Reflections on Driving Lessons

I quite enjoy the driving lessons, minus the travelling to-and-fro the driving center and my house. Why ? You may ask ? Isn’t it stressful ? There is a certain amount of stress, but the joy of learning driving is that you are somehow protected against accidents, because u know that the instructor would be more kan cheong than you are. Well it could be a false sense of security, but then you would be less worried about crashing other people’s car, then in the process, damage your own car and need to argue with the other party whose fault it is.A car in Singapore cost a fortune. The cheapest Jap car could cost at least $45,000. Therefore naturally would be heartpain if anything happen to it.

Another thing that I would like to rant about is the long time that one could get a driving license.

I registered on 4 Feb 2007, took my first test on 11 Jun 2007, failed, then passed the second attempt on 31 Aug 2007.
The school mandated that you need to pass 22 lessons before you can book the test date. So let me show you the process that I went through:
Mar 2007 - completed 22 lessons and book 1st test date : End Aug 2007
Apr 2007 - Managed to book 11 Jun 2007 after logging in to the website to check for slots being given up
Jun 2007 - Took and failed first attempt, book re-test on 31 Aug 2007
4 Aug 07 - PDL Expired, make new one
31 Aug 07 - Passed

From here you can see:
1) There is a long queue for test dates. On the average, one needs to wait for 5 months from time of booking of test date to the actual test date. For re-test, waiting time is shorter about 1.5 to 2 months
2) PDL only last for 6 months

Because of the long waiting time, there is a gap between the end of all lessons to the actual test date. This may cause the student to forget what to do. Not only that, the mismatch between the validity period of the PDL and the long waiting time causes most students to apply for 2 or more PDLs before they pass. Isn’t this a sheer wastage of at least $25 ?

There must be something wrong with the system.