I went about a month ago to this school. I was never enrolled in classes there as I'm new to the area, but I just turned 19 so I was able to take the written test without taking any classes. The written test itself was $25 dollars, which we were fine with. We payed in advance and I sat down to take the test, the start of which was delayed from the original time of my appointment because tests are taken in groups, something we were not made aware of when scheduling. I finished my test and took it up to the instructor, and old gentleman who was grading them on paper.
He grabbed an answer sheet and started marking off questions. When he got all the way to 29 questions wrong, I knew something was wrong. I had studied for weeks for this test. Every day, hours at a time, passing nearly every single practice test I did, and even on the ones I didn't pass, only getting one or two extra wrong. When he told me I had gotten 29 questions incorrect, I couldn't believe it. Instead, I decided to tell him that there was no way I failed, plain and simple. He told me that I was welcome to wait (he gave me an hour wait-time but it was about half that) and come back in when everyone else finished their test so he could go over my wrong answers. Long story short, I waited only for us both to discover that he had grabbed the wrong answer sheet and that I had in fact passed my written exam. He changed my grade in the system and we got my permit from the DOL the next day.
I don't know why after that, we decided to make my behind the wheel test appointment with them, but we did. I took that test today and had the misfortune of the same man who failed my written test being my tester for this one. There's currently construction happening next to the driving school, which plays an important part in this test.
He had me pull out of the parking lot onto Sprague and get down to the light for Conklin, at which point he had me turn left. Conklin Road has a left turn light that flashes yellow, at which point you are to yield to oncoming traffic and then turn when safe to do so. Left turn lights like that like to switch between green, yellow, red, and flashing yellow in a second. They do it very quickly and I'm fully aware of that which is why I always give them my full attention.
Me and my aunt, who I told the full story, assume that my instructor saw the red left turn light as we were approaching and then turned to me to see how I would react, which caused him to miss the light turning to flashing yellow. I, however, saw the light turn to a flashing yellow, slowed down, and turned left when it was clear of oncoming traffic. I had the light in my peripheral and it was flashing yellow the entire time I was making the turn.
Regardless of this, the instructor told me that I turned on a red and failed me then and there. Did he have me turn onto the street and then make a U-turn and return to the driving school to end the test? No. He had me continue into the neighborhood.
I turned onto a narrow street, the kinds that they have in small residential neighborhood's that don't get much through traffic, and drove in pretty much the middle of the road to avoid hitting the cars that were parked on the side of the road. My instructor told me that I was driving on the wrong side of the road, despite the road not being big enough nor empty enough of parked cars for me to drive all the way in the right "lane" (there's really not a lane separation, you just drive as far to the right as you can)
He had me drive through and around a block before returning to the light for Sprague. Rather than having me turn on Sprague to get to the driving school, he had me drive up Conklin. When we got to E 4th Ave, he told me to make a right onto that street. A street which, mind you, was blocked to through traffic due to the construction and I was through traffic.
I felt unsafe and the move felt wrong so I asked him multiple times if he was sure he wanted me to turn onto that street and he said yes. I turned onto the street and he had me drive down to the roadblocks before turning to the parking lot at the end of the street. I drove through the parking lot and out onto Sullivan before finally turning back into the parking lot for the driving school.
He told me I failed, got out, and told me to reschedule for $35. My aunt got back in the car and asked me to take her on the route that he had me go. When I got to E 4th Ave again and turned right, she asked if I was serious. I confirmed that this was what he had me do and she said that if a cop saw me drive through 4th and then through the parking lot back onto Sullivan, he would've pulled me over for it. So not only did he fail me from the beginning for running a light that wasn't even red the whole time I was going through it, he had me take a path back to the school that required me to go through a construction zone for literally no reason when we could've just turned on Sprague to come back.
Horrible school ! read more
