about as much as the bus to/from work anyway.

    So, begins my next dreadful Danish test of endurance.

    Have you retested?

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  9. Finally got it all done, Sage!
    See:
    http://archaeogoddess.blogspot.com/2011/08/done-and-dusted.html

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Keep it clean, don't be mean....