The exam day

On the exam day, one motorcycle will be booked for you for basically the whole afternoon (my exam was in the afternoon, but I believe it should be similar if scheduled in the morning). You will be required to arrive about an hour in advance so you’ll have some more time for a final practice. Once the examiners arrive, here is how it will proceed.

At first, they will ask everyone to line up the same way as you were lining up when waiting for your turn to practice driving 8’s in the slope. The only different thing is they will arrange the order to their liking (I can’t remember if it was alphabetically or not). 2 or 3 examiners will observe you and make sure you do not commit any mistake while doing the “8’s in the slope” exercise. When you complete it (and hopefully pass) the examiners will ask you to go wait for the road trip. Those who fail the “8’s in the slope” will not be able to go.

Once everyone has gone through the “8’s in the slope” and the skimming has been done, the examiners will arrange the motorcycles by category. Usually 650cc are positioned directly behind the examiner who takes the lead, then come the 125cc and the 50cc in the end. While driving, you have to stay RIGHT BEHIND the lead examiner in a straight line. If you deviate either on the right or the left a bit too much to his liking, he will FAIL you. If you overtake him or another student, he will FAIL you. I know the left or right bit seems a bit stupid, why would I want to stay right behind him, what’s the problem in being in his wing a bit? I’ve asked the driving school guy but he just gave me the typical Macau answer: “Those are the rules made by IACM, I don’t make the rules, I just tell you how it is and don’t know the reason, I’m just teaching you how to get your license, once you pass you can do whatever you want on the road…” you get the idea… One last thing, if you can’t keep up and the lead examiner gets too much ahead of you, he will FAIL you too.

Anyway, once you start driving around there should not be any problem as you already know the route, just remember the following:

1. When stopped, always put your LEFT (and left only) foot on the ground.
2. Always keep your RIGHT foot on the brakes.
3. Always signal when turning or stopping along the road.
4. Never stop your motorcycle on a zebra crossing.
5. Watch out for pedestrians.

The first 3 points are quite obvious but let me develop a bit on 4 & 5. As I mentioned earlier, the examiners will arrange the motorcycles by category, which means there will be a fairly long line of motorcycles behind him, meaning you will have to anticipate when stopping. For example, if you’re 20 meters behind the lead examiner and he decides to stop 20 meters after a zebra crossing, that would make you stop right on top of it if you keep the same distance. You have to anticipate this and stop right before it, that’s all. Same thing goes for pedestrians, you have to stop even they’re not crossing the street yet… If they’re just waiting on the sidewalk or getting closer to crossing the street, you have stop and let them go first.

If you understand and execute all this well, you will be holding a brand new Macau driving license at the end of the day. If it was a bad day and you didn’t pass, well no worries, you still can re-take the exam some other time. Be aware that failure has a price though, as it will cost you an extra MOP2,280 to re-apply for the exam (price including 5 extra lessons).

The lesson itself

What exactly are you going to learn during those 25 lessons you have to attend? Well, the first thing you’ll ever do there are 8’s… What do I mean by 8’s? Well, check out the picture below and you’ll understand quickly.

Exactly, for the first few lessons (well… depending on how quick you’ll learn), you won’t be driving in circles but in 8’s. You can see the 8 shaped yellow track on the floor… This exercise basically teaches you how to maneuver your bike, how to tilt it the right way to turn left or right, how to position yourself properly and how to make the best use of the clutch. To perform this exercise, you normally won’t need to touch the throttle at all… The “teacher” will send you to the next exercise when you will demonstrate you can easily do those 8’s without coming out of the yellow track. As I had some experience driving, it took me about 3 lessons to train for the real thing that will be part of the final exam.




The “real thing” as I called it earlier, is basically the same exercise as the first one, except that you’ll have to make those 8’s in a slope… There’s no more 8 shaped track this time, only yellow boundaries all around the practice area and the “parking box” that’s located about half way up on the left side (it’s hard to see it in the picture). The sequence goes something like:
1. Position your bike at the lower left corner and wait for the signal to go
2. Go up the slope and stop in the “parking box” without touching the yellow edges
3. Do a “hill start” and make 3 8’s while going up and down the slope
4. At the end of the 3rd 8, drive back inside the “parking box” and stop
5. Do another “hill start”, then a U turn to drive your bike down the slope and out the practice area.
6. Stop your bike outside the parking area, on the lower right corner.

