Automatic Failure: 7 Common Mistakes to Avoid on Your NWT Driving Test

You've held your learner's license for a year, practiced diligently, and feel ready to take your Class 5 road test in the Northwest Territories. While your goal is to showcase your driving skills, it's even more crucial to avoid the major errors that will result in an immediate, automatic failure. A driving examiner's primary job is to ensure road safety. If you make a mistake they consider dangerous, the test will end unsuccessfully, no matter how well you parallel parked.

To help you drive with confidence and focus on what matters, here are seven of the most common mistakes that can instantly fail you on an NWT driving test, and more importantly, how you can avoid them.

1. Disobeying a Stop Sign or Red Light

This is the most fundamental and serious error a driver can make. It demonstrates a lack of understanding or respect for basic traffic laws.

The Mistake: Failing to come to a complete stop. This includes the "rolling stop" where your wheels never fully cease to move. It also means stopping past the solid white stop line or into the crosswalk, or proceeding through a red light.
How to Avoid It: When you approach a stop sign, your intention must be to stop completely. Bring the vehicle to a smooth, full stop before the line. A good self-check is to feel the car's momentum settle completely before proceeding. Treat yellow lights as a signal to stop safely, not a signal to speed up.

2. Critical Lack of Observation (Especially Shoulder Checks)

Safe driving is all about being aware of what's happening around you at all times. The examiner needs to see you actively looking and processing your environment.

The Mistake: The most common critical error in this category is failing to perform a shoulder check to look into your blind spot before changing lanes, merging, or pulling out from a parked position. Failing to scan left and right at intersections before entering is another major fault.
How to Avoid It: Make your checks obvious. Don't just move your eyes; physically turn your head to check your mirrors and then your blind spot. Create a habit: Signal, Rearview Mirror, Side Mirror, Shoulder Check. Do it every single time you make a lateral move.

3. Failure to Yield the Right-of-Way

This demonstrates an inability to safely share the road with others, which is a core driving competency.

The Mistake: This includes pulling out from a stop sign or driveway in front of another vehicle, forcing them to brake or swerve. It especially includes not yielding to pedestrians who are in or about to enter a crosswalk. At an uncontrolled intersection, failing to yield to the vehicle on your right is also a major error.
How to Avoid It: Patience is key. It is always better to wait for a larger, undeniable gap in traffic than to risk cutting someone off. When approaching crosswalks, actively scan for pedestrians and be prepared to stop. Make eye contact if possible.

4. Unsafe Speed (Too Fast or Too Slow)

Maintaining a proper and legal speed shows that you are in control of your vehicle and aware of your surroundings.

The Mistake: Exceeding the speed limit at any time is a serious error. Doing so in a designated school zone or playground zone is a guaranteed fail. On the other hand, driving excessively slow (e.g., driving 20-30 km/h in a 50 km/h zone for no reason) is also considered unsafe as it can impede traffic flow and cause others to make unsafe maneuvers around you.
How to Avoid It: Regularly glance at your speedometer. Be vigilant in looking for speed limit signs, especially when you turn onto a new road. Aim to drive at the speed limit when conditions are safe and ideal, and adjust your speed for poor weather or road conditions.

5. Poor Vehicle Control

The examiner needs to see that you are in full command of the car at all times.

The Mistake: This includes jerky acceleration or braking, sloppy steering, drifting out of your lane, or making turns that are too wide or too short, causing you to enter the wrong lane.
How to Avoid It: Practice smooth inputs. Look well ahead to where you want the car to go, not just at the road directly in front of you; this naturally helps you steer more smoothly. Be gentle with both the gas and the brake pedals.

6. Striking the Curb During a Maneuver

This error demonstrates poor spatial awareness and a lack of control, especially during the required parking maneuvers.

The Mistake: Hitting the curb with enough force to cause a jolt, or worse, mounting the curb with one or more of your wheels during your parallel park or three-point turn. A very light touch might be a minor error, but a solid bump is a major one.
How to Avoid It: Practice makes perfect. Use an empty parking lot or a quiet street to practice these maneuvers until you are intimately familiar with your vehicle's reference points and turning radius. During the test, perform these actions slowly and deliberately, using your mirrors to guide you.

7. Examiner Intervention

This is the ultimate automatic failure. If the examiner has to do anything to prevent a dangerous situation from occurring, the test is over immediately.

The Mistake: The examiner has to grab the steering wheel to prevent you from hitting something, or gives a loud, urgent verbal command like "STOP!" to prevent a collision.
How to Avoid It: This is usually the result of one of the other errors on this list, like a critical lack of observation. By being observant, patient, and in control of your vehicle, you will prevent any situation from escalating to the point where an examiner needs to intervene.

By keeping these critical errors in mind and practicing to avoid them, you can approach your NWT road test with the confidence of a safe and competent driver. Good luck!