As more fail USAREUR driving tests,
some instructors blame manuals
By Rick Scavetta,
Stars and Stripes
Rick Scavetta / Stars and Stripes
Military family members applying for their U.S. Army Europe driver's license
recently in Darmstadt were met with a manual with several corrections. Changes to the
study guide have caused higher failure rates for test takers, critics of the new manual
say. |
Since U.S. Army Europe introduced a new driving manual earlier this year, more test
takers than usual have started to fail in Germany, instructors across the region said.
While USAREUR anticipated a slight increase in failures, as with any new test
materials, some instructors say people fail because of confusing mistakes in the updated
study books.
Between February and July, USAREUR issued new manuals and tests for driver’s
training stations that license military servicemembers and their families in Europe. The
updates were necessary to address numerous changes in international road signs and traffic
laws affecting drivers’ requirements and safety in Germany, USAREUR officials said.
Shortly after the books went out, driving instructors supervising the updated
curriculum noticed errors in the study manuals.
Ulf Langenbeck, 52, who has taught Americans to drive in Darmstadt for two decades,
notived that students started doing worse on their exams.
For ten years, Darmstadt’s failure rate floated near 21 percent, Langenbeck said.
Shortly after Darmstadt introduced the new manual in February, Langenbeck saw the failure
rate increase steadily. By July, the number of failing students had nearly doubled to 40
percent.
"It’s obvious something was different," Langenbeck said.
"What’s different is a book you cannot use."
Rick Scavetta / Stars and Stripes
Darmstadt's Bernd Gemba is one of several instructors frustrated with corrections
to U.S. Army Europe's new driving manual and test. |
The inaccuracies, which ranged from questions on speed limits to misleading sign
descriptions, posed a real danger to Americans behind the wheel, Langenbeck said.
"Not only will they do bad on the test, but they will also do wrong things on the
road," he said.
Darmstadt driving instructors weren’t the only people to notice more students
coming back to retake the test.
At Ramstein Air Base, instructor Gerda Wiegman also saw failures increase about 10
percent since her office started using the new manual in May. About 42 percent of test
takers failed in the first month, while 32 percent failed with the old test in May 2000,
Wiegman said.
"The test is different than it used to be; some of the questions are worded
differently, and some are difficult to understand," Wiegman said.
Both the Army and the Air Force use the same regulation for driving rules in Europe.
USAREUR officials said the first edition of the new manual contained printing errors
that were corrected in a supplemental packet of replacement pages. While the USAREUR
changes came shortly after the new manual appeared, Langenbeck said, students still had
difficulty substituting the changed pages for the wrong information.
In the past month, Langenbeck’s colleague, Bernd Gemba, cut and pasted the changes
into the manual, making it easier for students to follow. Using the hybrid manual,
students encountered fewer problems, Langenbeck said.
"We’ve gone down in our failing rates again, now that the class fits together
with the book," Langenbeck said.
The driving test under the previous manual always had a high failure rate, often above
30 percent, USAREUR officials said. With the new test, failure rates increased about 5
percent, which officials estimated would happen. But failure rates increased at several
testing stations across Germany, some much higher than the increase USAREUR reported.
Hohenfels testers, who fielded the new book in May, saw failures jump 10 percent,
instructor Erika Tillman said.
Tillman and her colleagues corrected wrong information in hundreds of manuals, she
said.
"It would have been a waste of money if they had to reprint those books because of
the changes," Tillman said.
Each driving manual the Army prints costs $2.83. The books, supplied with the changes,
are used several times. Updated Internet editions are the main source for students now,
USAREUR officials said.
Other instructors, who asked to not be identified, also said their community’s
failure rate increased significantly under the new manual, even when changes were
provided.
As driving instructors cope with the updates, they continue to stress the need for
students to take more time when preparing to take the exam.
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