Warning: the pre-trip is going to consume a lot of your attention during training, even while you sleep!Ĭlose your eyes and imagine yourself completing each step of the pre-trip. Use Your Imaginationĭo this while in bed before you fall asleep. You will find that learning the pre-trip is much easier if you do it this way. Memorize each part and then tie it all together. You can chose any order that you want to as long as it helps you out. My suggestion is you learn your air brakes first, then the inside of the cab, the engine compartment, and then the rest of the truck. If you think about memorizing everything at once it will be a daunting task. Smaller Chunksīreak down the pre-trip into smaller chunks so that it is not overwhelming. You don’t want to watch a video that skips anything that will be on the test. Just make sure you are absolutely sure that the person you record knows what they are doing and are showing you everything. Just watch your recording over and over and this stuff will be engraved in your brain.

Students that I come across have said that this method works really well because you have quality video and audio. While they are doing it try to use the zoom function on your camera so that you know what the parts look like and what is being checked. Ask someone (like and instructor or friend) to do a pre-trip and video record them. You can use YouTube to find a video of someone doing a pretrip and for the most part they work pretty well (more about YouTube later). It’s also a good idea to pick a few different methods so you learn about the pre-trip from different angles. Now that we have established how important repetition is I want you go through the rest of this list and figure out which method (or methods) works best for you and then repeat it over and over.

The more you do it the more you will memorize it. There is no way around consistent repetition. Start with the engine area and work your way around the truck and finally inside the cab. The only way to memorize the pre-trip is to repeat it over and over. In this article I’m going to give you 8 tips that will help you memorize the pre-trip so you are able to pass it your first time and move on with your driving career. I can’t stress that enough, regardless of which method you use below you need to repeat it daily and practice on your own.ĭon’t expect that your run through once a day with your instructor is enough, it isn’t. Hopefully, the school where you are being trained is giving you enough time to practice it everyday you are there. It is going to take time for you to memorize everything and the only way to do this is by repeating it over and over. Don’t go away, in this article I have exactly what you need to make sure you pass it the first time. The key to learning the pre-trip inspection is preparation, memorization, and repetition. Let’s face it, the pre-trip is intimidating because there is so much stuff to memorize.

The pre-trip is one of the things that students fear the most and fail the most. Memorizing the CDL pre-trip inspection is no doubt one of the more daunting tasks you will encounter on your way to getting your commercial driver’s license.

Texas driving test pre drive checklist