My experience with the UK driving test
Finding the right driving instructor
It is very important to find the right instructor to take your lessons. Every instructor has their abilities and weaknesses. You should make sure the one you are choosing matches your personality. Some instructors teach you more theories inside a car than actually allowing you to drive, some do not speak at all during the session and give the feedback only at the end of an hour, some talk a lot while you are driving that at times you have the difficulty concentrating on roads, whereas some others are so strict that you often become very nervous while driving and start making series of mistakes one after the other. However, each of them are unique on their own and they have their own track records of helping candidates pass the test and that’s why they are still in this business.
You can find the instructor in your area by searching this page:
https://www.gov.uk/find-driving-schools-and-lessons
Or, you can also ask your friends for the recommendations, if they have recently taken the lessons from someone. Also, see if the driving school or instructor is on social media, and check for positive or negative reviews. Always make sure your instructor is fully qualified and they have got a green badge (not the pink badge). If possible, also try to find the grade of your instructor. Grade A are those who have shown a high standard of instruction.
I started my driving lessons right after I got my UK provisional driving license. It was my friend who recommended me this instructor and I find myself very lucky to have chosen him, as later on, I knew that many people know him by the name of “best instructor in that town”.
Cost of driving lessons in the UK
This varies a lot from place to place, but one thing I can tell you for sure is that learning to drive in the UK will cost you a fortune. On average, the instructor charges, 25-30£/hour for manual cars and 30-35£/hour for automatic ones. The average cost per hour is found to be cheaper in Northeast and Southwest regions and expensive in Scotland and Midlands (Source: AA and BSM). Always ask your instructor if they can offer you discounts while taking 10 hourly packages.
In my case, my instructor charged me with the package rate of 325£/10 hours for automatic cars.
How many lessons are needed?
According to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), on average, it takes around 45 hours of lessons to learn to drive, with an addition of 22 hours of practising. However, I would say that in the end, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has their own pace of learning. Some are fast learners and others go slow. Let me tell you that this is not the area to rush at all. Every year hundreds of new drivers die on the road. You want to be a safe and confident driver rather than the one who is trying to save off a few hundred pounds by rushing over things. I have also seen many examples where people rushed over their lessons and took the test to end up failing multiple attempts costing them more than 3 grand at the end.
In my case, I took 33 lessons out of which 4 were mock tests. I also took one separate mock test with the other instructor just to experience the change in the car and observe the difference in feedback. I spent a total of 1130£ for my entire driving lessons.
If you have your friend’s or relative’s car, then you can also do private practice with them by keeping them on your side (If they have got the full license for more than 3 years and the car has learner’s insurance). This can decrease your number of lessons, but also remember that they are not the approved driving instructor and their feedback might not be accurate.
Tell your experience of driving lessons
I had never driven a car before coming to the UK. Being a completely new driver has its own pros and cons. Previous driving experience in your country may decrease your required number of driving lessons as you have already got most of the skills and you would not require the first few introductory lessons. However, most of the faults during the test come not from the lack of skills but the bad habits or wrong approaches learned before.
I chose the automatic car over the manual for my lesson. This has its own pros and cons as well. Automatic cars are easier to learn than manuals. One will have one less hassle of changing gears and stalling the car in the uphill drive. However, lessons in automatic cars are slightly more expensive than manuals. Buying an automatic car is also more expensive than the manual one, but again, automatic cars will not depreciate in value faster than manuals. If you would like to take my recommendation, then go for manual lessons if you have experience of driving manual cars before. However, if you are a new driver like me, I will always recommend automatic ones.
