Backing around a corner
The examiner has you reverse around a 90-degree corner while staying close to the curb. Go slow, look back over your shoulder, and make small steering adjustments to hold a steady distance from the curb, roughly a foot. The mistakes are going too fast and over-steering. Treat it like threading a slow, gentle arc, glancing forward now and then for traffic.
Hill parking, the rule
Which way you turn your wheels depends on the hill and whether there is a curb. The logic: your wheels should send the car into the curb or off the road if the brakes ever failed.
- Downhill, with or without a curb: turn your wheels toward the curb (right). The car would roll into the curb, not into traffic.
- Uphill, with a curb: turn your wheels away from the curb (left), so the car rolls back into the curb.
- Uphill, no curb: turn your wheels toward the edge of the road (right), so a roll-back goes off the road, not into the lane.
Then set the parking brake. Examiners want to see both: wheels turned correctly and the brake set.
How to lock it in
Say it out loud while you practice: down or no curb, turn right; up with a curb, turn left. A few reps in a real hilly neighborhood, and Western Washington has plenty, makes it automatic. We drill these on the actual slopes around our training areas.