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We have selected various articles on learning to drive issues, which we hope that you will find intresting and informative.

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Driving Test Pass Limits!

As an Approved Driving Instructor since 1996, I’m very used to being asked certain questions regarding the driving test. One of those regularly asked questions is; can driving examiners only pass a certain number of driving tests a week? This is a question I can remember asking my driving instructor some 26 years ago. I could just answer this with a simple yes or no, however that would lead to a very short article and may not completely convince you. So let’s look at some facts.
The average (overall) pass rate for UK driving test centres is normally around 45-50 %. However if you look around the country you will find widely differing pass rates. These differences may be due to the difficulty of the roads or volume of traffic near to the test centre. Also the affluence of an area can make a difference, as the learners may be able to afford more lessons prior to taking their driving test.
Here are a couple of examples:
1. Birmingham (Kings Heath) as very busy area has a pass rate of 30.13% for the year 2007-2008.
2. Gairloch (Highlands, Scotland) a rural area, which for the same period had a pass rate of 70.59%.
If there were driving test pass limits, then shouldn’t they have the same pass rate?
Now the question has possibly changed to have particular test centres got set driving test pass limits? Let me give you a recent personal experience. At the beginning of the year (2009) I had a run of 10 tests all passing in a row (most 1st time). Then I had a fail and then another couple of passes. If my local test centre had a set pass rate, then wouldn’t I have had some of my first 10 tests fail, as the normal pass rate for this test centre is close to the national average?
However, as is often the case, there may be some, if possibly only small, element of truth about driving test pass limits. First imagine you are a driving examiner. You know that over the course of any given week/month or even year, the test centres pass rate is normally around 45-50%. However you know that you have recently been passing a lot higher % than this. This may lead you, or senior examiners to wonder if you are marking the tests differently to the other examiners at the same test centre. The examiner may, in this instance decide to adjust their marking slightly as they believe they are being too lenient. This does not however mean failing someone who has done nothing wrong. Instead it may be that in a slightly grey area, which could be either a driving fault or possibly a serious/failure mark, the examiner decides to be stricter and puts down as a failure mark!
Please remember that this is only my opinion; however it is one gained from experience, having listened to a great number (hundreds) of debriefs at the end of the driving test, as well as sitting in the back during dozens of tests over the years.
So what do I mean by grey areas and how can you avoid them? Grey areas will be situations where different people could view the learner’s actions differently, such as one person/examiner feeling that a learner is travelling slightly too close to parked cars and another simply too close. It is down to the examiner’s own perception of the situation and, as in most situations this can be slightly different from person to person.
So how can a learner avoid falling the wrong side of this decision? Well the obvious answer is to drive correctly. However one of the key areas to look at is what the examiner believes the learner’s attitude is to their driving and other road users. If the learner appears to be trying to drive well, using good observation, planning well ahead and considering other road users, then the examiner is much more likely to give the learner the benefit of the doubt if there is a decision to make.
In conclusion, if the learner drives correctly then they will pass the driving test and they don’t need to worry about possible driving test pass limits. The better prepared the learner is the greater their chances are of passing the driving test.

Learning To Drive Books. Do They Help?

Our aim here is to look at whether you should buy (and use) books, e-books, CDs/DVDs and revision cards. Or would you be better to save this money and instead spend it on more driving lessons?
Most people will want to save money where possible. This can lead to learners deciding not to spend money on learning resources, as they seem like an unnecessary expense. However this could prove to be an expensive mistake, costing the learner a lot more money rather than saving any.
Let’s look at another area of learning as an example of the importance of reference books. Imagine you are studying for you’re A levels (possibly you are). You attend the classes and pay attention to the teacher; however between lessons you have no text books available to you. This is going too severely restrict your ability to complete homework or study between lessons. Relying solely on the class lessons is not going to enable you to keep up with the rest of the class if they are working between lessons. The result is likely to be poorer grades, than those who are able to study correctly. You only need to see the amount of books students carry with them when attending schools or colleges to realise the importance placed on reference books by teachers.
So what books etc should you buy and why?
First I would suggest that every driver should have an up to date Highway Code, as this contains important information that the learner should be familiar with, ideally it should be read even before driving lessons are started. This will also be very useful when it comes to studying for the theory and hazard perception tests.
Next would be one of the many Learning to Drive Books or CDs/DVDs. Again I would suggest buying this before starting lessons, as it will enable the learner to study the topic of their next lesson. This will mean that the learner is more prepared for their lessons, which will enable them to reach their goal of passing the Driving Test quicker and needing fewer lessons.
The result will be a saving on the overall cost of learning to drive and passing the driving test.
Finally I would strongly suggest downloading the specially prepared Driving Test Revision Cards. These will enable the learner to recall key facts they have already learned even under the pressure of the driving test.
So is it worth spending £15-£20 on learning to drive books? This will even cost you less if you use some of the excellent e-books that are now available.
The answer has got to be a resounding yes, as you are likely to save many times this on the cost of extra driving lessons and tests. Preparing well/correctly for driving lessons and the driving test really will be worth it. So don’t delay, buy those books today and start saving money.

