Anyone ever been to driving school here? What can I expect to pay and how long does it take? Any reccommendations or are they all much of a muchness?
Brian
Hi Bri,
If you already know how to drive, but want some practice for the infamous âS curveâ and other tricks of the test, then you can take classes by the hour.
I have looked into it, and you can practice with a car in a driving buxiban for about $800 an hour.
Now I actually just need to go and do it. The main thing keeping me from taking the test is the fact that Iâd have to take off work to do it.
Oh yeah, the difficulty level of the written test will depend on where you take the test, Taipei - ok, Taichung - sucks. Try to get a copy of the test CD, the English really sucks though, itâs better to look at the Chinese if you can read it. The online test is only useful if you happen to be in Taipei.
Driving school - learn what the tester will expect and how the points are calculated. Practice the course, esp. the S bend reverse.
If you pay extra in Taichung City you can take the driving test in the driving school instead of at the main test center where you take the written test.
It helps a lot because your instructor will tell you things like âWhen this white mark (inside the car) lines up with the red splodge on the ground there, turn the wheel.â
It comes in really handy if you feel nervous during the test especially on the reverse S. Easy to mess up even if youâre an experienced driver.
Itâs cheating, but rest assured, the examiner is in on it as well.
I appreciate the thought guys, but I donât need to know about the test.
I need to go to driving school, because I donât know how to drive 
I realise that I might not learn much in the way of good driving schools, but Iâve heard they do teach you how to pass the test, and then if I get a car, I can learn my driving the Taiwanese way - on the road.
Went to one place today 9000 for manual 11500 for automatic plus 1200 for taking their car to do the test. This is for 30 hours. Anyone know if this is normal? Do you indeed need 30 hours, is this perhaps a regulation, and might other places give you 15 or 20 hour courses?
Any info much appreciated.
Brian
Bu,
My girlfriend (Taiwanese) just passed her test in Shalu about 2 weeks ago. I will ask her for more specifics for you, but here is what I understood from the process. She went for an hour every morning for 4 weeks. 20 Hours. And that was from total scratch. The cost of the lessons is graded according to the time of day you learn at. She went at 7 a.m. and that was the cheapest. Find out if the centre you want to learn at has the same scheme.
Apart from that it seems like you have the best advice so far. Learning at the centre you can expect to be spoon fed how to pass the test. My girlfriend said they told her things like âat this bend turn the wheel 2 full turnsâ etc. On the test she also started to drive through a red light, and the examiner applied the brakes and asked her if she was sure she wanted to drive through the red light. He then gave her the old knowing wink. Also, learning to drive in the centre will give you absolutely no help when it comes to driving on the roads.
The centre should do a written test and a driving test. But you have to take them on seperate days. If you fail the written test, then you have to wait a week and try again. Get plenty of practice in, but the questions will be dumb. An example was, âYou are a taxi driver and a known criminal gets into your cab. Should you, A: Take them to their destination, B: run off, C: Call the policeâ.
Good Luck.
I have a suggestion. Either before or shortly after passing your test, why not take some âlessonsâ with a foreigner friend who passed their test in the West and who spent some time getting driving experience there as well as here in Taiwan?
They will be able to give you good driving habits from the very beginning. By this I mean both the physical movements (hopefully they can teach you in a way that respects the machine) and more importantly road sense.
It seems that safe driving practices are not routinely taught here. Getting good habits from the start is far easier than trying to âtack them onâ later.
I recommend learning on a manual car. It will take a bit longer but is far more useful - itâs easy to go from a manual to an automatic but not at all easy the other way. In the UK, if you took your test in an automatic you are not permitted to drive a manual car - I donât know how it is here.
I believe youâre in Taipei, Brian, but for the benefit of others I should say that the Taichung test centre lends out copies of the English version of the driving rules. Presumably other centres will do the same. I agree that the online test is only relevant for Taipei - appropriately enough since itâs on the Taipei DMV website.
I donât have any friends. I mena I donât have any friends with cars 
Re manual vs automatic, i want to learn manual because apparently idid I understand them properly? - anyone know?) the licences is different - a âmanualâ licence lets you drive all cars, but an âautomaticâ licence only lets you drive automatics. My wife wants to learn automatic. Girl at the driving school says "mmm, itâs best for men to learn manual and women to learn automatic 
)
Brian
Bu, Yes you understood correctly. If you learn to drive a manual car you can then also drive automatics. If you pass the automatic test they wont let you drive manuals. Just remember the first time you use an automatic that you use one foot for both accelerator and brake. I found that out after I tried to stop at a junction and accelerated straight through the red light. Lucky i was in a backwater in Australia, rather than London.
