I just passed my driving theory test!

I just passed my driving theory test! Here are some thoughts on the experience:

• the worst part was the grim vibes of all the anti cheating stuff they do. Demonstrating that your phone is fully powered off (before putting it in a locker). Not being able to take my own tissue in, but having to use their scratchy one. A colour coded system of chairs for different bits of waiting. Showing the insides of your ears so they can check them for hidden devices. Signing your name while they hold the signature on your driving license out of sight. Having to stare at the CCTV to demonstrate that they have told you it exists (?). And the whole thing is in a grim run down office building with a busted buzzer, run by an outsourced company... but for all that, the staff were pleasant enough and it ran pretty efficiently.
• the hardest part was sitting down in the chair in the quiet and immediately feeling very sleepy. I ended up having to do some quiet wiggling between the multiple choice bit and the hazard perception bit to wake up a little. This is supposed to be stressful! Where is my adrenaline???

Oh wait, I should explain the format for people who aren't familiar. First there's a multiple choice thing, like 50 questions about trailer load limits and, yes, you should give cyclists room when you pass them. And then there's a bit where you're shown 14 drivers-eye clips of footage and you have to click whenever something happens that constitutes a hazard. Which here means "that the car in the clip will be forced to take evasive action". I've been revising for both bits with an app which shows you the official revision questions. Spaced repetition for the first over a few weeks, and for the second I have crammed in an hour or two of practice at clicking at the right kind of frequency to catch the hazards early but also not get disqualified for clicking too much.

Anyway, I got one question wrong on the multiple choice (not to brag!) and 56 out of 75 for the hazard perception (44 is the pass mark). I think this mostly comes down to being someone who is good at understanding what the sensible answer to click on multiple choice questions is. And also from being someone who has been a road user (on a bicycle) for multiple decades.

And now I have passed it I can now book my practical test, which is where you drive the actual car. I think my plan now is that I will book that for the soonest available appointment, which will about six months away, and then I will see if I can find a driving instructor to teach me how to drive before the appointment actually happens. Maybe an intensive course in the week or so beforehand, just to really cram it in.

Anyway, back to the review:

• the most memorable part was the beautiful aesthetics of the CGI for the hazard perception bit. It's not the biggest budget CGI, but it's aiming for this real sense of verisimilitude for very everyday English streets and roads. Which is something I'm kind of obsessed with depictions of, because you see it so rarely. A particular quality to bay windows, grey skies, cracked paving slabs. These animations had such attention to this kind of detail... I remember some slightly wonky adverts in the window of a Coral betting shop, beautifully tufted grass on verges, people animated to have an argument in a car park, reflections in windows that I thought showed a glimpse of the car I was supposed to be driving... honestly all this beautiful work was quite distracting from focusing on, like, spotting hazards.
• the cutest part was when the hazard was two geese that were crossing the road. They did the little tail wag as they waddled across.
• the most satisfying part was when the video with two hazards... had both of those hazards being a group of sheep wandering into the road. Like, yes, you're driving through a field with sheep, likely enough they'll wander into the road twice in short succession. They only do one video with two hazards, so it's fun to confound expectations by making it one where you respond to the same hazard twice.
• the most cinematic part was when they really tried to establish at it was a windy day. Leaves swirling, a rag tied to a van fluttering... real storytelling. And then you turn onto a big bridge and there's a cyclist! They're getting pushed around by the gusts, they going all over the shop. They get in front of the van in front, which has to brake, and then that's your hazard. Storytelling!

Anyway, they release a bunch of practice videos for you to practice with - I think they're licensed to particular apps? I've only seen them on my phone screen, but maybe I'll try to seek them out to watch them Large. There's one explanatory one on YouTube I found, you can see a little of the aesthetic quality here:

The videos are done by Jellylearn - they write a little about their process:

The clip below was launched prior to the new CGI clips going live as a way of introducing the change from video to CGI/3D technology. Crucial to all the clips we developed for the DVSA was that everything in the clips should look as authentic and realistic as possible. In practice, this meant we had to manage everything from the speed of cars relative to stopping distances, when brakes lights come on, movement of the car when suddenly braking or turning, the scenery, to the street signs and road markings as it related specifically to a chosen google map reference. This attention to detail was to ensure that the candidates who took the test would not be distracted from anything in the clips thereby maintaining the integrity of the test and validity of the clips.

And there's also another video there, but I can't embed it.

Funny to talk about video clips with cute animals in them, when I am pretty sure sharing the clips themselves is some kind of crime? Or at least obtaining the clips in a form where they could be shared might be?