The 5 Manoeuvres

The manoeuvres can be intimidating and frustrating for most learners as well as for the supervising driver, even some well experienced drivers will avoid using some of them, walking some distance to avoid doing a reverse park for example. Well here I'm hoping to give you a comprehensive and easy to use guide to help you learn how to do the manoeuvres step by step.

There are 5 manoeuvres you'll need to know for your driving test in Queensland, you will only be tested on three of them but you don't know which three until you are asked to do them in the actual test. If you go to your driving test only knowing four of them this will only add to the tension and you will spend your focus and energy hoping they will not ask you to do the one you don't know.

Here I have broken the manoeuvres into two groups driving and reverse.

Driving Manoeuvres:

Hill Start
U-Turn (done one of four different ways)

When doing any forward manoeuvres you must remember to continually keep a watch all around for other traffic and remember to obey 'Give Way' and 'STOP' signs. When doing the U-Turn you are also expected to give way to all other traffic, your rights of way are revoked.

Reverse Manoeuvres:

Turn Around (or 3-Point Turn)
Reverse Parallel Park
Reversing Exercise

When doing the reverse manoeuvres you are allowed to remove your seat-belt (I would not recommend this however because if you forget to put it back on straight away you will fail!) Before you start reversing ALWAYS make sure you turn your self around and have a look out of the back window!

You are also only required to have one hand on the wheel, again I recommend against this because a loss of control of steering will fail the test. Not only that but palming the wheel and other one handed bad habits will get you marked down. Instead I recommend that you place your right hand directly at the top of the steering wheel (12 O'Clock) and your left hand at about 8 O'clock. This has two benefits, first you are better able to turn around to look out of the rear window (an essential part of reversing) and two you can use the top hand to help you remember where straight is. To steer remember to move the top hand in the direction you want to go. (If you want to go closer to the edge, move your top hand closer to the edge.)

This page will help you to master the hill start

Coming Soon ...

Gear Change

As the Hill Start is somewhat redundant in an Automatic they may get you to perform a gear change instead. You can actually select gears in an Auto, even if it is just Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low. Some cars will actually allow you to select 3, 2 & 1 instead of Low. Would you believe there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.

U-Turns

There are four ways to do this manoeuvre, I will really only cover three of them as the forth is done in a crossroads and is done in the same manner as the right-hand U-Turn.

U Turn T

The Turn Around Manoeuvre

or 3 Point Turn

Some important tips for this manoeuvre, when you are reversing make sure you are looking out of the back window over your left shoulder, and make sure you do not hit the curbs, either of these could result in failing your test.

Turn Around

Reversing Exercise or Straight Reverse

A simple reversing exercise to show you can control the car moving backwards. I am often asked "When would you actually use this manoevure?" Reversing out of a drive way or a garage, when you passed the house you are looking for, or coming out of a parking space at the shops.

Revers00

Reverse Parallel Park

Please note that I teach this manoeuvre different to other instructors, the main reason is that I don't do it that way naturally and find that if your starting position is off or your angle/timing is out then it doesn't work. Because of this many of my students found this a very hard and intimidating manoeuvre.

I took a couple of my more confident students and experimented with teaching them the method I actually use, they found it much easier. So I took some students who were less confident and again they preferred this method. Finally I taught some students who hadn't done it yet and they were totally surprised at how easy the 'Parallel Park' manoeuvre was.

So this is now the method that I teach, the 'straight back' step 4 is what makes it work, this step is able to compensate for any of the errors that will make the usual method fail. If you don't like it, don't use it, if you prefer the other method go for it! I'm not trying to say just use it, but I do recommend trying it :)

ReverseParking00