I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that’s taken more than four or five attempts to pass their driving test and that’s pretty rare in itself, so the fact that the woman in this story had to take the test 960 times before passing it and spent £11,000 in the process is a whole new kind of insane to me.

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However, there is a slight caveat to this as 69 year old Cha Sa-soon was attempting to pass her driving test over in South Korea, so maybe it was slightly more difficult than it is over here? She first took the written test back in 2005, and after failing it the first time took it five times a week for the next three years until after 780 failed attempts she decided to strip it back and only take it twice a week. Not sure what the mentality was behind that, but she did eventually manage to pass after another 170 attempts.

Surprisingly, when she moved onto the practical test it only took her ten tries to get through it, meaning that it had taken her 960 total attempts to pass her driving test at a cost of £11,000. Bet it must have felt pretty sweet when she finally got that certificate, although how dumb do you have to be to fail a written exam 950 times when you’re taking it every day. Surely you would know every question off by heart at that point?

Anyway, here’s what her driving instructor had to say about her experience:

When she finally got her licence, we all went out cheering and hugged her, giving her flowers.

It felt like a huge burden falling off our backs.

We hadn’t had the guts to tell her to quit because she kept showing up.

I guess that’s an example of if you’re really determined about something and really want it then you’ll eventually end up achieving it? Should probably really be a proverb about how if you’re super terrible at something you should just give up and do something else instead. Will save you a lot of time and effort and you’ll probably be better at the other thing.

Cha Sa-soon did become somewhat of a celebrity in her home country at least and appeared in a Hyundai advert where she was gifted a new car. Her story came to light again in a viral Reddit thread over the weekend which is why we’re writing about it today.

Most of the Redditors said she probably shouldn’t ever be allowed to drive after failing that many times and to be honest I’d be inclined to agree with them. I don’t think I’ve ever tried to do something 750 times and been completely unable to complete it. Should definitely have given up a long time ago.

For more of the same, check out this story about a guy who forgot he passed his driving test and led police on a 90mph chase for no reason. It happens.