New Semester = FRESH MEAT!

[sms001]

The proctor was wrong. The line is where you stop.

Not sure which "line" you refer to here. If you mean a painted pavement marking (In the U.S., usually a broad, solid white one.) then you are correct, although they are almost always withing a few feet of the actual sign itself. However, (in my case for instance) there were no pavement markings, and stopping with the nose of the car AT the sign is considered correct.
If you meant the imaginary line of the cross street's border, definitely a no-no.

yards and yards back from the stop sign ...in order to "beat" another car which ...stops in the correct place.

Ah. Maybe you were referring to:

Side bonus though, is that you come to your 'complete stop' much earlier than others ...so you get to go first.

What I meant was that I stop in the correct place, but others tend to stop past the sign - at the intersection itself. Sorry for the confuse.

the roads are following the livestock/game tracks laid down thousands of years before....

Although towns here generally lack this kind of history (I was born in one of the few, Boston) it was really driven home when I read Ackroyd's London: A Biography just how incredibly far back some of these places have continuity. I'd love to visit the Mid-East for just that reason.

[Jester]

No, that isn't what he said.

What Jester was complaining about, in this case, is drivers who habitually pull into the junction itself before checking for traffic. It's only slightly less dangerous than running a red light.

Amusingly, THAT'S not what I said either, nor what I meant.

What I have a problem with, and I think I said this, was the people who slow their cars down at stop signs, look around for traffic, and then go, without actually stopping. And I don't mean the rolling stop, where you don't come to a complete stop as I do--that's pretty much what the majority does, and honestly, it's close enough to a stop to be reasonable, even if I don't do it myself. No, I'm talking about the yahoos that barely slow down, don't come anywhere near a stop, and once they realize they're not gonna get hit by anyone coming the other way, just go, often going through the stop sign at 20-30 mph.

I also make sure to push the brake hard enough to dip my front end. This makes it obvious to anyone watching (read: cops) that I have in fact stopped.

The only thing that dipping the front end tells anyone is that you're braking. You don't have to stop to achieve that result.

I make it obvious to anyone watching, such as cops, that I have stopped by actually stopping. It's very convincing.