Driving Lessons

Becca Wecca

skinny minny here I come!
So, at 25 I thought I had better start having driving lessons, have kept making excuses and putting it off up until now. Always found something better to soend my money on! anyways...

This is a very broad questions, but for those of you who can drive. How many lessons did you have / how many times did you have to take your test??

I know this will vary from person to person (much like weight loss! :p) But I wanted to get some general ideas.

I've only had two lessons so far, so know I have a long way to go. But my instructor has said i'm doing very well. Wahooooo :eek: lol
 
I am 27 and learning to drive. I have had 10hrs so far (I have a 2hr lesson a week). I passed my theory 2 weeks ago and am hoping to book up for my test by september!

As you said, it varies greatly from person to person. My sister had 15hrs, booked her test and passed first time whereas my younger sister has been learning for a year and a half and failed twice!

make sure you dont rush it. i am not booking for my test until I feel confident enough that I am going to pass becuase I think its a lot of money to fail!

Good luck with the lessons! xx
 
I passed my driving test august last year.

I had my first session on my 17th birthday (january 09) i thought i'd have 10 lessons and pass!
Well, i had 2 hour sessions per week.. every week, untill august 7th when i passed. I passed both my practical and theory first time. I honestly believe you cannot expect to pass with only 1 hour sessions, unless you plan to take a while and waste money in the process. 2 hours is alot in one go, abit intense at times.. but its the only way i passed first time, despite it taking me so many months, in hindsight i had 4 lots of 10 (including the extra hours on the day of my test etc) so 20 sessions, but 40 hours. every set of 10 i bought took me 5 weeks obvs.

i also had my own car, which i began driving from the very start.

i'd say i drove my own car for about half an hour twice a week to begin with, and then when i felt it 'click' ( a moment you wont know when will happen untill it does.. ) when i honestly felt i could drive on my own without needing someone .. and was close to my test.. i drove at any given chance.. to the mall with my friend.. to clevedon (through back roads obvs lol) with joe to visit his parents.. even just to the corner shop with my mum.


I picked up lots of bad habits, and quite frankly after two weeks of driving on my own proberly wouldnt have passed my test again haha.. and now i most deffinatly wouldnt .. but everytime i knew i was doing somthing 'naughty' when driving my own car.. i.e one hand on steering wheel the other on the gear stick.. i always told myself.. its okay to do it now, but do not do it in the lessons.. and funnily enough i never did.. which was lucky cos bad habits like that are really hard to break, so picking them up before you even pass is toxic lol


- i also got myself on the motorway the day i passed. After the hype had passed, i drove to joes parents on the motorway with Joe. Lucky for me there was traffic jam so it was really slow haha.. but it really built my confidence.



Its scary when you first start, it feels so un-natural.. at one point i wondered if i'd ever be able to change gear without looking at the gear knob lol. . and we all make mistakes.. my teacher took alot of abuse from me, esp after a difficult lessons learning to reverse round a corner.. (it took me ages to get that right) and at times i felt like quitting, but once youv passed thats it.. and you really learn most when your on the roads on your own.



Youl be fine :) xxx
 
p.s .. your test itself is really scarey and i honestly thought i'd failed ( i wacked my breaks on really late and harsh at one point, and even hit some bushes on the passenger side haha) but even if you dont pass first time, youl know what to expect next time! I was lucky to pass first time .. i had mine really early and the bloke was quite lax!
 
I had my first lesson on my 17th birthday. I had 12 2 hour lessons, which were part of my birthday present from my parents. I was too tight to pay for any more lessons after those 12, so I drove about with my Dad or Mum sat with me for a few weeks. Took my test 2 months after my birthday and passed. It was a long time ago and there was no separate theory test, you just did your driving test and answer questions at the end. Twas the dark ages! :giggle:
 
My father taught me to drive at 17 and I failed my test.(he used to dissect our drive for HOURS afterwards :eek:) I didn't get back into a car again till I was 38 (big mistake!)Then I decided , because the girl opposite had her OH in hospital (this was near Stoke) and her family took her to the hospital, and I would have had to get 2 buses, that I should learn to drive. God I hated it! I used to pray it would snow so I wouldn't have to do my lesson! I booked 10. After those I took my test again and failed. My instructor was livid as the reasons on the paperwork didn't add up! I put straight back in and 5 lessons later passed. I love driving now! It's given me a sense of freedom I never imagined I'd have. Of course I'm the best driver in the world now! :p
 
I drove for 10 years before a little misunderstanding with the local police force, then I sent my licence on holiday to Swansea for a couple of years, **cough**

So I have recently had to retake my test, and the extended version at that!!

Because of my history I only took a few lessons to get back into it, but I am posting to let you know of something that happened in the test.

On the parallel park I actually walloped the curb. Annoyingly, I have always been good at reversing and to my knowledge is the first and only time I have EVER done that lol. It was a nasty old road I did it on, very steep hill I had to reverse up while I did it. Anyway, I recalled my instructor impressing to me that you should NEVER give up on it and make sure you apply yourself fully all the way to the end.

So I carried on.

There's a lot of pulling over, and restarting again. To see how you interact with other road users.

And on one of my pulling aways I managed to do it in neutral lol. It was downhill this time so rolled out into the road, oops. Again, pretty much first and last time I have or will ever do that.

Anyway, I got back to the test centre, and was given my PASS!!

So I guess I am saying that no matter how you think the test is going, DON'T GIVE UP.

Good luck :)
 
actually they weren't even minors, to my surprise. I picked up one minor which was an observation thing.

The curb perhaps I didn't wallop it I was making it sound more exciting but it definitely nudged it. So I stopped, and adjusted myself forward to compensate. Apparently that is fine so long as you don't mount it, and keep control of the car.

And as for the pulling away, it may have been a different story if there were cars coming closer but as soon as I realised what happened I threw it into second gear and moved on, ensuring I rechecked my mirrors.

Neither were unsafe nor made anyone else brake or change their driving to allow for me.

Not my best bit of driving ever, nor my proudest moment (instructor sat in the back throughout as he had never seen an extended test lol), but very pleased to pass.
 
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