OOOHRAH!
Well as you can see from my heading, I was able to pass my WA State CDL test today. As a matter of fact, Dave, Kurt and I all passed the test. The other 2 WA students did not pass in Spokane. One of them failed on Skills and Road, and the other just failed on Skills. Our single ID student failed on the Pre-trip, so he didn't even go on to road or skills. Both of the MT students passed, and the OR students also passed.
Below is a link to the GPS Tracker for the test route.
test | Author Ford390pwr | free Mobile GPS Tracking Service
So on the Pre-trip, I missed 4 points, Dave missed 1 point and Kurt missed 6 points. On the skills test, I missed 1 point (for a pull up), Dave missed 6 points and Kurt missed 4. Finally for the driving test, I missed 23 points, Dave missed 20 points, and Kurt squeaked by with 24 points.
I took a few turns wider than necessary, buut I didn't hit any curbs or any unavoidable lines. I did grind a couple of gears, mostly due to nerves! One stop sign I didn't stop at the sign, but I got at the line. I was the first of Swift's students to ever catch the "street sign", but then I was out of gear longer than I should have been when I went into the highway on ramp. I recovered quick enough, once I flipped the selector lever. By the way, the sign was an overhead yellow sign that said "Freeway Ends 1/4 mile". Bob said to take a guess of you have no clue, so Dave guessed merge ahead.
I missed 12 points for miriors alone! She also gave me a point for being out of my lane while merging onto the freeway. I was a little bit over the fog line.
Anyways, in the end the only thing that matters is that we have our CDL! Dave and I are staying the night in Lewiston and will head home for 10 days before orientation begins on July 28th in Sumner WA.
Looking back on my time at Swift Training Academy, I am very impressed with the instruction that I have recieved. I must say that I was very lucky to have Bob as my instructor. I could have done fine with another teacher, but I believe that I have a little bit more knowledge than some of the other students thanks to Bob.
I will continue to blog on this forum through my Orientation and mentorship, so stay tuned!