For those who've never been through the German driver's exam business....it's a colossal 'pain'. In 1978, I arrived with a US license and was given a 50-page pamphlet (all in English) and told to prep myself over the weekend, and take the US military-Europe driving class on Monday....with the test shortly before lunch. They (the military) had the deal that if you just passed the sign test, and the hundred-odd general rule test....then you didn't need to do an actual physical or road test.
The sign-test proved to be a fairly significant deal, with a time-limit. There's probably over 150 different signs....some of which you might only notice once in an entire year. I marginally passed this test. At least a quarter of the group failed it, and were to return in two days to attempt this again.
The general rule test was less complicated but you had to memorize the forty-odd intersection scenarios, where horse-pulled wagons, tractors, trucks, bicyclists, and cars were to meet, and who turned first and what direction. The round-about or traffic circle business? For an American in 1978, this was simply rocket-science, and difficult to grasp. The study booklet made the difference because it was written for a 12-year-old kid to read, with diagrams. I easily passed this test, and the German guy running the base drivers program typed up my drivers license, and it was done.
A week later, I had to driver off-base and came quickly to the reality that there were twenty things which they'd failed to mention or that I was prepared for. Urbanized driving in the Frankfurt area? That was the chief problem which I failed to grasp. Later in the 1990s, as I arrived in the Bitburg region, with rural surroundings and limited traffic....my anxiety level diminished.
Today, especially with the introduction of GPS 'toys', getting around Germany and following the driver's guidance, is not a big deal.
I sat and watched ARD news this morning (public TV, Channel One), and there was a brief piece over German driver's test exams. It's an interesting development. Failure rates on the exams have escalated.
On the written exam.....39-percent of the folks taking the test failed, on the first go-around. On the drive exam (the practical)....it's at 32-percent of failure.
Why? They go through and basically give three issues.
First, they admit in the video part of the test....it's now developed to a highly complex scenario 'game', and you have to make a lightning fast decision, which people are unprepared for.
Second, while you can now take the test in one of twelve languages....there are a fair number of people who don't speak any of the 12 languages to the proficiency required for the driver's test. With immigration going on and significant numbers of foreigners taking the exam....it's now an issue.
Finally, there is the suggestion that young people of today (compared to young people of the 1970s or 1980s)....simply aren't prepared for the stress of the test.
Resolutions to improve the scoring? They are reviewing things, but other than changing the complexity of the scenario 'game', or adding five or six languages to the testing.....there's a limited number of things they can do.
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