Youâll probably end up driving an automatic here, but its still best to go the manual route.
Brian,
Find ANYONE who has driven overseas to teach you while you are taking the driving courseâŚThe driving school exists for one purpose onlyâŚTo make sure you pass the test! Driving skills are secondary. Iâve taken and passed the so-called âdrivers testâ and I can tell you it has about as much to do with real driving as skiing through a revolving door.
Iâm sure there are many here who would offer their services (anybody?) rather than seeing another shitty driver (sorry!) hit the road unprepared!
As for the auto-stick argument:
Are you in a hurry? Stick shift mastery takes some time to learn but ultimately offers the most controlâŚAn automatic will put you in the drivers seat faster, butâŚAh, screw it, go with a manual first!
PLEASE donât get on the road with Taiwan driving school instructionâŚCould you imagine driving in your home country, running red lights, driving on the shoulder, unable to back up or park, cutting people off left and right, then the ultimate insult when you get pulled overâŚJeez, where the hell did you learn how to driveâŚTaiwan?
My advice is either to find a driving mentor or take the busâŚ
Hey, I only need to pass the test and get a car, then I can teach myself to drive. Thatâs what I did with the scooter (except I left the licence till last)
Brian
Generally I wouldnât recommend self-teaching for anything. Itâs better if somebody with experience can show you stuff that you wouldnât have thought of otherwise, or that would have taken you a long time to realise.
But if thatâs the way it has to be then I would recommend that you at least get hold of a driving instruction manual. That should at least tell you the basics such as M-S-M (mirror-signal-maneuver).
I passed my test the year before parallel parking was in it. It never occured me you have to do it backwards when I first tried afterwards You do learn a lot by yourself after the test, but you do need to be steered in the right direction. And you donât want to learn anything from Taiwanese Drivers !
Driving is not something you want to learn from your mistakes 
I did it. I passed the test this morning!!! Started just after Christmas, and have had 14 lessons (1 hr lessons) so far.
Hereâs a little FAQ for driving schools and the test.
As mentioned before the driving schools specifically teach you how to pass the test, not how to drive. Nothing more, nothing less. For example, they donât teach such things as how to use the lights, indicators, mirrors, seatbelts, or anything about the car or safety, as these are not necessary to pass the test.
They do teach you how to pass the test very easily through various methods of lining up parts of the car with corners and other things on the test drive, before turning the wheel X times etc. The driving school courses are near identical replicas of the testing courses. I tested at Shulin (Taipei County) and they had even let the instructors mark various points on the course to help them. Also, if you go through a school you will be able to use their car, which has various markings on it to help you with this. Otherwise you have to use the test groundâs car. You canât take your own.
Even if you can already drive it is a good idea (almost essential, Iâd say) to practice a little at a school first. This is because parts of the course are actually quite tricky, not because you have to be an experienced driver to do them, but because they are not things you are likely to encounter in real conditions. EG, you have to park in reverse, in one go. You are not allowed to stop and correct by going forward again. Also, if you do the test by yourself, you might not know what you are supposed to do at various stages of the course, eg, where you have to stop and do a hill, when to change gear etc.
As I said before, my driving school was 9000 NT for manual, plus some extra fees for using the car on the test, them taking you to do the written test, the actual licence fees etc. Thatâs for 30 hours, but they rush you through and encourage you to test (as part of a group with other students) as early as possible (I just had 14 lessons) because most people just give up the rest of the lessons once theyâve passed the test (but i want to go and get more practice). The instructor wonât be in the car wit you the whole time. Heâll teach you one thing, watch you do it, then bugger off while you drive around practicing for the rest of the lesson. Thatâs not such a bad thing, as itâs good practicing by yourself, and most of the instructors will be smoking or chewing binlang while theyâre in the car anyway. The course includes one lesson on the real roads. The way they incorporated that came as a bit of a surprise. On the way to do the test today, the instructor pulled over and said âyou driveâ. Three of us took turns driving the car to the test centre in Shulin (in the rain with rush hour traffic).
In detail, the road test is as follows:
- Turn a corner, stop, then reverse into a parallel park and a normal park. You have to do it in reverse, in one go, and without crossing the sensor lines marking the parking space. Come out again.
- Drive forwards through a fairly narrow S-bend, then reverse out, without letting your wheels cross the lines on either side (our school had us in the backseat watching the person before us - the guy in front of me crossed the line at this point, enough to fail the test, and had to immediately get out of the car and walk back to the test centre).
- Turn a corner, then another corner, then stop at a railroad crossing until the light stops flashing.
- Change into second gear then stop at a traffic signal if necessary.