My instructor taught me the following lessons step by step:
1. Cockpit drills, foot controls and hand controls
2. Moving and stopping
3. Emerging left in T junction
4. Emerging right in T junction
5. Approaching left in T junction
6. Approaching right in T junction
7. Meeting traffic and Adequate clearance
8. Crossroads and traffic lights
9. Mini and small roundabout
10. Judgement in big roundabout
11. Lane selection on approach to Multilane and spiral roundabout
12. Exiting on big roundabout
13. Dual carriageway basics
14. Changing lanes in dual carriageway
15. Overtaking in dual carriageway
16. Entering and exiting dual carriageway via slip roads
17. Reversing practice
18. Reverse bay parking to left and right
19. Forward bay parking to left and right
20. Parking on the right and reversing
21. Planning and anticipation
22. Following a Sat-Nav
23. Independent driving and Emergency stop
24. Show me, Tell me Questions
25. Visit to the exam centre and test route 1
26. Test route 2
27. Test route 3
28. Test route 4
29. Test route 5
30. Mock test 1
31. Mock test 2
32. Mock test 3
33. Mock test 4
Every day after a lesson, I used to make a note of the major and minor errors that I made. In my free time, I used to watch YouTube videos of DGN driving school, Clearview driving, Advance Driving school and Conquer Driving. These videos made me learn loads of things including common mistakes that learner drivers make during the test.
I failed my first mock with 4 majors, the second mock with 2 majors and the third with 1 major. I passed my fourth mock with 8 minors. In my real exam, I passed the test with 2 minors on the first attempt.
How I managed time for driving lessons
Realistically speaking, one cannot do more than 2-3 driving lessons in a week. I started my driving lessons in mid-February, took my theory test in March and my practicals in mid-may. In the hindsight, I can say this was not a bad pace at all. I used to take lessons generally after 5:30PM on my normal working day and in the morning hours on my off days and weekends. Instructors in the UK will usually pick and drop you at home.
Tell your experience from the driving test
These days it is quite difficult to get a driving test date. Different apps can help you find the cancellation slots. In my case, my instructor found me a cancellation slot for the test.
On the test day, you need to take with you a theory test pass certificate and your provisional driving license. On that day, I revised all the notes of my common mistakes made during my driving lessons. I did a one-hour practice session before my driving test to calm my nerves as well.
There are 5 parts to the driving test:
1. An eyesight checks
2. Show me, tell me vehicle safety questions
3. General driving ability
4. Reversing your vehicle
5. Independent driving
The test will last for 40 minutes.
In my eyesight check, they asked me to read a number plate of a vehicle from a 20-meter distance. If you fail to read this, your driving test will end. You can use glasses if you use them normally.
For show me, tell me questions, I prepared from the DVSA YouTube video for this section.
show me question:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=damj01nXcZU
tell me question:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh8slnP76-w
Also, don’t forget to practice show me tell me questions with your instructor’s car as that will be the one where you will be tested on. In my exam, in the tell me question, they asked me, “Tell me, how you would check your headlights and tail lights are working?”. In show me question, they asked me while I was driving to show how to wash the rear windscreen.
To test your general driving ability, the examiner will give you directions that you should follow. You will be driving on various roads and traffic conditions, but not on the motorways.
In reversing your vehicle section, the examiner will ask you to do one of these:
- Parallel Park at the side of the road
- Park in a bay – forward or reverse
- Pull up on right-hand side, reverse 2 car lengths, and re-join the traffic
I got the third one on my test.
In the independent driving section, you will have to drive for about 20 minutes by following either:
- Directions from a sat nav
- Traffic signs
In my exam, I was asked to follow a sat nav.
In order to pass, you should not make any major fault and not more than 15 minor faults. Your test will continue even if you make major fault, but if your fault is dangerous one then your test may end prematurely as well.
At the end of my test, I thought I had surely failed. But when he said the word “PASS”, I took a deep breath of relief. I got two minors. One was the inappropriate speed in the dual carriageway. I was briefly driving at 50MPH in a dual carriageway but soon corrected this mistake (going at that rate for longer would fail). The next minor was the control of steering in exiting the roundabout. If this control was big enough to drift in the wrong lane then that would be a fail as well. However, I still think that my steering control was good during the entire test.
Before signing off, let me tell you a take home message. Driving test is all about preventing other road users from doing 4S i.e, Stop, Slow, Swerve or Swear. If at any point your examiner find other road users doing 4S to you thats almost a fail.
Best of luck with your driving test. If I can do this, you can do it as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment