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