French Drivers License

Well, after 4 years of driving in France, it is time to get a real French drivers license. Unfortunately, that means devoting a lot of time and money to the cause. Getting a drivers license in France is not easy. First off, the success rate for the test is below 70% and we are talking about French people taking the test. Second, the test comes in one language, FRENCH; meaning foreigners are at a disadvantage with the language barrier. The test is 40 questions in which you can only miss 5 and to make matters worse they place trick questions on the test. You really have to pay attention to every little detail in the picture to answer the question. On top of that each question may have 2 parts and there maybe more than one correct answer but never all correct answers. So tell me this doesn’t sound stressful. Well, if not I haven’t even begun to discuss the cost which is a bit cheaper for me since I already have an American drivers license. The minimum cost is around 600 Euros and each time you fail a test you have to pay an additional 80 Euros and wait a month before you can take it again! Well, with a success rate of less than 70% imagine how many people are paying additional costs. I have talked to many French people who paid over 1000 Euros for their drivers license.

A little note: Valerie renewed her California drivers license in May. She failed 2 times on the same day and passed the 3^rd time all at a cost of $20???? Why can’t it be that easy here?

So, when I first started taking practice tests I was missing 20 on each test. As of a few weeks back I was hovering right around 5 mistakes. Some days I would miss 2 other days I would miss 8 or 9. I decided it was time to take the real test so I signed up to take the test last Monday. Anyway, last Wednesday I took a practice test at the school and missed 11. CRAP, this got me really stressed out. The thought of failing and having to pay another 80 Euros was killing me. So every night I came home and took practice tests on a software program I downloaded. It got better until Saturday when I took 5 practice tests in a row and failed all of them. Once again, more stress. Really has to do with my state of mind. So Sunday, I spent another couple of hours taking tests with better results.

Come Monday morning, I was really stressed out. I had to meet at the school at 9am and a bus transported us to the testing center. No one said a word on the way over. The driver tried to assure us that it would be ok but nobody was buying it. At the center we waited almost an hour. Of course, this only compounded my stress. Once we were checked in and seated they handed us a remote control to answer each question that flashed up on the movie screen. The test took about 20 minutes. Overall, I felt it there were some difficult questions but most I had seen before on one practice test or another. Finally, the moment of reckoning came. They called my name I went up to the front of the room "in front of everyone" and they handed me a piece of paper. I took the paper and walked out the backdoor. The Driver immediately asked, well? I said I don’t know I haven’t looked. He took the paper and looked and said, YOU PASSED!!They only tell you how many you missed if you fail so I have no idea how close I was.

Out of the 9 students who went 6 of us passed. HAPPINESS, I never have to take the stupid test again, unless they take my license away…

At this point, I have spent 450 Euros with no additional costs needed but I still have to take the actual driving test. I took a course recently with an instructor and they said I have a lot of bad habits that need to be fixed before taking the test. Hopefully, I can fix them soon so I don’t have to continue shelling out 60 Euros per driving course.