What should I focus on to teach myself how to drive?

No i don’t, you will have to re-learn everything all over again in school. Starting from scratch. Only problem is you can’t even start from scratch. They have un-teach you everything you taught yourself, then they can begin to teach you the proper way. In my opinion you’re better off to wait.

 

As someone else already said, floating gears is not allowed on your CDL exam. There’s no sense in wasting time learning how to do it now, because all of your schooling and testing will be double-clutching.

Backing for the CDL exam is nothing like backing in the real world. On your exam there is a specific way to complete each maneuver. You need to learn how to perform the required maneuvers properly or you will fail. Just practicing backing up in general won’t do you any good, and will actually probably hurt more than it will help.

Wait and learn how to drive properly in school, or at least have a qualified driver give you some pointers. Right now it sounds like it’s the blind leading the blind.

Your time right now would be much better spent studying the pre-trip inspection and the air brake test.

 

The shifting requirements are different from varying states. In my state I was not required to double clutch at all when taking my road exam... The examiner was just satisfied if I could upshift, downshift, and keep from missing gears or stalling the truck. Floating was perfectly acceptable. Check into the required methods before troubling yourself with having to learn to double clutch for the exam.

 

Your experience is outside the usual requirements of examiners. The feds set the rules for testing, both in the dot manual and the skills testing. And the dot manual specifies double clutching. It would be very unusual for another examiner to do what yours did.

Just because your examiner didnt follow the standards, doesn't mean the other examiners in your state won’t follow the dot manual.

When I took my cdl test, a 2nd examiner road along to check on how my examiner was doing. I dont know if the 2nd examiner was a state or federal employee.

Most examiners do not have CDLs, and some may not pay attention to how the driver shifts.....but most examiners are pretty detail oriented and picky about the driving test.

 

Your going to teach your self something you do not know, Well you sound as qualified as most of the trainers. This should be good when you back over the bosses car or thru the building.

 

That's surprising... I wasn't aware of this regulation. I attended a nationwide private CDL school and other than watching an old instructional video about double clutching, we were encouraged to shift in the way we were most comfortable with. The instructors said you can double clutch if you choose, or float. As long as you can shift effectively. Again, the examiner didn't care how, so I floated gears during my road test. I passed with no issues. I'm not arguing the point, just saying how unusual my experience was that made me think this. Sorry for the confusion...

 

There has always been that requirement, it is part of the testing procedures that the FMCSA came up with when they created these stupidly easy tests.

 

Ok, in my state, there are several parts to the test. The book parts came first, with the written exam - general knowledge, air brakes, and combination vehicles.
Next came the endorsements tests. Hazmat, doubles and triples, and tankers.
Then the hard exam - the finals. This came at the end of 4 weeks of school.
First was the pre-trip inspection. If you're not a gear-head in any way, then this can be more difficult. Knowing what each part is, where it is, and what you need to say about it can be a challenge. At first it seems like you'll never be able to memorize all the parts. There is a section in the book on this, and if you attend a school, they'll have a worksheet of some sort to help. Write it down from the book, and go study the truck to learn where each part is and what you need to say about it. Do this as many times as it takes to be able to do it forwards and backwards in your sleep. The most important, can not fail portion is the air brakes tests. These are 6 specific test that must be completed "verbatim". You really want to know how to do this, and remember it, because your life and the lives of others will depend on you doing it. Not to mention, your cdl, when you don't get tickets because you forgot to check your lights, etc.
The next part of the test, if you pass that, is the backing skills. In my state, there are 3 specific maneuvers to perform. This is the straight back, about a truck length and a half; the offset back, to the "parking spot" next to the one you pulled out of; and the parallel park. You will get a lot of practice time on these, and while you can never have enough practice backing, you'll learn these 3 just fine for the test. Other backs are the 45 degree back, and the 90 degree back... And if you get really fancy, there's a 90 degree "blind side" back.
The last part of the test was the driving test. The last chapter in my cdl handbook went over this in detail. The hard part was shifting, because, even though I can drive a stick and love to, cars have synchronous gears and trucks do not. Timing is everything with trucks. RPMS have a "sweet spot". Once you learn shifting, then there's turning, and how to give yourself enough off-tracking to not hit curbs, cars, signs, and walls. Otherwise, it's just safe driver stuff.
You'll learn a lot from the book on the rules about the details, so read it, a lot. Like someone suggested, there are practice tests on this site, but you'll also want to look into specific tests for your state.

So, read the book, and learn how to shift and take corners. And Good Luck!!

 

PS, I had the hardest time with shifting. If you get that done and learned, you'll be better able to focus on traffic, and mirrors and stuff so you lose fewer points during the exam.