Driving Test Nerves. What Are You Worried About?

The UK driving test tends to leave even the most confident/positive person feeling nervous and apprehensive. But why should this be? Firstly most of us have taken numerous written tests and exams by the time we reach 17 years old (the earliest that we can take the UK test). However the driving test is quite different, not only is it a practical rather than academic test, but unlike most tests where we can put a line through something we have written if you make a mistake when driving you cannot go back and have another go. So the learner driver has to make the right choices in real time without the opportunity to sit and think about it for a little while first.
As an Approved Driving Instructor I usually ask my learners a few weeks before their driving test if they are nervous, and if they are, why. The most common reason for their nerves is that they are worried that they will make a mistake in a particular area of their drive. So how can the learner deal with these worries? Well first we need to identify exactly what the areas of concern are.

What Are You Worried About?
If it was as simple as asking the learner this question then this will be a very short article. However we need to make sure we ask the right questions and use the answers correctly. Let me give you a real example from one of my past pupils. A couple of weeks before my pupil’s practical driving test I asked her if there was anything that she was worried about.
She said that she couldn’t do her manoeuvres. Now as her instructor I knew that she could do all the manoeuvres to the test standard, but wasn’t keen on the turn in the road (3 point turn) in particular judging the front and rear of the car to the kerb.
So I asked a series of questions in such a way as to eliminate the areas that she wasn’t nervous about.
I asked: -Can you complete the reversing around the corner? Yes.
Can you do both reverse park exercises? Yes.
What about the turn in the road? No! I can’t do that.
We had now moved from being unable to do any of the manoeuvres, to just being worried about one of them. Next I asked about this manoeuvre.
Do you understand how to do the manoeuvre? Yes.
Can you control the speed of the car and still do positive steering? Yes.
And carry out effective observation? Yes.
I was now left with the actual area that my pupil was concerned with.
Can you judge the distance to the kerb at the front and rear of the car accurately? No.
Again knowing their driving I was able to ask the right questions next.
When we normally practice this manoeuvre, do you keep hitting the kerb? No.
Do you occasionally stop a bit short from the kerb and need to take 5 turns instead of 3? Yes.
Will taking 5 turns mean that you fail the test? No, just a minor mark (driving fault).
I was now able to confirm to my pupil that the good news was that the only thing that they had to be nervous about was picking up 1 driving fault on their driving test (you can get 15 of these and still pass the driving test).
A few weeks later and with renewed confidence this pupil went on to pass their driving test 1st time! By talking through the area that the learner is nervous about we were able to isolate the exact area of concern and deal positively with it. If the nerves had been well founded, being about an area of their drive that was not as good as it should be then we would still have had time to work on this area and improve it prior to the test.

Dealing with Driving Test Nerves Talking through our nerves is a great way of bringing them out into the open, where they are always easier to deal with. Hiding our worries away is never a good way of dealing with them, it’s a bit like sticking our heads in the sand, and it simply doesn’t help. If you are coming up to your driving test then sit down and think or even better talk through your drive with someone you trust to give you honest answers. Possibly write down your concerns and if you are learning with an instructor ask them about these worries, so that hopefully, as detailed above you can deal with these worries in a positive, constructive manner. Prepare properly, with plenty of good quality driving practice. Use some of the excellent resources that are now available, such as Driving Test Revision Cards to help you feel more confident. Confront the reasons for your nerves head on. Then you will be ready to deal with your Driving Test, and achieve the result you want.

