Left And Right Turns

When making a left turn, you always start turning once you're in the middle of the intersection?

For right turns, are they always wide?

As RD pointed out not all turns are the same. The easiest way to handle turns is take all the room you have and/or need. Where your Tandems are will also play a role in how wide you need to take your turn.

For your CDL test the biggest things that will dock you points is impeding traffic, hitting curbs (automatic fail), speeding and swinging too wide to the point a car can squeeze in. You also want to do a buttonhook turn as opposed to a jug handle for your test. In the real world it isn't uncommon to straddle the center line to make some turns (particularly on surface streets) but not for the state test. For my state test the school had our tandems about the middle. We had to take a right turn onto a 4 lane road. During our practice runs the instructor was adamant we NOT do a buttonhook turn. His reasoning was if a car is there we will either end up waiting so we can do a buttonhook (impeding traffic since we have green light). He had us hug the center line while still in our lane, take as much room as we can to stay in our 2 lanes and make minor adjustments to "walk" the tandems around the curve and get the tractor back into the right lane as soon as our tandems cleared. They're not expecting you to be perfect but you need to demonstrate you can safely operate the vehicle. Right now you're just learning how to pass a test. You'll see that much of what they preach in CDL school isn't what happens in the real world. Your first company will teach you how to drive in the real world.

As Steve pointed out your instructors will be your best resource in this. They've had success getting other students to pass their test, they're familiar with the test route but more importantly what exactly you need to improve on.

Thank you!!

All of the information provided to you is great, so I am going to touch on something that hasn't been addressed yet.

You said that you have been told that you need to work on turns. Ok, when you ask how you are doing on something and the answer is for you to work on something, follow that up by asking for specifics. Let the person know that you want to get better and that you would appreciate being told what things you can do in order to get better in the areas where you need the most improvement. Do this when you begin training out on the road after getting your license. The person who is seeing you operate the vehicle is best able to advise how to improve.

Will do! If I do fail, I do get an extension, so I'll ask for sure.

Learning how to coax information out of the instructors by asking the right questions is a skill that you will use in everyday life on the truck. Be it at a shipper , from your dispatch. Etc. Everything revolves around communication. Questions like "what part of the turn do I need address?" Or "am I starting too late or early?" Will help pinpoint issues.

My company treats us very much like the way we Gen Xers were raised...You're on your own and it's up to you to figure it out. A closed mouth doesn't get fed.

Fwiw as was said. Hitting a curb is an automatic fail. We were taught to begin turning when your shoulder is even with where you want your tandems to end up on the street your turning onto for a right. For a left, shoulder even with the middle lane paint (double yellow) or past center of the median. In both right and left turns, a quick two count while you're at the far point of your arc.

During my test, I swung wide on an intersection and did have a 4 wheeler try and come up the inside. I closed it off quickly. I got dinged a few points for it. It happens sometimes but it's not as bad as plowing over a curb. Still though something to watch for. There's a happy medium where you want your tandems and end of trailer to be at.