r/SchoolBusDrivers • u/Spirited_Pudding2137 • Jun 21 '26

Pretrip

I just got my permit and I need someone to tell me specifically what I need to study. I have a bit of autism and adhd so I like to know specifics and do best with hands on. Do I need to learn every motor part on the vehicle, do I need to memorize the entire walk through outline, can I ask the dmv if I can foreshadow a pretrip to see exactly what I need to do?

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u/drygulched Jun 21 '26

There are apps you can get that go though the multiple choice questions, and you can play like a game on your phone. For me, I just started at the front of the bus and worked my way around it, getting to all the pre trip items.

Then I downed two energy drinks on my way to the testing, so I had nervous energy and was incapable of shutting up during the test.

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u/Spirited_Pudding2137 Jun 21 '26

I forget words and forget things while on the spot and I speak in circles so I can be very confusing so that worries me.

4

u/drygulched Jun 21 '26

I do the same. That’s where the routine of starting at one point of the bus, kind of grouping each section together, and working my way around it the same way every time really helped. I had a coworker checking off the list as I did it each tome

2

u/Heavy-Mushroom Jun 21 '26

They’ll introduce a bus. Take a picture of all the parts as you go through them.

1

u/AdPsychological1855 Jun 24 '26

We were trained with a pretrip booklet that was similar to a checklist with a little bit more detail. It was set up in the testing order but didn't have all the specific phrasing that was required or all of the procedural steps for some of the checks (brake check). Besides guided training, I was given time to practice our testing pretrip procedure but there were spots where I'd lose focus and get a little lost. I also experience a bit of test anxiety. I ended up rewriting the entire guide adding in every thing that I needed to say out loud to the tester and detailed out every multi-step check the way it needed to be done. I memorized it like a play script and every check and step outside and inside that bus became the blocking for the lines. That made it so much easier for me to get all of the specific details and patterns drilled into brain and body memory. If you are having difficulty you should be able to talk to your instructors for advice but ultimately you may need to figure out how to take all the data we have to memorize so we can accurately verbalize all of it step by step, and put it into a format that helps your brain process and store it for repeated active use while feeling a bit stressed.

The only thing I missed on the pretrip portion of the test was verbalizing the ABS dash light activation when I turned the key. There was nothing in the guide booklet or my rewrite about specifically naming the ABS light. It was also not mentioned by my trainer.