Need Help, can't pass the CDL test

So, you think you already know the laws of driving. Then why haven't you passed the test, yet?
Do these look familiar to you?
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrguide.aspx?section_type=A
They are the laws of driving a commercial truck.

 

It takes a long time to learn the basics of truck driving, and I do not men holding the wheel and listening to the radio. Just about every driver on the road today is still learning. I don't think anyone should say all they need to know is how to drive the truck.

 

You already know the laws of driving yet you had no idea that the best way to study for a written driving test is to read the book. Nor did you know where to get said book or how much it cost. Not for nothing but those are some pretty basic pieces of information that anyone who has ever been to a DMV office would know. So I'd say you've got some pretty big holes in your knowledge base that you really should consider filling before you ever get anywhere near a large truck. And your believe that anyone can drive a truck is dead wrong. Most people have the aptitude to learn to operate a truck safely. But there are some who will never be able to operate a truck safely no matter how badly they want to do it or how hard they try.

 

Well you may not be retaining the information well enough to pass the test until you read and study the book more and some people can pass things orally vs written, and perhaps can learn things more hands on and seeing it face to face.

But driving is very dangerous; you have a lot of traffic in some areas, cars which do not care if they cut you off, old towns with narrow streets to drive down and turn corners in, towns and areas with low bridges to not go on, shifting of the gears in the truck, map reading and trip planning, HOS logs which maybe paper or the E-logs, pre and post trip inspections daily, inspection report nightly for some companies, finding the address of shipper/receiver with have baked addresses sometimes. There is a lot more to it than just jumping in a truck and pointing the nose forward and going, You are in charge of a weapon if not handled in the right way.

 

Dear Ramon,

Maybe this will help as I have recently passed the CDL Permit test for the following endorsements: General knowledge, combination vehicle, air brakes, hazmat, doubles/triples and tanker. I purposely did not take the passenger endorsement because I do not wish to transport people as I deal with the general public now and some of them are psychotic, like my current boss! In order to get a masters' degree in education one typically has to be taught how to create exams. In doing so one learns how most tests are stuctured. There are strategies.

For example, in a multiple choice format, which the state loves to use, you usually have four answers to choose from. One answer will be obvously incorrect. Two answers will be similar. The fourth answer will be obviously wrong but not as obvious as the first obviously wrong answer noticed. This leaves the two similar answers. The correct answer is typically one of these two. Statisitcally, the correct answers are mostly either A or B. For example, once I was taking a difficult, timed ACE personal trainer exam where the test is designed with tough math problems so that only about one third of those who take the test will pass. Out of 275 questions with a time allotment of only three hours--that's less than one minute allowed per question--I found I had fifteen minutes to go and still had to answer about 25 questions. Thus, I just selected A then B, A then B all the way down the row of blank pencil circle spaces on the answer sheet and passed the darn test! The exam was expensive too. Hope this helps.

Another tip: Pay particular attention to anything numbered and lists as that information is often used to form test questions. I found the Hazmat test was a killer as well as the Air Brake test. For me the other tests were fairly easy.

A final tip: Skip the ones you do not know, then go back and answer them when you finish. The strategy here is while answering the questions you do know, you may get the answers for the ones you do not know. This technique worked well for me when I took all the CDL permit tests as there were always at least one or two questions that were not clearly covered in the section of the CDL manual that it was supposed to be in. In fact, I found one question that was worded poorly with awful grammar, so one has to read each question thoroughly at least once. I had an advantage there being published since 1999--not that I don't make mistakes. I do like anyone else.

Go get 'em! Study hard. I did for weeks before I went near the DMV.

Shadow

 

Either this fellow is jerking our chain, or has no business getting a CDL, and being allowed to drive a commercial vehicle. This is why we say not everyone is cut out to be truck driver.

 

I've taught several trucking experts in my time... they've never stepped one wet foot in a truck.. but they will look you in the eye and tell you how it "really is" in an job that they've never done!

 

If you cannot study all of them at once then take one at a time. Again for hazmat if you really want it go try it, but try and understand and learn alot as you can about it.