Talk to me about Driving Lessons...

[JigsawPuzzlesAreFab]

My daughter is turning 17 soon. We have booked her theory test for a month after her birthday and found an instructor with space!

She will have 2 hour lessons - is that normal now? I don't remember that when I learnt. And also - how many lessons do most people take? I know its a "how long is a piece of string?" question. But assuming she wont be doing practice with us initially then some basic runs in the car as she is more confident but as we are working full time and it is dark early it wont be for a while.

How long would you expect (bright motivated child but not nec practical, some practice in between but not tons or nothing!)

It seems bad timing to be the same time as they have mocks and A levels and I don't want her to stress.

Also - is there a dark art to getting tests... ?DO we do that through the instructor?

Getting a test is a dark art. It’s 6 months round here and that’s if you manage to navigate the system. You can only book the practical once you pass the theory. So the driving instructors are very lucky and get your money for 6 months at least! We were late with the theory as didn’t realise. He passed in 8 months. He did 1hr lessons weekly. And then practice with us.

Yup dark art is about right. 5 months booking ahead if you log on at 6am Monday morning. There's basically a black market in imminent tests, which luckily we didn't get involved in, but I know others who did.

It was over a year between my daughter's first lesson and first test, but she was taking the scenic route with 1 hour lessons which got cancelled fairly often, and part of that time was waiting the 5 months after booking the test. Next time I would get it booked in sooner.

The issue really is not so much the first test but having to wait so long for repeat tests if they fail the first one. It's an absolute pain. If you have a choice between test centres I would choose a bigger one, as there will be more cancellations.

"How many lessons" is pretty unanswerable. One of mine passed after just four lessons (obviously with a lot of home practice) and the other one is still ploughing on with lessons after years.

My son was really not getting many convenient lesson slots, as he works full time (hes 19) and it was really slow and painful, plus i hated doing the practice with him as i am a seat grabber. 😂 So he booked one of those intensive week-long courses, which proved to be absolutely brilliant.

Basically for 5 days, he was in the classroom for 3 hours in the morning and then 4 hours of actually out driving the car with the instructor. The theory test was on Friday morning, which he passed, and then the practical was about 10 days later, and he had some extra lessons with the same instructor in between.

Passed first time and it really was money well spent. Hed had a bit of experience before hand, but you don't actually have to have had.

Are the test cancellation apps still working? They did wonders for me bringing a test forward, but this was over 2 years ago.

I'm glad you've got the theory booked early, that's great. Once she's passed that you need to log on the next Monday morning so you're in the queue at 6am and just take anything available at your test centre - will prob be 6 months away.

Once you've got a date, pay for Testi or TestShift to get the date brought forward if you want.

2 hour lessons are quite normal now, a lot depends on how far you are from the test centre, once your DD is confident on local roads they will basically just go round and round the areas included in the test. So if you're half an hour away that takes up some time in itself.

My DS started learning last March and didn’t do his theory until July as he was doing Highers and away on a school trip for 3 weeks. Passed his theory on Thursday and I then was logged into the test centre every hour on the Thursday and the same first thing Friday morning and managed to get a test by 9am on the Friday morning for our local test centre (still not sure how I managed it). Test was for 4 months time and DS passed. V
He had 1 hour lessons each week and I was taking him out as well, especially in the last 2 weeks before his test. Passed first time.

For my son I used testultimate’s second tier package in September to get a cancellation swop to my local test centre from mid Nov (when all I could book direct in Sept was a test in Cornwall in Feb - I live in Herts). They came up with 27 Nov. Doubled the cost of the test but a lot less than others paid. I’m sure the gov will clamp down on it, but for us it was worth it.

Google says on average 40 hours of lessons (yes my DD’s lessons were all two hours) and 20 or so hours practice on top. Some will get the hang of it quicker, and some may rack up extra time if they fail their test. The theory test is very tough and you need to revise for it (lots of apps do mock tests). I think less than half pass their theory first time. My DD did pass first time, but my son needed three goes. He did pass his practical first time, without any practise hours as he doesn’t live near me, she failed it.
As for booking the actual test - London it seems almost impossible. They release dates week by week six months in advance. You book it then as PPs have said get an app that will automatically book you on a date earlier (you can be quite specific on what dates). Testi I found useless in London as the automatic apps grab the test before you are even able to log in to the system after it notifies you of a cancellation. Other areas there may be more availability.
Many people now take automatic tests only but I think it’s good to do manual.
I got temporary learners insurance with Veygo (part of Admiral). It was £53 for four weeks.

