Test Examination
Initial Situation
Are you on the brink of an MPU and would you like to know, if you are well prepared? Have you successfully completed a traffic psychological counseling, but are you still in doubt about being able to correctly express or substantiate what you have learned in the decisive examination? Are you a little bit nervous and would you like to gain more certainty, before you go into such an important conversation? Then the test examination is the right thing for you. Take yourself a bit of time to read on: then you will better know what I can offer you and if you need this option.
The Test Examination after an MPU Counseling with Me
Preparation
Usually, clients want to have a test examination after having completed a traffic psychological counseling with me. After the informative consultation, you typically have chosen an individual counseling, e.g. an MPU course, after which you have taken home the flipchart paper with all the questions and answers. You have maybe made your own handwritten excerpt or you have typed the relevant content into a pc. You have finally invested time to learn the subject matter.
In the mean time, you have collected the required evidence, i.e. your family doctor has provided you with the liver count, or you have completed an abstinence check. You have contacted the driver's license office and have filed in all necessary documents. After consulting me, you have chosen a testing institute, and you have arranged the right time for the examination. You are ready to go into the decisive conversation.
If you are one of these clients, you do not have to be afraid. We have worked with great concentration to be successful. We have honestly and critically talked about your past, we have soundly analyzed your former mistakes and their causes. We have stabilized the achieved changes. We have worked out a prevention plan, i.e. we have considered what you can do not to fall back again into a similar situation. Of course – and this is legitimate and will have to be accepted by any expert – we have looked at the MPU and its questions and answers from every angle. We have thus, looking at your situation and your life, found relevant individual answers. I have introduced to you the typical questions you have to expect, and you know how to react to them. In one word, you know what you are in for in the MPU and what you have to say there.
Difficult Questions of the Expert and Misunderstandings
Finally, I have presented difficult questions to you as well and we have been able to answer these. It is certainly correct that the vast majority of experts pose fair and understandable questions, appropriate to the individual case: legitimate question which are needed to make the right decision. It is however indisputable as well that there are delicate questions that bring clients who are not trained, into great difficulties. And finally experience shows that especially without counseling, certain questions regularly cause misunderstandings between expert and client resp. that a "wrong answer" to these questions seriously jeopardizes the positive result. Experienced experts avoid such questions, but I have again and again witnessed that not every expert equally succeeds to exclude misunderstandings. Trained clients know how an expert thinks, how he intends a questions and can react accordingly. Clients who cannot rely on an MPU counseling, are at a loss and do not find the right answer in the excitement of the conversation. In the end, it may well happen that clients who principally know how to answer, do this with difficulty and respond in an unfortunate way. They want to say the right thing, but they don't find the right formulation.
In all these cases, the test examination is effective. It hands the word to the client, encourages him to come out of his shell to talk about his life and offer important insights. It gives him confidence for the real case and optimally prepares him, since it does not avoid the tricky questions. The client has the chance to playfully try out different wordings without the risk to say something wrong. He can sense himself which of his answer he likes most and we can mutually discover which effect they have on the expert.
Since the test examination recapitulates in compression all the contents of the course, the client will realize that he is thoroughly prepared, i.e. equal to the task. And he will not be afraid even of new questions of the expert, since the wealth of our training themes, the carefulness of our analysis and the mutually discovered solutions make it easy for the client to develop plausible answers himself. He does not have to invent anything, he is authentic and thus can make plausible that he honestly is interested to become a good and responsible motorist.
Optimal Timing of the Text Examination
Ideally, the test examination should take place few days before the real MPU. Clients then usually still can remember the tips which I can give, and optimally profit from the conversation. I gladly accept one or two days of reserve. Thus, in case the presentation gives rise to serious shortcomings, a revising session is still possible to talk about these deficits and eliminate them. If you have been attentive and diligent, this will not be the case, but of course it cannot totally be excluded.
Progression of the Test Examination
The test examination unfolds like a real examination with the fine difference that it can be interrupted at any time to give feedback. Image the whole sequence as follows: You come to my office, we shortly talk things over and then I ask you to take a seat in the waiting room. I will quickly escort you into the consulting room and then we will start the conversation, the same way, a real MPU is proceeding. I take the role of the expert, put the expected questions to you and take notes. Although most experts directly enter questions and answers into the pc, I still belong to the traditional group that writes by hand. Thus I have a more direct contact to you and can better observe you.
If you have studied hard, our MPU test will go without a hitch, and it will not be necessary to interrupt. Sometimes, if may happen that the conversation goes into a wrong direction or that you answer can be misunderstood. You might also not be happy with an answer or you might have a question. Here, we can suspend the test examination at any time, talk and go on. After about three quarters of an hour, maybe an hour, since we have given ourselves time to pose the questions and receive the answers, the test examination itself will end. You will be "escorted" out of the room, like in a real MPU, and then we will personally sit together and use the remaining half hour to discuss your answers. Since I have taken note of everything, I can check the critical points with you and give you a final feedback, telling you where you have worked very well and which aspects of our teaching you should reexamine at home. In rare cases, if it turns out that you did not have enough time to learn or that you have not grasped certain contents, we should arrange one or maximally two further sessions to catch up on the missing. I have already suggested that above. I may add that clients who have had difficulties learning, or who felt unsecure, have taken such a session, to get a kind of summary of important questions and answers.
