Enrolment and theory

This is the first part of my journey in getting a Class 3A license in Singapore.

Enrolment

I enrolled in BBDC as a school student in Aug 2020. At some point in 2020, enrolment can now be done online at a fee of $3++, and that was what I did.

After that, open your account and book your theory lessons. They are compulsory lessons and during my time they were all physical lessons. However as of right now, online lessons seem to be available too. Please check the website for more details before enrolling.

When you head down for your lessons, go to the counter to complete the full registration. The queue could be too long so no hurries to get it done the first time you go to the centre but as soon as possible will be good. You will also take your photo for the driving license card so consider dressing appropriately.

Theory

In BBDC, there are multiple components that are tagged under Theory. Not just Basic Theory Test (BTT) and Final Theory Test (FTT), but also other simulation driving lessons. Here’s a list of my Theory Training History.

Basic theory and Final theory

You can book the four lessons in any order, but I will suggest in sequence as the information do some what build on each other. My friend recommended back to back lessons if possible too to save on travelling time.

For physical lessons, enter the school and go to the lobby in the building. I believe due to covid, students must now wait in the lobby till about 5 mins before the lesson starts. The instructor/staff on duty will be standing by the screen and let everyone know when they can head up to the respective rooms.

BT1.01 was pretty boring as most of it was administrative and about what you can expect in the course and things to take note of. I guess it will be good for anyone who did not do any homework prior to enrolling… Erm, certainly not you as you are reading this haha. The useful main pointers in this lesson were on bus lane timings, center lines, signs and speed limits.

BT1.02 was simple and about driving safely.

After the lessons, you can start booking BT practice (BTP) and BT evaluation (BTE). I will recommend 1 BTP and you can definitely finish all the booklets available for practice during that session, just go fast and do not hesitate to see the answer.

In BBDC, evaluation is a must, and only when you pass the evaluation can you move on to book for the actual TP test. I did my BTE on 20 Sep and booked BTT for 19 Oct, which was a pretty long wait. Not sure what would happen if you failed the BTT but there is a cut off duration before the BTE expires and you will have to do that again… :/ After passing BTT you can apply for your ePDL and start attending practical lessons!

Concurrently, you can work towards passing FTT. Please don’t be like me and think that you can do it while taking practical lessons as the waiting time is very long. Just complete FTT asap.

FT1.01 was on car operations, blind spots and areas, reaction time, gears and maintenance of the car. This lesson was definitely more interesting and packed with information compared to the previous lessons.

FT1.02 was about the environment and different road users.

After the lessons, you can go for FT practices (FTP) and FT Evaluation (FTE) which is similar to BT, except that there are way more FTP booklets to do. I did two FTP before going for FTE. However, I failed the FTE... From what I remembered, there were many numbers-related questions and questions relating to manual car driving that I didn’t recall well…

Welps, I then booked FTE again for 7 Jan (4 days after my first failed FTE attempt) and passed. My tip? Go to tptest.sg and do the mock tests. Also, the waiting period to sit for FTT was very long too and I ended up finally passing it on 9 Feb (Surprise, no numbers-related questions this time :/). Every practical lesson prior to passing, the instructors were asking ‘have you passed your FTT?’, so please be warned and factor in the waiting time for taking these tests.

TL;DR BTE 20 Sep > BTT 19 Oct, FTE 7 Jan > FTT 9 Feb

Driving simulator

This is specific to BBDC only and is a quick lesson on a honda simulator that reminds you on concepts like reaction time and centrifugal force. Pretty cool to see graphs on how fast your reaction time is for the various simulations.

You can book this lesson after completing practical stage 1.

Risk forecast training

This is PPL 5.01 and trains your reaction time on identifying potential hazards. Just a session of going through simulations and pressing the clicker when you identify the hazards.

You can book this lesson after completing practical stage 3.

Traffic police driving simulator

From end 2019 onwards, all students that newly enrol have to go for three TPDS sessions. They were somewhat interesting especially when you get to try out the different car functions in various scenarios like using the wiper in the rain and the headlights in the dark. However, to be honest, I found them quite boring after a while. Sometimes, just crashing into certain things will finish the simulation story, while other times it can definitely be nauseating as the seat vibrates a lot.

At BBDC, you can book these sessions after completing 5 practical lessons. However, you only book for one module at a time and only continue with the subsequent module after the completion of the current module. This was one of the components that took me forever to complete and I was well into my practical revision lessons while waiting to finish the last module. Hence, tip is for you to book a module asap and to camp on the site for earlier sessions that others cancelled.


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