I know it sounds a little bit complicated; maybe the following sequence will help you understand.





Here are the dos and don’ts of this exercise:
1. Never cross the yellow boundaries
2. When stopped, always put your LEFT (and left only) foot on the ground
3. Always keep your RIGHT foot on the brakes
4. Never set your foot down when driving

Enjoy learning it and learn to enjoy it because you’ll be doing this for the next 20 or so lessons. “20 LESSONS!!?!?! I THOUGHT WE ONLY HAD 25??!?!”… Yes, I know, but that’s how it goes here in Macau, you don’t actually learn how to ride your bike on the road in the traffic. You’ll only get to go out of the practice range the last couple of sessions and for something like 10 minutes each time. It’s quite short but they’ll only show you ONE route only and that’ll be the one you will have to take during your exam… As it’s a pretty short one too, your road trips will be at minimal. Take a look at the following map to get some idea about the exam route.


View Macau Exam Route in a larger map

And that’s basically it… Of course, if you’ve never driven a motorcycle before, I believe you will also spend some time learning about the bike itself, like what the uses of different switches are or how to shift gears.

Things worth noting:
1. The pictures were taken in a pretty quiet day. It can get really crowded and you may have to wait for around 20 minutes before being able to practice on the slope, limiting you to 2 to 3 tries per lesson.
2. There is no water dispenser, drinks vending machine or convenience store nearby.
3. It can get pretty sunny, wear long sleeves if you easily get sunburns.
4. When you book your time for a lesson, you’re only booking the motorbike. It does not include someone to coach you for the whole lesson and it does not insure you will have space to practice.

A few months later…

You’ve finally reached the time to take your first lesson… If your case is similar to mine, you’ll probably have to phone the instructor first to book a specific time. His number should be provided by the driving school you’ve joined.

All schools have their practices taken at the same place. You will have to get to a “practice range” in the COTAI area, it’s the only one in Macau and it shouldn’t be really hard to find.

If you drive there (I know you don’t have your motorcycle license but you may be driving a car), the easiest way is to park in the Macau Dome’s parking lot. It is free of charge and within walking distance of the practice range.
If you do not own a car, I guess the bus is your best choice… Buses going to COTAI or Coloane should get you there, try looking at 15, 21, 21A, 25, 26, 26A bus routes. There are 2 bus companies in Macau, namely TransMac and TCM. Try checking their websites for info but it’s unfortunately all in Chinese. Here's a useful map I've prepared to help you find the location:


View Driving Practice Range in a larger map

When getting there, you’ll have to find a way to know where your instructor is… It can get tricky as all the schools are there and there’s no sign or anything to help out. The best way is to have a business card from your school and just show it to the first guy you’ll bump into… Of course, it’s even better if you can ask a girl ^^.

After meeting him, he will prepare some forms for you and ask you to go purchase some of those MOP10 stamps I mentioned in my previous post. You can buy a bunch of them at once, just do not forget to get them chopped every time you take a lesson as it will act as proof you took all 25 mandatory lessons.

At that point, the instructor should introduce your ride to you. Most schools (not to say ALL of them) use the very popular Suzuki S40 (Suzuki Savage 650 for older models). It’s a pretty reliable and pretty comfortable motorcycle which is probably the reason why it’s so popular among driving schools. It handles quite well too, although it’s a bit heavy and will not forgive the mistakes you may make while still in your first few days of practice… So if you tip it on the side too much, you’ll need some muscles to prevent it from hitting the ground or lifting it up once it’s lying on the asphalt.









A quick note regarding protective gear… The instructor will lend you a helmet every time you come to a lesson, you know, one of those 10 years old Calimero egg shells type helmets that was worn by 10,000 students before you.
So if you want to wear a proper helmet that fits your head, protects you in case of fall and smells funny only because YOU sweat in it and haven’t washed it for a while, do yourself a favor and bring your own.