To feel scammed by driving instructor?

[AmusedLemonFatball]

Dd17 (18 this month) has been having lessons for nearly a year,

her instructor only does 1 hour lessons and for the first 2 months all she did was 2nd gear around the town.

Shes a confident and fab driver, but today she failed her 3rd test.

Because she has never been to the test centre town which is 20 min drive away. She got a spiral round about which she’s never done and road signs which he never taught her.

it wasn’t until today I realised how little road stuff he’s taught her. The first test she got a minor because he hasn’t shown her how to turn her lights on “because they are automatic”. Her last two tests were small fails, first for taking a corner too wide and second for junctions. Neither a Dangeous.

but I’m really annoyed for her, and myself. It’s cost us a lot of money.

iv managed to book in a 2 hour lesson with another instructor to find out what foundations she’s missing so we can see how many extra lessons she needs and hopefully she will be ready next month.

im so upset for her and feel guilty for not realising sooner, the amount of times she would come home 15 mins before her lessons finished 😩.

If she reads the Government Ready To Pass Campaign (readytopass.campaign.gov.uk/) information which will have been sent to her and referenced in email reminders, once a practical test has been booked, she’d know exactly what is expected of her as would you. It takes approximately 6-8 months to learn how to drive with an approved driving instructor with 1.5h lesson per week.
Her instructor doesn’t sound great BUT if she reads the info in the link above she’ll know what she has to do and learn to pass her test. Also included are the show me/ tell me questions which she should also know and read up on.

Not true. You learn how to drive in order to take your test and to be safe once you’ve passed your test but your experiences over the following years should enable you to become a safer driver as you see what happens if you turn in to a street before you get the correct road position or take a corner too wide etc

If you had lots of practice outside of lessons then you add all those hours of practice to your official lessons and that’s how long it took you to learn how to drive.
You don’t just count the hours with an approved instructor.
Also you had road experience from riding a moped /motorcycle so add those aswell.

IMO 1 1hr lesson a week is not enough.
My DD passed in 3 months with 7 lessons. In addition she drove absolutely everywhere we went, doing an absolute minimum of 10 hrs a week. Experience behind the wheel is vitally important, moreso than knowing the area you are taking a test in - although it would be madness to take a test without practicing the more 'quirky' local details.

Both my daughters passed first time after 9 months of lessons plus as much practice with me as possible. So a year is not ridiculously long and hardly anybody would pass after 5 lessons unless they had had a huge amount of practice with a parent etc over a long period of time.

Also back in the 90s I had a similar experience with a dodgy instructor who kept telling me I wasn't test ready, constantly undermining my confidence by telling me I wasn't good enough. Looking back on it he was just trying to make more money by me continuing lessons for longer. I wish I had summoned up the courage to say I wanted to change instructor but aged 17, I was being gaslit by him and believed I was just a bad driver. So I sympathise with OP and her daughter because I think you do trust blindly in so-called professionals.

I’m a driving instructor. Am meticulous about timings, if we accidentally get back too fast they get that put on the next lesson.

I’d certainly cover ‘hot spots’ in the test town, I wouldn’t necessarily do test routes as if you can drive, you shouldn’t need to learn by rote how to get around the route. Multi lane roundabouts should definitely be covered unless you live very rurally and physically can’t get to one.

You can’t fail for just minors, a test fail is normally for something that could potentially escalate into something serious or dangerous.

You can’t predict how long someone will take, or what stage they’ll be at by when. But you can’t deliver them to a test unless you’ve covered everything they might face. So you’re certainly not being unreasonable here.

I'd also say a year isn't a crazy amount of time - I took 13 months with 1 hour lesson a week (and no other driving practise)

Sounds like the instructor wasn't teaching as they should have been though, but hopefully it wont take long for your daughter to reach test standard as she has plenty of driving experience

Are road signs on the theory?

Years ago I passed on my 4th, I just kept failing, nerves perhaps? My driving instructor refused to keep giving me lessons, just one before each test to freshen up because he was certain I could drive fine. By my 4th, I'd already sorted a car and a friend used to be my qualified passenger and I kept driving every day. Passed 4th test with flying colours and I took the test in my own car because felt more confident. I wonder if just driving with you may help build her confidence if that's an issue too? As well as deal with more places and things to encounter.

Please get your daughter a couple of motorway lessons once she passes, it's such a good thing to do if the driving instructor doesn't do them.

Interesting, thanks.

She’s telling you porkies OP. She can practice all those questions online and you don’t fail for a few minors

I'm very surprised that you haven't queried all this with the instructor, especially lessons ending early. On that point you have been taken for a mug.
Learning to drive needs more than input just from the Instructor, it is up to the student to take an active interest in the learning process, to ask questions, and to ask for regular progress updates. Yes, a good Instructor will provide all information required or for certain things tell the student where to find relevant information and then to make sure their knowledge is complete .
It does seem that your daughter's Instructor is lacking but you and your DC should have realised earlier and queried things.

5 lessons starting from scratch? That's ridiculous. I hope I don't live where you live?

They do record the instructors results and it takes a very small number of fails for the instructor to have to undergo more training or lose their teaching license

Five is way too few. Ridiculous.

I took nearly a year and my friend took 9 months but she's more practical than me. So I don't think a year is that bad! I failed at least one mock test with my instructor but passed the proper test first time, amazingly. I can't believe people think you can pass in a few lessons, wow that makes me feel useless lol. I still don't feel like I understand roundabouts (especially spiral ones) but I'm ok when I do them, just sheer panic beforehand!

I actually found some youtube vids about them when I wanted to brush up-maybe you can show them to your daughter. Hope they help!

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Some driving instructors are rubbish. Can you try asking for recommendations on a local FB group? Also she needs lots of practice in between lessons. Can you take her driving yourself? Take her on typical test routes. I think it's quite hard to pass from lessons only and no practice.

With 1 hour lessons, it's probably been impractical to drive around the test center area when that's 20 minutes away. So why haven't you taken her there yourself to familiarise her?

My son had an instructor for first 20 lessons who barely taught him anything. His new instructor told him previous instructor is well known for very slow progress. He has his first test in May.

I wouldn’t want to be on the road at the same time as a young person who had only had five lessons. However amazing their mummy thought they were.

This is exactly how it does work, the examiner takes the driving instructors licence number and a fail for the pupil is a fail against the instructor. Too many fails and they are subject to a standards check by the DVSA. This is why an instructor will not put a pupil forward for a test despite the pupil (and often their mum) being certain they are an amazing driver who will sail through. Extra lessons are rarely unneccessary, especially as driving instructors are very busy and have no reason to hang on to pupils who are test ready.

She’s not a very good driver to fail 3 rimes. Road signs are part of the theory, yabu. Why havent you driven her around the test center area to familiar her? She doesnt have time to drive there & back ans around the area in 60 minutes.

ime there are 2 sorts of instructor.

1. they are teaching you to pass, they advertise pass rates and push for lots of lessons, get it booked etc
2. the ones who sit next to you and take ££ for years and do not want you to pass, often only doing lessons 1 hr every week/10 days. Lots of clients, all tootling around.

Sadly you got 2, when you needed 1.

No