- Turn a corner then stop at a stop sign.
- Drive straight along a fairly narrow lane, changing up to third and down again, without crossing the lines on either side.
- Turn a corner, then drive up a hill and come to a complete stop (applying handbrake) between lines on either side, with your wheel in front of one line, but behind another.
- Make a hillstart without rolling back or stalling, then change into second as you go down the hill.
- Stop at another set of lights.
The written test has been covered in other posts so I wonât go into much detail. We tested written yesterday, then road today. The school gave me an English version of the rules, which is in the format of all questions that may be asked, with answers (yes/no or multi-choice). The questions range from the petty (stuff about fines and truck loads etc), to the blatantly obvious, to the ridiculously silly. You have to study it pretty well to make up for ambiguous wording and slight discrepancies between the wording in the book and in the actual test (or for discrepancies between one part of the book and another). At the Shulin test centre they used a computer with questions simultaneously onscreen and through headphones. As I said, the test is tricky - I scraped through with the minimum mark of 85% after one good read of the book. I reccomend 3 or more good reads, to make sure (and itâs a long, boring book - I nearly failed because I couldnât be bothered memorising unnecessary stuff about truck loads, and shit).
I htink thatâs about it. Just remember that once you get your licence, theyâll give it an expiry date equal to that of your ARC. If you want the full licence, check the Legal Forums for information about making an administrative appeal.
Brian
Congrads! Thanks for the details!
Although the driving test sounds almost entirely technical and not realistic, at least it seems objective, i.e. if you didnât cross the line you pass. Here in Germany they make you drive around on the road for an hour, and if you make one little mistake youâre out! If the guy/gal doesnât like you, youâre screwed. And itâs 150 Euro a pop just to take the practical test.
No, people here donât necessarily drive better.
Where are some good driving schools in Taipei?
Bu,
you said that the drivers licence expires with your ARC⌠when u update your ARC at the main police station⌠how do u update ur drivers licence?
âŚand for learning how to drive a manual car â what is their view on the famous âkangaroo jump startsâ? And did u manage to get this fixed by ur test?
You renew your license at the DMVâŚHas nothing to do with the FAP.
Kangaroo starts? Easy, just do what all the locals doâŚRev the engine to about 3,000RPM, and oh so slowly let out the clutch⌠
As long as you start, youâre OK. If you stall though, itâs big points off. Maybe enough to fail you.
Yep. I only got taught the âhill startâ just before the test, and I kept stalling. Wasnât revving it high enough aparrently. The instructor told me ârev it high as you like - it doesnât matter - you wonât want to do that on your own car thoughâ.
Michael, Iâm kind of impressed that you and others have said the test is easy and you passed it in one go. Maybe, being a total beginner driver (OK, I still canât drive ) I overestimate how difficult it is. Can most people, unused to driving in Taiwan, do a parallell park or revers âSâ in one go, without correcting? Also, I now hear that Shulin, where I did the test is the strictest of the lot.
Brian
I think a major part of the easiness was due to the fact that my normal ride is pretty bigâŚThe Toyota Tercel I used to take the test was a toy by comparison.
I may have cheated a bit by pointing my rear-views at the ground so I could see the sensors, but the instructor didnât seem to mind.
Also, in the straight section where you are supposed to accelerate to 3rd gear, I laid rubber for a good 20 feet and chirped 2nd gear. The death grip the instructor had on the door was well worth taking the test twice for. 
He make no comment however, but did remind me that I had to use the emergency brake on the hill after observing my combo brake/clutch/gas action.
Now, if Shulin is as strict as you say, either one of those maneuvers might have failed me. But, I had an agenda when I went in, and I was fully prepared to fail to make my point. I felt it was only fair to have someone test me whose skill level exceeded my own. When the driving tester brought the toy tercel over, I could hear the 2,000rpm clutch wind, after that, the whole thing was a joke.
Being able to drive a stick and having the ability to drive a stick well are two different thingsâŚYouâll know your skills are improving as your rpm level to let out the clutch smoothly drops. On level ground, 200rpm over idle is a good benchmark to shoot for, and even on a steep hill, no more than 500rpm over idle should be enough. Once you master the stick, youâll feel strangely disconnected when driving an automatic.
If this post sounds arrogant, than so be itâŚThe test is a joke, and Iâve paid my dues on the racetrack and 18 years of Taiwan driving. I didnât appreciate having someone whoâs skills are inferior to my own deciding my driving fate on this islandâŚI observe the stupidity of the system daily (as we all do), and canât believe that this Go-Kart track can enable you to legally operate a motor vehicle⌠:loco:
But kudos to you for passing the test not having driven before⌠