In school. will be getting on the freeway :/

Skipping gears is fine. Our instructors just wanted to ensure we could walk it down. Your ear, feel, and understanding will grow each time you get behind the wheel. Some good instructors will take the time to explain what you were doing during breaks and how to refine your technique

 

Remember the 5's helped me when I did a refresher.

 

If all else fails, never forget that you can stop in any gear and then shift to neutral and turn into 4th gear once you're stopped and take off in 4th gear

 

It takes about one second for your rpms to drop when you shift....so you will always take that long. You cannot speed shift a truck, unless you have the jake brake on, but you won't be ready for that for a while, as a beginner that would really throw your timing off.

As a new driver you want to get down to 5th gear to make a turn. Down shifting on the high side is easier than the low side. As you know the problem is you only have two feet and you have three pedals to work....

After I got my license, I would downshift to 9th and 8th, which put me at 35 mph. Then I would brake down to 15 mph, and shift into 6th gear. 6th gear was always my go to gear, as 15 mph is slow enough to allow you to see what is going on, and how your turn is going to proceed. Plus you can speed up to 20 mph in 6th if you need to, without shifting.
Then brake one more time to under 10 mph and find 5th gear just before the turn and then turn.

It takes practice to see how far out from your turn you need to be to get down to 5th gear.

Exit ramps are different than turns. Some exit ramps are short, and some are long. Depends on where you live.

In the northeast, you can bet on ramps being short. In the Midwest you can see how long the ramps are. On Ramps in the northeast may require you to stop before you get on the interstate...and it will be a short ramp too.

I had a short off ramp on a regular run I did in TN. You would downshift to 9th and then brake to a stop, as you had no room to downshift. I would drop to a lower gear in the low range when I rolled up to the stop sign at the end of the ramp.....and I would have to brake hard to make the stop.

To me, the most important thing was to get off the interstate before I dropped my speed below 55 mph, if the speed limit was 65 mph or higher.

Every ramp will be different, so if you can practice the route, you will learn how to handle, or if you only drive it once you can learn what to do to handle it better.

Once I got my license, I figured out that skipping gears in the high range is easier to do than the low range. Hit 9th gear coming off the freeway, clutch in, brake to 15 mph and shift into 6th, especially on tight curves with an off ramp. You may violate the 3 second rule or 100 foot rule, but you are not tipping over the trailer on a curve.

But for now you have to follow the instructors rules so you can pass the driving test at dot.

 

If you want to downshift 2 years, clutch to neutral, brake to 700 rpm, downshift two gears(provided you're matching rpm and speed)

 

Downshift two YEARS!?

Heheheheee