How you can Personally Profit from the Test Examination
After the test examination and a possible extra session, you are well prepared and can confidently approach the MPU. You shall however know that I do not demand the test examination at all: every client is free to make us of it or not. It is not part of my MPU counseling and will have to be separately remunerated. Many clients who have been very attentive and diligent, go without test examination into the MPU and receive a positive expertise.
There is a reason why I recommend the test examination, or even urge some clients to invest into it. It will give you certainty and me assurance that you are well prepared. For in the test examination, you will experience how to cope with nerves, with the questions and answers, and you will find out that your learning has paid off, i.e. that you can rely on yourself. You should not underestimate this experience. Take the analogy of the theatre. Before every first night you have the dress rehearsal, and this system has proven successful. For after a dress rehearsal that brings together the mutual work, all participants have the possibility to fine tune the own presentation for the first night to be a success.
In an certain way, the MPU can be compared to a theatre play. In both events it is vital to credibly present information to the expert or public. The difference is that you don't "act", e.g. don't take a role, but play yourself, are yourself thus honestly articulating the truth about yourself. You sincerity is call congruency in the specialist's language, meaning that your answer agree with your gestures and mimics. And this congruency, this correspondence between verbal and nonverbal presentation, between your words and your body language is a crucial sign of credibility for the expert. But don't freak out about this. When you have finished the course, when you have honestly optimized your life, when you openly relate what you have learned, this congruency will automatically prevail in the test examination and later in the real MPU. You will convince without having to force it.
Summary
Let us make clear: my counseling shall not only impart the necessary contents to you. It shall not only present the partially difficult questions of the expert and the correct answers. It shall not only recommend a proper MPU institute, one which you are entitled to expect a fair treatment. It wants to convey to you the self-esteem for the MPU. If you have done what your backstory has suggested, if you have collected the necessary (e.g. medical) documents, if you have completed my course, and if you have studied its content, if you have allowed yourself a dress rehearsal, i.e. a test examination, right before the real MPU, then you are ideally prepared for the MPU and can confidently face it. Then you have excellent prospects of a positive expertise.
If you have not Attended my Course
Serious Colleagues
In case you belong to those clients who have been taught by colleagues, you will probably want to know, if it is possible to book such a test examination. Of course this is possible, but let me add something, since the circumstances decide whether such a session makes sense. The world of traffic psychologist is within reasonable limits. Thus you can image that I keep contact with some colleagues whose quality convince me. Usually they perform the test examination themselves, but it happens that I am asked to independently check the case: as someone who does not know the background and the course contents, being thus comparable to the MPU expert. Of course I will gladly give such a feedback, and thus clients who have worked with these colleagues, are wellcome to be test examined.
Unserious Providers
Unfortunately, the sector of traffic psychology cannot entirely guarantee professional quality. In this business, there are many unserious offers which take away lots of money from the ones seeking advice without providing the necessary information. Often clients come to me who have invested money into inferior group packages or individual counseling, having learned little or nothing. Don't take me wrong: the market knows both kinds of trainings: very good offers but also bad ones.
Should a client have selected a bad provider, a test examination usually makes no sense. For after a few questions it turns out that central information has not been provided. In such cases, I do not finish the test examination, but give the client an overview about the themes he will face in the MPU. Some clients then will try to rework these issues with their provider. Others try to use the information themselves, and risk an MPU. The last group decides to postpone the MPU and to go ahead with the teaching I can provide.
The Right Choice
I would rather spare you that disappointment, but I can reassure you. It is up to you to choose a good counseling. You do not have to choose me, but you should select a professional colleague, an especially trained traffic psychologist ("Fachpsychologe für Verkehrspsychologie"). If you do not like my course, I can always give you names of respected, qualified colleagues. I do even recommend that you do not only trust my information. Take your time to find the right provider. Of course, I will be glad to have earned your confidence, but I am also happy for you, if you have found an experienced traffic psychologi8st who will help you to succeed in the MPU. For we all only have one duty. We are working in the service sector and have to help you to regain your driver's license.
Summary
Totally independent of where you were counseled, a test examination makes sense and is advisable to give you as a kind of dress rehearsal certainty in the actual MPU. Typical questions and answers are discussed and you will receive a detailed feedback. Normaly, each traffic psychologist does his own test examination, and so most of the clients who ask for a test examination have been trained by me.
Should you have chosen a package deal or a provider who does not offer such a test examination, you may feel free to contact me. If you have chosen an able colleague, the test will run the same way as with my clients, and you will gain certainty and confidence. Should you have caught a bad provider, we can use the session as well, although better not as a test examination. I can rather give you important information about the MPU or tips for further important steps.
That's why you should do the right thing from the outset. Take yourself time to find the proper provider. Feel free to use my informative consultation or the one of colleagues. Accept recommendations from lawyers, friends, the driver's license office or the testing institutes, or check one or the other internet forum. Take a course with one of the good providers and prepare yourself competently for the MPU. Learn the course contents and allow for a test examination to confidently go into the MPU. You will thus have excellent chances to receive a positive examination and will with a high probability be able to drive as soon as possible.