CanadianChic:
Near my house, the DMV or MVD whatever you guys call it, that required parallel parking closed down since the state government is running out of money. I live in Arizona, they spent $$ on National Guard troops. So, I went to the next closest one, and all they had was a 3-point turn.
On the day my daughter took her road test, she was the only person who passed. The test is that tough.
The way it works is that you start off in front of the building, the tester in the passenger seat with you. You move forward to the stop sign at the end of the parking lot. If you do not stop with your bumper behind the white line on the pavement, you will fail. The instructor will get out, look to see if your bumper is an inch over the line, and then ask you to slide over so he can drive you straight back to the office. I know this because one poor teen driver only made it that far.
If you make it past the first stop sign, you must proceed across the street to the testing grounds. There, you have 3 minutes to execute a parallel parking job. You must do a three-point turn. You must move the car in reverse for some huge distance. And a few other things I can't remember.
I think one reason my daughter passed was because we outsmarted the system. See, when they check you in, they give you your evaluation sheet to give to the instructor. Everyone else took the sheet and went straight over to take the test. We sat down and reviewed the sheet -- might as well know what they're looking for, right?
It was hilarious. You lose a certain number of points for certain errors. Failure to check mirrors was about 2 points. Hitting the curb was like 4 points. Jumping the curb completely (!) was 8 points. I don't remember how many points you could lose, but it wasn't many.
Things were easier back in the day when I got licensed . . .
