Passing the MA skills/road test

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to ask for any advice on how to pass the alley dock on my MA skills test? I just had my first test today and passed everything except the alley dock and the air brakes test.

On the alley dock I set it up so my ICC bar was about 1 foot in front of the second cone from the edge of the course and I was about 1-1.5 feet away from the cone. My trailer was straight and I turned the wheel a half turn to the right to get it to start moving over. I held the wheel there while I backed up the drive tires to the while line on the ground and then straightened out the wheel. I passed the first cone on a green block without any problems, but the second one was way wide. So I tried to cut it in more by turing the wheel rights, but then the front of the truck was too close to going out. So I decided rather than risk going over the line I would just restart, if you do it perfectly you really only need 1-2 pull ups to get it in perfectly (or I've seen it done with no pull ups). So then I did the same thing, but this time I came in way too close and I tried to adjust, but I couldn't waste another pull up trying to fix it. I then just grazed the last cone on the turn and that was it. I'm set up for another test (in 2 weeks), but any advice would help. During practice I didn't have any problems so maybe it was just that I messed up the first time I backed up and just paniced, but any tips/advice would help. I don't want to take the test too many times since I hate having to wait 2 weeks between tests and I don't really have unlimited funds to keep taking it over ($300 each time).

Also, on my air brake test everything was going fine, but when we got down to the trailer brakes/fifth wheel connection test he failed me for hovering my foot over the brake pedal. No one told me I couldn't do that and the CDL manual for Mass doesn't say you will fail for this. He said that he couldn't tell if I was pushing the brake so he failed me. I'm not sure if this is normal or maybe it was just this officer? I'm not sure if maybe he thought I could have compounded the brakes had I pushed it, but he didn't mention that, and it wouldn't have been compouding because the tractor spring brakes were off. Well anyways, just thoughts on this?

Thanks for the help in advance and hopefully I'll get my license next time.