Driving Lessons

Hi.

Just interested to know how many lessons people took before going for their test. Were you being taught by anyone else other than your instructor?

Cheers

MO

 

18, with a lot of practice with my Dad

 

Only 8 for me, though I got a helluva lot of practice in the family car - caused me a bit of confusion actually as my Mum's car was a Renault 6 with the handbrake and gear stick both sticking out horizontally from the dashboard, whereas my instructors car was a Nova. Spent a lot of time groping around in thin air for a knob, ooer.

My driving instructor was very good though, despite being disturbingly ugly.

 

I suspect that's a prerequisite. Mine used to chain smoke hanging out of the window. I think he used to see out of the top of his head

 

Loads of lessons only with instructor here.

 

3 lessons, but I didn't pass until I was 21 (first time test over in 18 minutes ), but driving a jcb at the age of eight

 

I would not like to say but I intend to buy a car and practise privately and then take some more lessons before my test.

At the moment driving lessons are pointless because I can drive perfectly and I know the highway code, what I need is practise then a few professional lessons just to make sure I am ok.

I spent far too much on professional lessons when I was younger.

 

Loads of lessons and 3 attempts at my car test, 1 week of tying knots and loading plus 2 weeks of full time driving and 2 tests to pass my HGV test.
During my 1st HGV test the examiner took control of the steering wheel , and after a short while exclaimed to me; "lets go straight back to the depot, you just killed that cyclist " ( I didn't actually kill any bloody cyclist, didn't even see one if i'm being honest )

My wife passed her test 1st time as she often tells me, I point out to her that she's also written off two of my cars in the last 5 years and been involved in several other 'motoring incidents'. Passing ones test first time isn't a sign of a good driver, in my wifes case it just proves ( and she sometimes even agree's !) that her examiner was a letcherous git and she had nice knees ( at the time ) .....

I presume you were wearing an even shorter skirt Tony...

 

i must have had 20+ lessons and passed first time. however i'd been riding motorbies for a few years beforehand which imho gives you a big advantage re roadsense and anticipation. after that the lessons just teach you the technical side and manouvering a bigger vehicle.
no driving the family car though...
cheers

julian.

 

I had ~30-35 lessons and passed second time around.

I think I could possibly have got away with less, had I not gone for 3 months over the summer without a lesson (big mistake, when you've only just started even the simple clutch/steering skills are far from second nature and thus going a long time without a lesson means you may well forget, well, I did!), and had a test cancelled due to icy roads and didn't get another test slot until 6 weeks later (hence another 7 or so lessons).

I did practice on 3 occasions with my mum, but frankly she was the worst most paranoid passenger in the world, who kept shouting out, panicking, and telling me to do three different things at once.

Now you may suspect this was just a reflection on my driving, but she'd always be doing things like start shrieking at me when I was approaching a cross roads some 300 yards away, doing 30mph, with the traffic lights on red, and traffic on the other (NSL) road whizzing across, screaming about whether or not I was actually going to stop at the junction. No mother, I'm going to choose to deliberately plough my 1* NCAP rated Fiat Seicento straight into the path of heavy traffic doing 50mph .

I also found the car considerably different to drive from the instructors Corsa (somewhat quicker which was nice, but the clutch was much trickier). When you're inexperienced jumping from one car into another is a lot more difficult, in terms of getting used to the variations in the controls. As such, whilst i found practicising quite fun (though my mother would disagree ), it was probably of limited value in helping my pass my test....your experience may differ though.

 

10 lessons from a local guy who was useless (Later found out he was going bankrupt hense my slow progress) and 6 double lessons with BSM, passed first time.

 

I will never be able to physically drive (eyesight), but we got the use of a BSM car a few times at Westpoint in Exeter (it's an off-the-streets car driving range, skidpan, etc).

The biggest gutter was on the first session, when the guy said "You're a born natural!". DAMN!

My reversing technique was totally gash, but in the six times I drove, I never stalled, never kangaroo'd, and never crunched the gears

I have to content myself with riding my bike instead - just got the thing serviced - £83! So whoever said bikes are cheap is dead wrong...