I didn't have nearly enough sleep last night, so today was a rather indistinct blur. I arrived in Evergreen, AL at 7:15 AM (central time), but they were waiting on me, since I wasn't the only one running behind. Turns out the other student they were waiting on isn't going to show up until tomorrow morning. I rather wish I could have gotten that deal, but it's too late to worry about that now. We first sat down for over an hour and discussed exactly what we're responsible for on the CDL test, how we'll be tested, and all those details. The instructor down here in Alabama also made everything make a lot more sense; despite being mentally exhausted, I feel like I have a slightly better idea of what to do. As the guy put it, backing the truck isn't a matter of getting it perfectly right the first time; it's a matter of knowing how to correctly and efficiently fix mistakes.
In any case, it turns out that the backing maneuvers we spent all week drilling up in Charlotte are now no longer on the Florida test.
Instead of having to do three out of six moves, there's a fixed obstacle course, consisting of a straight-line section (forward and back), a roughly forty-five degree back, a ninety degree right turn, and a blind-side parallel park ending in a jackknife. Of those, the forty-five, the turn, and the jackknife parallel are completely new; we didn't practice those moves before. The points system is also slightly more forgiving; unless I fail outright by not ending up in the target area, there's almost no chance of failing the test. Basically, you get 14 points. For all three backing maneuvers, there's a one-point penalty for hitting a cone (or line), a one-point penalty for pulling up, and a one-point penalty for not stopping in the two-foot target area within the box. For the right turn, there's a cone that denotes a curb; hitting the cone is a seven point penalty, but for every three feet you miss it by, it's one point (with a maximum penalty of five point for missing the cone by 15 feet or more). So, realistically, even if I take three points on every maneuver by tapping one cone, missing the target, and pulling forward once, I'll pass with two points to spare. But there's really no reason I should get more than one point for the straight line, since the only hard part is stopping in that two-foot target, thus giving me a total score of 10 or less.
While everyone else got a chance at it, I was far, far too tired to drive. When everyone else took a lunch break, the instructor told me to check into the room, take a nap, and come back down to the yard between 4 and 5. I took a shower, watched a few minutes of tennis, and happily took a three-hour nap. After the nap and after reading through the procedures again, it's all starting to make sense, but I'll still need to go through it a few times before I'm confident. Since I missed the whole day, practically speaking, I'll be out there practicing at 6AM tomorrow.
As for the rest of the test - the pre-trip and road portion - we'll be working on that tomorrow. I'll have to do an inspection tomorrow morning before I practice anything, then (hypothetically), I'll work on the road portion of the test tomorrow afternoon. For the pre-trip, there are 104 items on the test, and you must correctly name 83 of them to pass. Here, though, they're going to work with us until we can get at least 95. I'm pretty confident that I'll get 95 without too much trouble, and I always love driving out on the road, so the obstacle course is the only part of the test I'm still worried about failing. Since my test isn't until 1:45PM Tuesday, I still have tomorrow and Monday to get it ironed out, as well as one practice run on Tuesday during the lunch break. If I don't let myself become exhausted or dehydrated again, I should earn my license the first time.
No matter how I look at the testing, it all seems so complex even having read the CDL manual a number of times. But it looks like things are going well for you. In any case, best of luck on the exam. *hugs*
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