Meant to say was 6 months for son here with mainly an hour long lesson each week, the odd 2 hour or extra lesson in holidays, and going out with me for short runs regularly in the last 2 months before his test.

Go automatic route - much easier not having to learn gears and worry about hill starts etc! My DC 20 lessons max ( 2 hour) with no outside practice and passed first time. This was last summer.

Harder to find an instructor for automatic, usually.

RED (one of the main national schools) does 2h lessons as standard.

ds did 26 x 1hr lessons before his test, he possibly would have passed earlier if a test slot was available but I think the extra time was good for his skills to develop more before being out alone!

Between lessons I tried to take him out for an hour maybe once a week, plus he would come with me when I was going places to get some day to day driving practise such as going to the supermarket and back, dropping parcels at post office, if I was dropping/picking him up at friends/football etc he would drive there or back. All these little 10 minute practises help just with getting familiar with real life events that can happen when driving.

I never got the confidence as a nervous 🫣 passenger to practise on-slips with him, it was all in town/roundabouts - dual carriage ways and off-slips were ok. I left on-slips to the driving instructor.

It took us a couple of weeks to stop arguing with each other get into the swing of it, we found it easier just to let him practise without me attempting to teach him anything as the driving instructor did that bit (and some things have changed since I learnt in the 80s - probably due to new car technology and no manual chokes!).

Our car and the instructors car were very different (older ford focus diesel estate vs a new mini) but that didn't cause any issues, especially when both cars told him when to change gears and both had hill assist which make control much easier. We never practised any manoeuvres in my car either because it was so much longer.

While it is still dark at night practising in residential areas where streets are fully lit is no problem.

He never practised any test routes as the driving centre was an hour away from us.

My DD had 90 min lessons. I reckoned 2 hours was too long (I’d need a break if I was driving for 2 hours) but an hour wasn’t long enough especially if the instructor had to drive her somewhere first to get her started. She said 90 mins worked well (passed first time after a year, never drove our cars in between as we were all honest that that wouldn’t work for any of us).

Its impossible to say how may lessons someone will need however I would say this:

: if you aren’t near where she’ll have her lessons/the test routes then drive her to the lessons so you maximise the lesson time. In our case it’s a8 miles drive along a straight road to the lessons town taking 15 mins min so a waste of lesson time to do that
: 2 hours seems a lot if you are doing the above. It’s also a lot of concentration time early on. Could she do 1.5?
: don’t book a block until you know she gets on with the driving instructor/you know you can trust thrm
: if you can start the practice with you asap. I did it the other way round - practice then lessons.
: the more practice the better as it’s not just about the test it’s about driving afterwards. If you just have lessons and the test you may not be getting experience if different road conditions/road types etc
: how soon does she need to pass? If there isn’t any urgency eg driving to school/to a job then that takes the pressure off.

Where was this? I’ve been looking for something similar for DC2 but haven’t found anything.

@TheKateColumbo It was GoGiGo in Peterborough. Use the search term Intensive Driving Course and you should get something coming up for your area.

Thinking about the theory test - we bought the rule book and tested every evening, also had street son flash cards and practice tests. That helped to the diet part of the test, but there is also a hazard awareness section, best practice for this was on the app/links they send out.

Thanks, I’ve tried that but locally they seem to have stopped offering it due to the test booking issues.

The DVLA app was good for the theory test. My son passed theory first time and then booked the earliest practical test which was 6 months away. He had lessons (1 hour) once a week for about 20 lessons but also a lot of practice with DH. He’d done one lesson at an off road practice circuit before he was 17 so had good car control from the off - I think it was very useful to do that with no other traffic to worry about. I don’t think the current wait for a test is a bad thing (or the proposed minimum hours/length of time learning) but it becomes a big issue if they fail and need to retake. There must be a lot of people who are pretty much ready to pass and cock it up on the day - they need to be able to have another go in one month, not six. Luckily DS passed first time.