Question:
Well my training finally started on Sept 7, 2004. The school I am attending is Blue Ridge Community College (BRCC) Brevard NC. Classes are from 8 - 5 during permit week.
Our first day was pretty boring Orientaion, found some good info bout this school during this time, they average graduating 100 students per yr. and have 90% pass rate, also 86% of the graduates are still driving after 2yrs. I thought this to be pretty interesting. After orinetaion we had a recruiter from TMC to pay a visit. After he was through with his speech on his company, we took a break and started on the CDL manual for our permits.
Sept 8th: No school due to the flooding of hurricane frances allot of the Streets in the Asheville area were closed and allot of areas had no water. Thank god i'm on a well.
Sept 9th: We continued our studying of the CDL manual pretty much all day the instructor is very good at teaching the class he makes sure everyone understands before we move on. I am scheduled to drive today for the first time on the range. Some of the rules we have when we goto the range are, when we first arrive we have to perform a pre trip each visit to the range, we also have what the school calls our blue card, the blue card is our driving grade sheet the trainer fills out each visit we goto the range. We have to carry our DOT Medical card, Log book, License, Learners permit ( if we go off the range ).
My first time to the range I was pretty nervous and excited at the same time, we started out with the pre-trip inspection and went over how the trainer liked for us to perform the inspection. When the pre-trip inspection ended inside the cab of the truck after we tested our breaks, the trainer goes around the course 2 or 3 times showing me how to shift the gears. He then stops the truck and I get in the drivers seat and take off on my first time around the course. It wasnt a pretty picture at first. Grinding gears, missing gears, but the trainer says im doing pretty good and wants me to continue going around the course and practice my shifting. Well 2.5 hrs later I can upshift and downshift pretty good. And was pretty proud of myself. Got an A for that day on the range.
Sept. 10th: Pretty much finished the CDL manual all except for the Hazmat section which we'll finish Monday and go for our learners permit. Had several practice tests today as well scored all A's on my tests. I am also scheduled for the driving range again today, my leg is still numb from last night, I get to the range and the trainer asks me to try and do a pre trip on my own and he will correct me on the things I miss as we go along, well with it only being my second time I missed several things but the trainer said I did pretty well.
This time on the range I went around the course for bout an hour making sure I still remembered how to shift, the trainer then says lets see how you do on a straight back, so we go over to the straight back practice area and I pull up to the line and start my straight back, nailed it first try, Was pretty happy with myself and the trainer says to do it again, I pull up and was listening to the trainer and didn't position myself like I did before and didn't do so well on the second time. by then it was starting to get dark and couldnt see the cones. So I continued practicing on my shifting. Got an A for the day on the range.

Answer:
Keep your mind open and learn from the many mistakes you will surely make. When you screw up, ask yourself what you should have done and how can you remember the correct way to do things.
Absorb every bit of knowlege you can from the instructors and don't be afraid to ask questions. A dumb question asked is better than a good question not asked.
Good Luck

Answer:
Another week has passed and learning something new everyday.
9-13: Finished Hazmat, watched videos to recap what we had learned the previous week.
9-14: Test day for permit, I'm happy to say I passed all of my written tests. And I was the first student to pass the hazmat test. After getting my permit, went back to class and started on HOS and logbooks.
9-15: Finished up HOS and logbooks, tested on logbooks passed with a 92 and began on trip planning.
9-16: I had to be at the range first thing this morning. Was soaked after doing the pretrip in the rain. While on the range practiced on my backing am able to do straightback and alley docking alone now nailed the alley dock 3 times in a row also had to correct myself on one because I was to close to the cones which I did myself the instructor said I did very well fixing my own mistake. Have 2 trucks on the range me and another student took turns with backing while one was backing the other went around the course practicing shifting, my shifting is comming allong really well. After our range session was over went back to class and finished up on trip planning and tested, passed with a 92. Am suppose to go on first road trip tomorrow but due to the storm comming from Ivan it will be rescheduled for next week.
9-17: No class due to flooding from Ivan.

Answer:

I attending the evening class at a CDL school in the late fall -- making it mostly a night class -- so I had that problem a lot
Bummer on all the bad weather. Hang in there and keep up the good work

Answer:
09-20 - 09-22: Well this week is what the instructor called hell week, went through a 15 chapter Professional Driver Workbook, after each chapter we had a test.
Thursday 09-23: All day was test after test, I believe we took around 15 tests today. I cant remember what all my test scores were but I remember they all were 90's or above, mostly true/false tests. Also we have to do as part of our final exam take the old US DOT Regulations test, course we are allowed to use our FMCSR book.. This also marks the end of class work for us, only thing that I have to attend at school now is when I am scheduled to drive and take my CDL test.
Also today I was suppose to have my first on the road drive, but for some odd reason today I was running late and forgot my wallet, no permit, no on the road driving. So instead I practiced more on my backing and shifting and pretrip. I do my road trip 09-25 and then do another 09-27.
10-01-2004: Is graduation even though I am not scheduled to test until 10-08. They seperate the graduation from test day in case a student fails they wont have a bad day during graduation. Also if the instructor thinks you need more training then it wont effect your graduation.

Answer:
9-25: Finally got my road drive in, driving on the road is allot different than on the range for sure. First time on the road seems some people have a tendency to over rev the motor, after I got relaxed and actually started driving the shifing started to smooth out. The trainer said for it being my first time out on the road I did really well because there are some tight turns and some of these old towns you have light poles leaning over the road and have to be careful not to let the trailer hit as you go around the curve.
9-27: Well I guess I must of done pretty well on my first trip because on this trip they jumped me to a drive 9, your first road trip is at drive 6. Anyway, this drive took us to the truck stop in Fletcher,NC because the KW needed fuel, then we headed to Arden NC and went around the industrial park a few times which was interesting because there are some very tight turns in this area, then we hit I-26 and it was pouring the rain from Jenna, we went through the weigh station between Fletcher and Hendersonville, NC even though it was closed the trainer still wanted me to get a feel what it was like. Then we went through downtown Hendersonville on highway 64 which comes back through Etowah, NC and back to Brevard, NC to the range. Had a ball going all over the place like we did.
9-28: This day was an interesting day because I called it recruiter day had one from Central Refrigerated and one from Meclroy, the Central recruiter talked a good talk and even said they were offering a dedicated Kraft account to graduates, the Meclroy recruiter was a typial flatbed recruiter saying you never have to touch the freight and all but you would have to tarp, all in all got to hear all this BS from these recruiters and went ahead and put in apps with a few just to see the responses I get, I have already got a pre-hire from Central, & Trans Am, still waiting on Roehl and Meclroy.
9-30: Back on the road again this time we went to the truck stop in Candler, NC and got to park the truck in the parking area and me and my trainer just walked around and looked at the trucks and how they backed into the there parking spots, we also seen a driver for Trans Am and spoke with him for a few min. Turns out that he had been with the company a short while believe he had been there maybe 6 weeks, but so far he seemed happy with the company. Then we drove back up on i-40 tried going through the weigh station on I-40 but it was closed as well so we just kept going. After we got back to the range I just practiced more backing for my last hour before my session ended.
10-01: Graduation day, my friend Jason took his CDL test today and passed he had started a week before me, I will be taking my test on the 8th. Graduation was pretty cool we had to listen to a recruiter from Roehl then we recieved our Certificates, got to eat dinner.
10-2: Was another range day for me just to get ready for my CDL test Friday. practiced on my alley dock and tried to get parallel parking a shot and tried over and over I could get it in the cones with out hitting any thing but I was over steering a bit and will have to practice more on it. Trainer says I do very well to recognize what I do wrong but me fixing it is another issue.

Answer:
Well lets see I was suppose to test on 10-08 and the examinar had a job conflict. Which ment my test had been cancelled and my last drive before the test gets moved till next week.
10-14: Last drive before the test I got to go through the CDL course twice and just my luck the truck route that goes through Brevard, NC, which made it a interesting drive with school letting out and all. But as I told the trainer, nothing like real world experience.
10-15: Took my CDL test at 8am this morning, and all went really well. I was disappointed in myself for my score on the pre-trip which was 85%. But on the skills test I scored a 0 which is 100, and only had a 2 point deduction on my road test. So I now have my Class A CDL's with T-X Endorsements.
All in all I really liked the school, the trainers were all helpful and very experienced. I wish there was more time on somethings. After going through the course I can say 5 weeks may get you through the CDL test but is just a drop in the bucket from all the things to come. Which I look forward to learning.