singapore has reputably got one of the toughest driving test standard in the world, along with uk and some others. let us not really compare to those countries which appear in our minds as 'disorganized' and 'corrupted', with vietnam and india being one of them. maybe i'm going to put myself and my thoughts in a pontificating manner, but bear with me and my occasional pedantic sense.

i will touch on acquiring a driving license in singapore.let's say you're going through a driving school. first you have to spend about 80 bucks for registration. then you've gotta spend another 80 bucks for lessons on theory, after which 12 bucks on the theory test. then you need to sign up for a provisional driving license which costs 25 bucks. soon you'll get to the driving lesson, with about 60 bucks for each lesson and you've gotta have about 25 lessons, which equates to 1500 bucks. don't forget that you'll have to go through a few redundant automatic lesson which is also 60 bucks and you've got to 12 bucks on a driving simulator. and a driving test at the end of the day cost 160 bucks. doing the maths, it's adds up to a simple $1869. and that's considering you pass it on your first time. now if you were to take up driving as a private candidate, it could probably be half of that amount? depending also on how many lessons you want to take. so you can probably see how much the driving school is actually taking from you.

alright, then let's take a look at how we are tested. some of the british standard has rubbed off onto us, no surprises there, driving with a left-hand traffic regulation. looking through the practical training handbook, you kinda see a lot of pedantic and at times redundant mistakes that can cause you to lose marks and eventually fail which are unreasonable and laughable. and what we're tested on sometimes really doesn't make sense sometimes.

what's the point in having a crank course? which part in singapore will you be required to perform two sharp bends at one go with barely enough safe room to drive through. and parking for another thing. you evidently get marks cut off for being too slow, for the apparent reason that you wouldn't want to create a traffic hold up. and you get penalized if you turn the steering wheel while the car is stationary cause they apparently wouldn't want you to spoil their car components. you evidently get demerit points for not turning into position to turn near a bend with a stop line infront. it's demerit points for you if you actually brake if the light turns amber when it's on those amber lights and the car jerks slightly. cause i mean, who would want your car to jerk abit, it's so bad for a ride that you just wanna hit yourself with a hammer, ainnit? and incorrect braking technique as well, like if you brake in third or fourth gear, because you're supposed to switch down gears to apply engine braking. i mean, a brake lining is so important and dear to you that you really don't wanna kill it, even though you know you should send your car for servicing.

and lane changing. the whole thing is kinda messed up. you're supposed to change to the extreme right lane and then make a right turn and then change to the extreme left lane before the next traffic light. and after that next traffic light you're supposed to change to the extreme right lane to make a right turn then go back to the extreme left lane again. wait, isn't that abit unsafe? if a car infront of you were to keep changing lanes, won't that annoy you. and it'll probably be unsafe meaning that person actually requires to change lane from one end of the road the other end of the road in about 400m. and okay, isn't it more cleverer or more logically right to actually stay on the right if the next turn is on the right? shouldn't test focus on a driver's foresight as well. like shouldn't we actually be asked to be a driver. someone who plans ahead so that he won't have to hassle himself and put others at a misery of giving way to a car that changes lane after every traffic light.

first we learn to pass the test, then we learn to drive. look at all the instructors nowadays. they'll tell you to change lanes for example because they say "you need to always keep left in the test. the tester won't say it. you need to change. even if you going to turn. just change. then no problem". then they'll say "tester want to see how good you want to do in this" or something like "tester want to see how you do that". everything seems to be pleasing someone else? not how we are supposed to be as drivers? well, after all, we do drive around with traffic police behind each of our cars every day. any small mistake, we'll get a demerit point or two. even if we didn't switch down from third gear to second gear, even though we did stop right before the stop line safely. i just don't get it.

maybe something should be done to revise the whole driving standard. try using logical foresight, safe and smooth driving. and could we please work on something else? the humanity factor?

like okay, after you have done the test. they'll call you to a part of the room, ask you to have a sit and your tester will give you the report of you test. and then he'll tell you that you suck and just leaves. maybe it should be a time when they just go through and review the whole test, and humanely, try to understand what went wrong and stuff. of course for dire things, they should really not bother over to discuss but, trivial things. why are we making something so pressurizing? so that when we're on the road finally with a legalized license, we can be finally let loose? and they should also realise we are paying customers. paying customers who deserve the right to know what went wrong and whether the traffic police tester should reconsider. just a thought my friends.

we need to make the test as real as possible. that way, we actually be more human. instead of being a robot. aren't we really being treated like robots? shouldn't we be more human. i dunno how many times should i say this. but seriously, read again everything i wrote above. aren't we going on the wrong path? shouldn't there be a revision. if not to benefit me, to benefit the rest. i mean, looking on the roads now, people are changing lanes from lane 1 to 3 without any signal, beating red lights and speeding in the KPE and other expressways and even in neighborhood areas. i agree we have one of the best traffic systems in the world, but are we producing the best drivers? i dunno about that. but i know we ain't got the best driving test standard in the world.