Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Class 3

BTT, ATT, FTT, PDL, TPT … these acronyms may not make sense to some, while for others, these terms are familiar. If you find these familiar, congrats you might have earned for yourself that coveted Class 3 licence that others are dreaming or eyeing for or you are on your route to preparing to obtain one.

The issue of ERP and congestion of cars is perennial and for one to avoid the maddening crowds on the MRTS and bus, not to mention the long waiting time, private transport may be an attractive option, unless one is willing to shelve out monies to be chauffeured in taxis. To be able to own your own transport, to get to your destinations on your own in your own automobile, a driving licence is a must. Even if one is not to own a car or buy a car, driving is an useful skill especially for guys and such skills can be prerequisites for certain vocations. The process of driving is also peppered with invaluable life lessons and one learn values such as tolerance, patience, proactive, confidence and some human skills interacting with the trainers.

Now the real and ineluctable part to that journey to obtain the licence: it is a long process and the process is not cheap (for Singaporeans, in monetary terms of course). I would just share with readers the fundamentals of the journey.

First of all, one must purchase the book called the Basic Theory of Driving, book the basic theory test (BTT) with the traffic police for $8 and when the test date comes, sit for the test.

Like the advance theory test (ATT), such tests are computerised now, but for folks who are not as adept in English, they need not worry, the tests are conducted in the four Singaporean languages but these are timed tests, similar to those booklet tests when we had in the past. Checking of all answers before submission is still possible in these online tests and one get to know instantly their results (pass or fail) after the test. The questions they obtained wrongly would also be reviewed and the correct solutions provided.

But interestingly, to pass BTT or ATT, the passing mark is not by the conventional rule of thumb: 50% of the questions correct. No, instead, if one have more than 5 questions wrong, one will need to come down for retests again.

Sounds daunting, well, but think of the logic. Driving can kill if one’s fundamentals are not strong or basic enough thus I applaud the traffic police on setting such a stringent criteria for passing the BTT and ATT. If one is still cowed by this fact, one can rest assured that passing can be a cinch if one attend the many online practices at the driving centres and religiously practice the questions till perfection, as the proverb says, practice makes perfect.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

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