By facing up to your nerves you can deal with them rather than letting your nerves beat you. Good luck.

Can You Revise For The Practical Driving Test?

When learners think about preparing for their practical driving test it is tempting to think that the only preparation is to keep practicing with their instructor or possibly in their own car with parents. There are however a number of other ways that the learner can prepare/practice as well as actually in a vehicle.
We will look at what I consider are the most useful methods that can greatly increase the learner’s confidence and the chances of them passing the driving test first time.
The areas we will look at are:
1. Driving Test Revision Cards.
2. Writing notes and using diagrams.
3. Talking through the drive. Revision Cards are often used by students to revise for a subject, by using the cards on a regular basis the facts become more fixed into the memory and are able to be recalled more quickly.
As with my own Driving Test Revision Cards these should cover all the key areas of the drive from mirrors to manoeuvres. Each subject will have the key points listed together with advice on what should or should not be done. By reading a card and thinking about their drive the learner can (and through experience does) become more confident in what they will need to do, both when driving and on the driving test.
Regular use is essential to gain the best from this excellent tool. The cards are small enough to be carried by the learner, enabling regular revision, such as when travelling to and from school/work or in free periods during the day. I would strongly suggest professionally prepared Driving Test Revision Cards as the learner can then be sure that important information is not missed out and you will also get important advice from a qualified ADI.
Writing notes and using diagrams is another great way of fixing important information into the learner’s memory. Possibly the best way of describing how to use this method is to look at an example. As an Approved Driving Instructor I regularly see pupils doubting what they should do on a manoeuvre, even though they do know exactly what to do. In this instance I will often (after possibly recovering the manoeuvre) suggest that the learner takes the time after the lesson to write down what they need to do. If practising the turn in the road, the learner should first write that they would prepare the car to move (selecting first gear etc). Then leave a line or two (use lined paper!) and then write the next key stage such as carrying out effective observation prior to moving the vehicle. After finishing writing the complete manoeuvre the learner should read through carefully, and ideally using a different colour pen fill in (on the lines left free) any information missed out. These pieces of information are the areas that the learner is also likely to miss out when actually practicing the manoeuvre.
Writing something down makes the learner think harder about the subject and in doing so enabling them to remember it when actually driving.
Diagrams can also be useful to help the learner to visualise a junction or manoeuvre. For instance with the bay park the learner can draw out the parking spaces and even use a toy car or any suitable size object to act out the manoeuvre helping them to think about when they start steering and what to do if the manoeuvre starts to go wrong.
Talking through the drive is the final method I use with my own pupils. We can use this to help us remember what to do at junctions etc, or just to put any problems in the drive into perspective.
If the learner is worried about, for instance a particular type of junction, then talking through their worries with an experienced driver (possibly parent or friend) can help enormously to reinforce what they should do. I should add at this point that if a learner is worried about a particular junction etc, they really should make sure that their driving instructor knows about their worries, so that they can help them with it.
The other aspect of talking through the drive is when the learner has convinced themselves that they cannot do something. Again another example:
The learner says that they cannot deal with roundabouts. The person they are talking to should try and find out exactly what the problem is. After talking through how they approach the junction, their understanding of how roundabouts work, it appears that they understand these areas but are worried about judging traffic on the roundabout. This is clearly a very important area, but still much better than simply not being able to deal with roundabouts. After further discussion it transpires that the learner does actually know how to judge the other traffic, but occasionally misses small potential gaps to emerge onto the roundabout. On the driving test this is not necessarily a big problem as the examiner only needs to see the learner emerge into reasonable spaces. So discussing this puts the learner’s worries into perspective and hopefully their mind at rest. It also now means that the actual minor problem can be discussed and addressed so that the learner becomes more confident.
Conclusion.
By using the methods detailed above the learner will become more confident in their driving and hopefully feel more able to cope with the pressures of the driving test. So can you revise for the practical driving test? Yes. Is it worth using methods such revision cards etc? Yes. Can it make the difference? Yes.