ICBC Road Test Results Sheet – Unpacking The 5 Global Skills

ICBC Road Test Results Sheet

The ICBC road test results sheet can look totally confusing at first glance, but in this article, we’ll go through it and hopefully make some sense of it all. I think this particular sheet may be a bit outdated now, but you can still get a general idea.

No More Demerit System

Gone are the days of demerits. This might seem like understanding the new ICBC road test results sheet is confusing. It’s not too bad, though.

These days when you go for a road test in BC, you receive this very complicated-looking piece of paper with many small boxes. I’m a bit rusty on some of the exact details but I’ll see if I can make some sense of it.

ICBC Road Test Results Sheet – Global Skills

You’re being tested on ‘global skills.’ You can find these global skills along the left-hand side of the sheet.

These are skills you should be ‘competent’ at when you are driving and they are

• Observation
• Space Margins
• Speed
• Steering
• Communication

Within each of these global skills, there is a list of items. Think of this as basically a list of things that you could do wrong. In other words, the examiner will only write down something on this paper if you do something wrong, miss something, or make an error.

So, if your paper has no marks at all, I think it’s safe to say that you passed your test.

If you look at the very first one, A1, it reads ‘Shoulder check.’ If you get an A1 on your paper, it means you forgot or did not do a shoulder check at a time when you were supposed to.

ICBC Road Test Results Sheet – Driving Maneuvers

In the middle or main section of the ICBC road test results sheet, we find your actual driving maneuvers. This is where the examiner will keep track of your errors.

Driving maneuvers are separated into:

• Left turns (Intersection Left)
• Right turns (Intersection Right)
• Going straight through at intersections (Intersection Through)
• General Driving
• Vehicle Handling

General driving and vehicle handling include such things as your parking and your steering abilities. In each category, you can see how it has 1, and then ABCDE. The ‘1’ means the first time you turned right.

The ‘2’ means, the second time you turned right, and so forth.

The ABCDE relates to the global skills along the left margin.

For example, A means ‘Observation Skills’.  B means ‘Space Margins’ and so forth.

Results For Each Section

Along the right-hand side of the ICBC road test results sheet is your result. The driving examiner will mark you on each section (Left turns, Right Turns, Intersection Through, General Driving, and Vehicle Handling).

If you fail one section, you fail the entire test.

There is a tiny box that says ‘Qualified: YES or NO.’ The examiner will circle how many errors you’re allowed on your paper, at the beginning of the test.

There are different routes, and some routes may have more right turns than others. Therefore, the driver may be allowed more mistakes on right turns when compared with other routes.

Either way, they will circle 3X, 4X, and 5X.

This is the number of errors you’re allowed to make in each category and in each of the global skills. So you can make some mistakes, but it is better to make a bunch of different mistakes, rather than the same mistake over and over again.

The first thing I would do if I failed this road test would be to look at where it says “Qualified: YES or NO.”

Find where it says NO, and then see which section that is in. Did you fail all 5 sections, or did you just fail on your right turns?

Then, read the main section to see what the examiner wrote. A common mistake is not enough shoulder checks on right turns. If you look on your sheet and see under the ‘Intersection Right’ category, you have a bunch of A1s. Count them.

If it’s more than the error-cut off that the examiner circled, then that’s why you failed. I have seen road test results with 5-7 A1s in the right-turning section.

That tells me the driver does not shoulder-check before turning right. It looks something like this if you fail for not enough shoulder checks on right turns:

A2 is a scan: This means the driver didn’t look left and right before proceeding.

A3 Mirror Check – the driver did not look in the mirror

A4: 360 Check – The driver did not look and do a 360-circle check before reversing

B4 is another very common one. This says ‘GAP‘ What the heck does that mean? The examiner commonly marks this when turning.

It means you were doing a (usually) left-hand turn, and there was a big gap in the oncoming traffic where the examiner thought you should have turned, but you didn’t turn and sat there and waited for a bigger gap in traffic.

This could also happen on a right turn. Drivers who are over-cautious sometimes stop before they turn right, even at places they do not have a stop sign.

‘Gap’ basically means there was extra time going by when there shouldn’t have been; you didn’t ‘Seize the Opportunity’ that you could have.

Again, if you do this once or twice, it’s fine. If you do this on every single left turn, you will not pass. It indicates a serious lack of skill and/or confidence, both of which are important for people to have before they drive alone.

I think the others are fairly self-explanatory. B5: Blocks Crosswalk. If you block a crosswalk by accident, just stay there.

Reversing on a crosswalk is illegal. The examiner will simply write B5 on your paper once. Having one B5 on your test result is not a big deal. If you do more than 3X (or whatever the error cut-off is) then you’ll fail that section and the test.

Hope that helps.

Pro tip: Depending on your vehicle, you may benefit from some mini blind spot mirrors that you can grab from Amazon (affiliate link) or somewhere else. You’ll still have to shoulder check on the road test, but it can help greatly to reduce anxiety and any surprises around your vehicle. Also check out: Blind spot-reducing rearview mirror. 

Conclusion

All these little boxes can seem totally confusing. However, it’s not too bad once you get the hang of it. Hopefully, you will just have passed your road test and can throw this paper in the shredder, or frame it on your wall, whatever you like. If not, be sure to check out my epic article: ICBC Road Test Tips For Classes 5 & 7 [Instructor Gets Deep].

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