My Australian Driving Test Experience

I have been driving in India for over 20 years. When I first moved to Sydney as a temporary visitor, I was eligible to drive using my Indian licence until I became a permanent resident. At the time, there was very little incentive to take the NSW driving test; if I failed, I would have lost my eligibility to drive on my Indian licence, too.

Last March, due to regulation changes, I could no longer continue driving with my Indian licence. Soon after, we got our Australian Permanent Residence and I'd been meaning to get my licence done but we focused on our house hunt and purchase, that meant most of our weekends were spent on house inspections. After moving in to our new house, I couldn't put off getting the licence done anymore - while we were in the city, public transport was easy and frequent so even get by most of our daily routines, or grocery shopping without any hassles. Now that we're in the outer suburbs - it was a lot harder. Even though our suburbs are reasonably well connected, it was harder to move around. For example, even a 3 km journey would take a really long time because of bus timetables, or that the bus route was long.

There's no shortage of driving schools and instructors in Sydney. Every person I asked gave a different contact. One evening, when Jo & I were going on a walk, I noticed a driving school close to our house. I reached out to them since I figured it'd be easier to coordinate lessons. After a couple of emails exchanged with my instructor, she confirmed she'd be able to take me on.

The Driving Lessons

I started my driving lessons in early March, a few weeks before my test date. While I'd been driving for years back in India, I wanted to make sure I wasn't carrying over bad habits and that's what I told her as my objective.

My instructor started the first session by getting me to just drive while she observed quietly. After a few minutes she asked me to pull over. Two things jumped out at her immediately. The first was how I held the steering wheel. I'd been doing the hand-over-hand technique and that meant I was crossing my arms over quite a bit - this was an absolute no-no. My instructor got to be familiar with the push-pull technique. Muscle memory is a stubborn thing, so this needed deliberate unlearning and took a couple of "hands" checks from her before I stopped doing this. The second was blind spot checks. She stepped out of the car, stood at a spot where I could see her in the mirror, then slowly walked back until she disappeared from my view entirely. "That's why you turn your head," she said. It was a simple demonstration but it stuck with me in a way that just being told "check your blind spots" never would have.

Over the following weeks, she took me around in/around Blacktown where my test would be held to get familiar with the roads. There were couple of tricky places where I had to remember positioning. The highlight, if you can call it that, was what she cheerfully called "the roundabout of doom": a multilane roundabout with pedestrian-activated signals on both the entry and the exit.

It was exactly as chaotic as it sounds. By the penultimate session, my instructor said she was happy with the progress, but had one last note — my blinker-mirror-blind spot-turn sequence was technically right but mechanically rough. I was yanking the wheel a fraction too early and with too much force, which meant I'd have to correct mid-turn. She wanted it smoother. "Make it one fluid motion," she said. So that's what I worked on heading into the final session, and then the test itself.

Test Day and the "Examiner from Hell"

My instructor booked my test for midday on a Friday to take advantage of lighter traffic. On the day, we did one last warm-up session to calm my nerves. We headed into Service NSW, filled out the forms, and met my testing officer. I knew instantly I was in for a rough time.

My test officer was extremely rude. She saw me and greeted with "oh you people" and I was taken aback immediately. She kept making exasperated sounds and we hadn't even started our test. There was not a single ounce of friendliness within her. She was always upset that I was going too cautious. There were a couple of moments where I felt with her reactions and expressions that she was setting me up for failure by making me more anxious than ever and making me even more cautious.

An example is when we're reaching this round this intersection and slow down I looked to the left to see if there were any cars coming and her reaction was, "Oh are you going to do this every single time that you're driving?" I'm like, "Yeah." She's like, "No of course you're not."

When approaching roundabouts, I would slow down to look to the sides and there she was getting annoyed that I was slowing down.

Whenever I slowed down to approach a roundabout, she would huff with annoyance. The whole test took about 30 minutes, covering a three-point turn and a kerbside stop. As luck would have it, she directed me straight through the "Roundabout of Doom." I even encountered a red light there - something that had never happened during my lessons. I had to do a quick stop-start because a car came barreling down from the right, but otherwise, I held my nerve.

The Results

Back in the Service NSW center after the test, I told my instructor all that had happened she was also very surprised by how the test officer was behaving. She actually sat and argued with her, saying, "Would you rather be driving with someone who's a bit on the conscious side or would you want to be sitting with someone who would make you sit at the edge of your seat, holding onto dear life?"

And while all of that was happening - my instructor told me I had passed the test, much to the chagrin of the officer who was still making faces about me passing.

I got Gemini to take a look at the road test results and give a brief summary here.

Your examiner rated your performance across 25 different "zones" or tasks. You achieved a total score of 99 out of 106 , which is a very strong result (approximately 93%).

The letters in the grid represent specific driving skills:

S (Speed Management): You scored 22/25. You lost 3 points here, likely for minor fluctuations in speed or not adjusting quickly enough to a new limit.

P (Positioning): You scored 24/25. You lost only 1 point here, meaning your road positioning and buffing were almost perfect.

D (Decision Making): You scored 22/25. You lost 3 points here, which usually relates to choosing safe gaps at intersections or when merging.

H & R (Hazards and Response): You scored a perfect 6/6. This shows you were excellent at identifying potential dangers and reacting to them correctly.

C (Control): You scored 23/25. You lost 2 points here, which relates to the physical operation of the car (e.g., smooth braking or steering).

Specific Notes

The examiner made a few shorthand notes in the "Notes" column:

Zone 10 (D): There is a circle around "D" with a note "(M)". This likely refers to a minor decision-making error during a Manoeuvre (like a reverse parallel park or three-point turn).

Zone 13 (C): There is a circle around "C" with a note "(KB)". This usually stands for Kerb , suggesting a minor control issue while parking or pulling over to the kerb (perhaps a slight bump or being a bit too far away).

Final Thoughts

I'm happy to have passed the test but also pretty disappointed with the staff's overall behavior. I wonder how a 17‑year‑old would feel during their first interaction with the staff.

To add a final twist of bureaucracy, I realized after the test that I didn't have my passport with me, so they couldn't verify my residency status to lift condition Q on the spot. I had to go home, have lunch, and return later with my documents.

But now, it’s official: I have an unrestricted NSW licence. I’m just waiting for the plastic card to arrive in the mail, and then I’m looking forward to some proper Australian road trips!