Fin T.
Yelp
I went to the Barstow DMV for a behind-the-wheel test and a lady in a camouflage hat, light purple shirt, white long sleeves underneath the shirt, black square framed sunglasses, and jeans was my DMV examiner. This test was on 08/22/2024 at 8:20am. The test was running a little late, which I did not mind. What I did mind was how the DMV examiner treated me. After checking for car controls and condition, she went by the driver's window for me to sign, but was very unhappy when my hand with the pen almost touched the clipboard. I brushed this off and hovered my hand over the paper. When she realized how silly this looked she let me touch the paper lightly as I signed. She sat in the passenger seat, or more like laid with how she reclined the seat down into a 165 degree angle like it was a canopy. She wanted me to take off immediately so I had to stop and explain to her that I wanted to ask a few questions before we left, just so I could get a better understanding of the behind-the-wheel test, as well as her style of testing. Quickly becoming impatient, she told me that this was a test and that test takers should know better. Her tone was condescending, so I stopped with my 2-3 questions so as to not bother her further. Pulled out like she wanted and began the test. I'm okay with failing the test because I made a dangerous maneuver from my nerves. What really disgusted me was how she spoke to me in the parking lot. After parking, she explained what I had done in the same condescending tone, but I continued to be cordial and take her harsh criticisms with a smile. Then she proceeded to go "did you mom drive you here?" Which was odd but I replied "no, I drove here from the freeway." I could tell she wanted to dig at me and then scoffed going "well the freeway is straight anyways." So it didn't matter how I responded because either way she wanted to attack me. When students make mistakes, do not attack the student and attempt to humiliate them for your own enjoyment. Maybe she thought I would be an easy target for my cordial behavior, but then she went "just because your 18 doesn't mean you should get a driver's license." I'm not sure why she hated me so much but I tried to calm the situation by explaining to her that my parents wanted to me to get my driver's license before college started. Taking the opportunity, she shot back saying, "blame it on the parents!!" While laughing at me. I'm willing to take criticism and deal with unprofessional people, but making negative assumptions about my personal life and taking it as a chance to bully a student just because you are in power of failing the student is cruel. I'm writing this to prevent other students from facing the same awful DMV examiner and be encouraged to drive again even if they fail. I don't want a student to be stressed from an examiner that will take personal digs into the student without even knowing them. Even the security guard tried to use his position to embarrass customers when they took more than 1 millisecond to show their papers.